Singles with Scheffler, working with pop stars & now a tour winner

KLM Open final round leaderboard

-11 C Syme (Sco), -9 J Lagergren (Swe), -4 J Schaper (RSA), -3 E Ferguson (Sco), J Senior (Eng), R Ramsay (Sco)

Selected others: -2 A Sullivan (Eng), D Bradbury (Eng), -1 G Forrest (Sco), N Kimsey (Eng)

Connor Syme has brushed shoulders with Scottie Scheffler and One Direction’s Niall Horan during his golfing career, but those glamorous encounters will pale in comparison to the week he has just had in Amsterdam.

The Scot battled difficult conditions at the KLM Open to shoot a final-round 71 and win his first DP World Tour title at the 182nd attempt.

Syme, who twice finished second in 2022, led the field by two shots after 54 holes and no player was able to chase him down as the rain fell and wind gusted.

Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren eagled the last to finish on nine under par, but playing partner Syme held his nerve to make a par of his own and win by two shots.

“I’ve played a lot of tournaments and you just start to think, is it ever going to happen?” the 29-year-old told BBC Sport Scotland.

“I’ve been in a bad run and it’s amazing where your brain will take you sometimes, but I think I really just focused this week.

” I don’t know what it was, but I had a really clear picture about what I was trying to do and I was able to do it. “

The Kirkcaldy-born golfer took home the first prize of $467, 500 (£345, 000) and was congratulated on the 18th green by compatriot Ewan Ferguson, who finished three under and made a hole-in-one at the seventh earlier in the day.

Syme’s only previous professional victory was in 2019 on the Challenge Tour, when he beat Italy’s Francesco Laporta in the Turkish Airline Challenge.

But it was as an amateur where he first showed signs of his immense talent.

In 2016, he won the Australian Amateur Championship before competing alongside Bob MacIntyre in the Walker Cup the following year, where he lost by one hole in the singles to current world number one Scheffler.

Team GB &amp, Ireland lost heavily to a USA team that year which also included Collin Morikawa, Cameron Champ and Will Zalatoris.

Syme – a talented footballer in his youth – turned pro after the Walker Cup and signed with the management company Modest! Golf who are co-owned by pop star Horan – a former member of One Direction.

This season so far has been a mixed bag for Syme, with a ninth-placed finish in the Joburg Open his best of the campaign until this week.

The victory in Amsterdam comes with a two-year exemption on the DP World Tour.

It also moved him up 71 places in the DP World Tour rankings to 18th position, and puts him into contention for one of the 10 places up for grabs on the PGA Tour for next season.

” Since they had those cards out, definitely my goal is to try and find a way to get one of them and end up in America, “Syme said.