It’s a glamorous life this golf professional lark. “I’m stuck on the Edinburgh City Bypass,” sighed Graeme Robertson as he answered this scribe’s call, hands free of course, while presumably gazing at rows of brake lights stretching out on that pesky A720.
Robertson was heading back home from a reconnaissance mission to Schloss Roxburghe near Kelso, the venue for this week’s Scottish Challenge on the second-tier HotelPlanner Tour.
By the time you read this, he’s hopefully motoring along quite the thing in the opening round.
A year ago, Robertson, who had had earned promotion to the HotelPlanner circuit from Paul Lawrie’s Tartan Pro Tour the previous season, had to miss the Scottish Challenge due to a wrist injury.
In fact, he had to sit out a host of events, including a few DP World Tour contests too, as his niggle cut short a campaign that he was eagerly anticipating.
Here in 2026, Robertson is in fine fettle again. The 38-year-old is playing with a medical exemption on the HotelPlanner Tour, to make up for the opportunities he lost a year ago, and he has posted a trio of top-25 finishes in his last three outings.
On the domestic front, meanwhile, it’s been business as usual. And that business is winning.
The former Scotland amateur international landed the Cardrona Classic on Lawrie’s circuit in early July while he romped to a six-shot victory last weekend at Strathmore in the latest order of merit 36-holer on the Scottish PGA circuit.
The step-up again to the second division of the European scene provides a real test of his golfing mettle and Robertson, who didn’t turn professional until 2021 after a number of years working in an office, continues to enjoy this golfing education.
You never stop learning in this game. And there’s a lot to learn.
“I’m feeling much more comfortable at this level than last year,” he admitted.
“I think I underestimated the week-to-week travel. When you’re not used to it, it’s a huge change.
"I worked in an office for a long time and then just played in Scotland really. I never played on the Alps Tour or any other mini-tours around Europe when I was younger, so I didn’t really serve that apprenticeship.
“I have a family too and the one thing I got wrong was when I missed a cut, I would try to get home again.
“It almost felt like I was just showing face and then I’d be away again. You really need to commit to three weeks on the road, come home for maybe a week and then go away again for three weeks.
“Trying to dart home between events just didn’t work. I thought it would, but you’re travelling more, you’re taking extra flights to get back up here and it just took a toll.
“I’d say that the injury was a blessing in disguise. I had starts in the British Masters and the Nexo Championship on the main tour and I was absolutely gutted to miss them.
“But to be honest, my game wasn’t going anywhere at that point, and I was heading in the completely wrong direction. I got the medical exemption, I could rest and get my wrist sorted and enjoy a fresh start this season.”
With the kind of growing momentum you get when your car finally gets past the Dreghorn junction on that bloomin’ bypass and you can shift up through the gears, Robertson has plenty to play for this month.
A big focus is the Scottish PGA Championship, a title he won in 2023 and 2024. His hopes of becoming the first player since Eric Brown in 1958 to win three on the spin last year, though, were scuppered by that injury.
“It’s always nice to win a title but to successfully defend it is even more special as you’ve proven yourself again,” he said.
“It was hugely disappointing not to get the chance to go for three in a row but we’re in a good run just now and hopefully that carries on.”
Like a lot of his fellow Scots on the HotelPlanner Tour, Robertson has taken heart from Rory Franssen’s victory on the circuit in Estonia last Sunday.
Given Franssen had made just two cuts all season, it was a win that was so out of the blue, even the blue itself was startled.
“It just shows you that if Rory can do it, then there’s no reason why the rest of us can’t,” added Robertson.
Franssen himself has admitted that his win was “out of nowhere” while offering that little ray of hope that every golfer clings to.
“It’s been such a struggle this year, but it just happened for me in one week,” he said.
Robertson will be hoping it happens for him this week.
