It is always an exciting time when the landscape for the 2025 season becomes a little bit clearer, and in the last week or so the EuroDov Tour released a preliminary draw for the 202 Matchplay tournament.

The first held in 2024, The Matchplay had 16 players compete and the whole tournament came down to the final hole in the final match and Paul Gowens walked away victorious claiming his 7th Tour victory.

The success of 2024 has seen the field swell to 21 players in 2025 – with entries still open until December 31st.

EuroDov Reporter is going to take a look at the current draw and some of the story lines ahead.

Official Tour Ranking movements create some interesting matchups – As the 2024 season came to an end there were some interesting developments in the OTR. Scott Gowens surged to 4th following his win in Q-School and the Bruce Shield.

Players like Stuart Allan and Paul Gowens slipped later in the season, which has put them further down the draw.

In 2025 McColgan and Mair remain in the #1 and #2 seeds respectively so find themselves on opposite sides of the draw again. However, the lowest seeded player in 2024, Scott Gowens enters 2025 as the #3 seed and Kevin Brannan climbs to #4.

Preliminary rounds set-up some interesting matches – The two lowest seeds Ronan Capon (21) and Stuart Anderson (20) will play off for the privilege of playing the #1 seed, David McColgan, in round 1. The two players, both members at Kinross, know each other well and there’ll be no unknowns when they face off against each other come April.

On the other side of the draw Stuart Harwood (18) and Adam Blyth (190 will play to see who faces off against Richard Mair, with a Blyth win setting up a SanWedge Tour face-off in round 1.

The Duncan brothers face a SanWedge opposition in their preliminary round match with Denis (13) playing Ally Greenshields (12) and Alan Duncan (15) playing Joel Morrison (14) the winners of these matches face Graeme Connor and Kevin Brannan respectively.

Interesting round one matches – Three round one matches are already known and they are all cracking matches. Daniel Peck, who lost in round 1 in 2024, plays Matchplay newcomer Greig Baxter. Baxter is a bit of a matchplay specialist and despite Peck having a significant handicap advantage this match has the hallmarks of a classic.

Callum McNeill, who was defeated in round two in 2024, plays defending champion Paul Gowens in what will be an interesting match to watch, early in the season.

The third match is already set to be a tasty one with Stuart Allan playing Craig Miller, and reports have reached EuroDov Reporter that verbals have already started some 4 months out from the tournaments opening matches.

EuroDov Reporter has been looking at the matches and some early predictions for the Matchplay are;

McColgan to come unstuck in round one: McColgan’s opponent is not known at the minute, but EuroDov Reporter is predicting Ronan Capon to overcome Stuart Anderson. Capon has a strong game and a relatively high handicap. McColgan could struggle against the combo and be out before Summer kicks in.

Scott Gowens loses out in Quarter Finals: Gowens wins over Stevie Orr, who beats Jim Robertson in the preliminary. However, Gowens Jr. doesn’t have the rub of the green in the quarters against Graeme Connor who marches into the semi-finals.

Baxter makes it to the final: after McColgan crashes in round 1, Baxter beats Peck, and Capon to set-up a semi-final against Graeme Connor before taking his spot in the final.

On the otherside of the draw Mair falls in round one again: Blyth beats Harwood and heads to round one to face Mair, despite Mair’s numerical advantage in handicap Blyth has enough to beat him.

Brannan wins round one to set-up match against Allan: Morrison beats Alan Duncan, and heads on to play Brannan who overcomes his round 1 defeat in 2024. Allan beats Miller and the pair face off for a place in semi-finals.

Brannan makes it to the finals: Brannan sees off Allan in the semi0finals where he beats Blyth who has seen off Harwood, Mair and Gowens Snr. enroute.

And the winner is…well we’ll just need to wait till August to find that one out.