THICK & THIN
Steven Tiley spent lockdown making hand sanitiser, but his commitment to professional golf hasn’t wavered
h, the glitz and glamour of the tour pro’s life. Private jets, big cheques, fancy cars, nice hotels, sponsors queuing up. Yes, it may be like that for a high-profile minority, but further down golf’s pecking order, living a very different life yet equally dedicated to the cause, lurk scores of hard-working professionals battling it out on the Challenge Tour and mini-tours, hoping and believing that their big breakthrough will eventually come.
One such pro is 37-year-old Steven Tiley, who plays his golf at Royal Cinque Ports in Kent. Tiley played on the England men’s team before spending three-and-a-half years on a golf scholarship at Georgia State University. After turning pro in 2007, he spent two years on the Asian Tour, and since 2009 has played mainly on the Challenge Tour, with a couple of years on the European Tour via Q-school in 2011 and 2017.
In 2017, he made only five cuts from 18 main tour starts, with a best finish of T22nd in the Hero Indian Open. He returned to the Challenge Tour, where he has enjoyed two reasonable seasons, finally securing his
maiden Challenge Tour win last year in Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge, but not doing enough for automatic promotion.
Tiley had tasted victory three times on the Jamega Pro Tour in 2009, when he also won the Egyptian Open before it became an official Challenge Tour event. But his best ever ‘official’ cheque came via a tie for 26th in the 2013 Muirfield Open, where he pocketed €43,264, nearly €10,000 more than for last year’s Challenge Tour victory. He also qualified for golf’s oldest and grandest Major Championship in 2004, 2010 and 2012.
His biggest ever prize, though, came in the 2018 British Par 3 Championship at Nailcote Hall, where victory earned him €50,000. Despite all this, his official career earnings from 11 years on the Challenge Tour and European Tour amount to just under €600,000.
We caught up with Tiley at the recent Worplesdon Charity Pro-am hosted by Andy Sullivan and Paul Waring to find out more about him and his career and ask what it was like swapping golf clubs for factory overalls while making hand sanitiser for his father’s company during lockdown …
Why did you decide to turn professional?
It was when I was playing the England stuff and involved in the national set-up, really. Just at the end, I was waiting for the Walker Cup one year but didn’t get picked, so I turned pro after that.
When you did, what did you think or hope you might be able to achieve?
I guess you just want to see how far you can get in the game and then quickly realise that maybe it’s not going to happen. But you just keep trying to strive to be the best you can, really. I didn’t really have any aspirations to be like a Ryder Cup player or a Major winner, although that’s always in your mind from
when you were young and holing the putts for The Open on the putting green.
What has most prevented you from establishing yourself as a European Tour player while being a decent Challenge Tour pro?
Possibly the fact I struggle a bit distance-wise from the tee. I think I need to get a bit more in the tank, really, and go from a 1.2 Fiesta to a little Golf GTI and then see what happens there!
So going down the Bryson Dechambeau route?
Something like that. Not quite as drastic, though – you have to get the calories in for that.
What do you think is the biggest difference between the main tour and the Challenge Tour?
The courses, really – they’re set up very differently. There’s a lot of emphasis on driving the ball. Someone like Ross Fisher [standing nearby at the time] is picking up shots straight away over the likes of me when he hits it straight – he’s about 50 yards ahead of me. It makes a big difference when I’m going in with long-irons and they’re going in with short-irons to greens that are quite firm with rough around them. It’s the set-up and the depth of players as well.
Your winnings across both tours of around €600,000 since 2009 – is that enough to make a living or do you have to do other work to supplement your income?
I’m fortunate enough to have sponsors who help me with some of the expenses. Beavis Morgan have been with me for a good seven or eight years and my dad is helping as well. I’ve picked up a little bit of money in the British Par 3 Championship and stuff like that, but I’ve by no means got a second home in Lake Nona just yet!
What keeps you going when you’re obviously spending a decent chunk of money getting to events?
“I’ve picked up a bit of money here and there, but I’ve by no means got a second home in Lake Nona just yet!”
Just the drive, really. I’ve played
out on the tour and I’ve seen what you can do out there. It’s just a matter of working on the right things and possibly getting a bit longer, and we’ll see what happens.
What was it like to finally win on the Challenge Tour last year?
There wasn’t much of a party – it was more relief really. People say, ‘How did you feel?’ and a lot of it was more relief, just knowing that you can win out there. It just helps when you’re in that position again. Yeah, I just had one of those weeks where it all seemed to click and I know it’s as cliched as it sounds, but it just seemed to be my week.
You hadn’t had a great year up until then – what was different that week?
I’d just had three missed cuts in a row, but a couple of weeks previously I missed The Open qualifying by just one shot so I felt that my game was trending in that direction. But it was a funny year with a win out of the blue, and then off we go.
You’d finished 2nd there the year before, too. What do you particularly like about that course at Le Vaudreuil?
It’s quite short, it’s quite tight. The fairways aren’t wide and it’s not a bomber’s course. I lost out to Richard Mcevoy the year before and it just suits my eye. And I holed some putts too.
Did that win give you renewed hope that you could still break through on the main tour?
Yeah, absolutely. It’s such a funny game. Loads of people talk about getting out of the game or retiring, and then suddenly there’s a win or something like that. It’s like that old adage about the handicap golfer – they’re going to give up the game and then suddenly they shoot their best round with a couple of birdies coming in and think, ‘Actually, I can do this more often, so I won’t give up.’
Something keeps driving you on then…
Yeah, I couldn’t tell you exactly what it is, though!
Your biggest tour cheque to date came in the 2013 Open Championship at Muirfield. What was it like competing with the game’s biggest stars that week?
Yeah, it was certainly an encouraging experience. It was nice. But I’ve grown up on a links course all my life and you’re playing against Americans. I know they’re the best in the world, but I felt like I had a couple of shots advantage on them if it got windy, or in certain conditions that suited me more, even though they were top 100 players in the world.
What was it like making hand sanitiser for a living for a while in lockdown?
Hard work! But it’s a lot less stressful than playing golf.
That’s your dad’s business?
Yes, that’s my dad’s business. He made hand sanitiser right at the start of the pandemic and sold it to the NHS and care homes for a small price, when everyone was selling it for triple the money.
You’ve stopped that now, though, have you?
I do a little bit of sales and stuff like that, but with the golf, we’ve only got two weeks to go and then we start up again, so I need to get my game in shape.
Were you doing it for the money or the cause?
A little bit of both, really. I needed to make some money during lockdown, but yeah, it was good fun. It felt like we were doing our bit, as well, just to help out the NHS. They’re still buying the sanitiser now, but me as a main salesman is not ideal! I’m too nice to be a salesman.
Not got the killer instinct?
No, I haven’t – no [laughs].
What continues to keep you motivated as you head closer to the big 4-0?
I don’t know, really. I speak to my team and we’re always trying to look at ways to find that one per cent, as it were. I just know that my best can win on the Challenge Tour, so I just need to find that more often and work a little bit harder on my weaknesses.