The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Steve Scott plots the best route from the amateur game to the European Tour in Tee to green
As we’ve examined – many, many times it seems – in T2G, if there was one failsafe way to turn good amateur players into certified European Tour pros, we’d have bottled it up and administered the elixir to every young Scots hopeful there is.
But there’s clearly not. Despite the best efforts to maximise the transfer process I’ve seen by governing bodies, coaches and management companies down the years, I’ve become more and more convinced the key – almost everything, in actual fact – is within the top two inches of the player.
I’m almost certain that transferring success from the amateur game can’t really be taught, because it lies within the individual psyche of the golfer.
Still people think there’s absolute assured pathways. The success of Russell Knox and Martin Laird had many thinking the tough school of American college golf and the mini pro tours there made proper, hardened pros. It might, but just two out of the scores of players who have taken that route down the last 20 years suggests otherwise.
Amateur success translates to professional, I’ve often heard said. Certainly if you’re not very good at amateur level your chances at pro level are probably limited, but success in the amateurs does not mean much when you’re in the pros.
That Walker Cup cap is nice on your CV, but won’t help you much – if at all – on a windblown day in Denmark or a sweat soaked afternoon in Malaysia.
And anyway, there are plenty of decent careers out there who didn’t do much at amateur level, Paul Lawrie and David Drysdale, of course, but others who had some good years on the circuit recently like Stirling’s Craig Lee or Fifer Peter Whiteford.
And the scrapheap, sadly, is strewn with guys who lit up the amateurs, were tabbed as “can’t miss” prospects by naive journalists but couldn’t get arrested in the pros.
What’s the one element that makes a difference, at least for common or garden pros learning their trade? Personally, I think it’s a season – probably more than one – on the Challenge Tour.
Bradley Neil struggled initially as a professional on the back of his whirlwind amateur career, a Challenge Tour card coming somewhat unexpectedly at the end of a disappointing 2016 when he suddenly found some form and played all six rounds of the Q School final.
He had a prospect of some playing opportunities on the main tour in 2017 – he thinks he might have got roughly the same playing chances as the Canadian Austin Connelly, who ended up finishing 14th at the Open, second at the Dutch Open, and ultimately winning his card.
But there was no guarantee that would happen to Bradley. Instead, he and coach Kevin Hale took the view that for the first time in his short and rather tumultuous pro career, he had a bit of stability.
“Kevin was adamant, saying we’ve finally got something where we don’t need to wait for the telephone calls about where you’re going to play, we can plan ahead,” Bradley told me.
“So that was the decision to concentrate on the Challenge Tour this year, and it was a pivotal decision.”
Bradley could certainly have played in the Dunhill, where he’d done well before, and he could have agitated through his management company – he shares an agent with Justin Rose – for invitations to big tour starts.
Instead he decided to go all out on the Challenge Tour, played 23 events across the world, and qualified with the 15th and last card at the Grand Final in Oman at the weekend, shooting a final round 69 to claim it when he had been outside the qualifying slots prior to the tournament and the final round.
What an examination of character for a 21-year-old, I’d suggest much more of a mental examination than Q School will provide this week.
There are seven Scots who came through Stage 2 yesterday – including Connor Syme, who made three cuts in three starts on big tour invites in just two months as a pro – and they’ll all head to the six-round Final Stage aiming to be one of those who get those precious 25 remaining cards.
Regular readers will know I’m not in favour of this annual marathon/lottery. Sometimes you do get a quality player out of it – Ireland’s Paul Dunne has been a pretty compelling advertisement for the virtues of Q School this season – but I’m still convinced more qualifiers who stick are generally those from the Challenge Tour rather than Q School.
It’s because they’ve largely been actually on tour. They’ve been around the world, they’ve played at a high standard over a whole season.
It has to mean more than 14 rounds over three stages of the Q School.
But of course, it doesn’t work for everyone. There are last year’s Challenge Tour qualifiers – and previous Q School qualifiers – back at it again this week.
Some have, as Peter Whiteford used to put it sardonically, a season ticket. A lot of them will do it a few more times, and maybe some, like Scotland’s David Drysdale, will be rewarded for their repeated travails with a long career.
But I suspect if they don’t have it there already in those top two inches, they’re never going to get there.
We’ve finally got something where we don’t need to wait for the telephone calls, we can plan ahead