The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Tartan Tour on rise again
IN SCOTTISH golf we’ve been falling over ourselves to figure out the developmental puzzle for the last 10 years. There’s been an element of dismay as we’ve seen the number of top class, carefully-nurtured players emerging from Sweden, France, Italy, Ireland, even from Denmark, which has as much tradition in golf as we have in breakfast pastries.
We look at Rory, Henrik Stenson, at Matteo Manassero and the Molinari brothers, at Thorbjorn Olesen and the powerful French amateur teams and wonder why, with more per capita players at lower handicaps than anywhere on Earth, we aren’t producing more like them.
Clubgolf is the long-term answer to this question, and it’s at the very least a sincere attempt to broaden further our native golfing culture.
Short-term, the amateur to pro schemes backed by the Scottish Government and Scottish Hydro have been reasonably successful at getting our guys on from Challenge Tour to European Tour. It’s all helped. But perhaps the overall answer to the question has been staring at us squarely for the last 10 years, and it’s certainly not the most fashionable answer.
Our best amateur players have somewhat looked down on the Tartan Tour, the PGA of Scotland’s circuit for domestic club professionals.
The tour’s certainly endured some hard times, reduced to solely the bread and butter of one-day pro-ams when there were six or seven 72-hole events a year before.
This is the Tartan Tour that Paul Lawrie remembers and credits for honing his tournament technique, which he believes is almost as vital for young pros to learn as swing technique.
Only once mastered, this technique never really leaves you. And Lawrie is just one. Looking down the Road to Dubai rankings right now, five of the top six Scots — Lawrie, Craig Lee, Chris Doak, David Drysdale and Alastair Forsyth — came out of the Tartan Tour.
Even in its more impoverished state of the last few years, the tour’s been pretty decent at producing competitive players.
The good news is the Tartan Tour appears to be blossoming again.
Lawrie’s help is crucial, putting money through his foundation behind the historic Northern Open and his own invitational tournament which, added to the existing Scottish Professional Championship, means there’s now three 72-hole Order of Merit events.
More are to follow, with announcements in the next couple of weeks.
New PGA Scotland secretary Brian Mair is the man doing the tireless groundwork.
The PGA have even loosened some of its own demands to broaden their scope.
Previously, unless you were taking the club professional route of PGA training, entry into Tartan Tour events was usually blocked, and many of the top amateurs turning pro only wanted to be tournament players and weren’t concerned with learning how to regrip clubs.
Now there’s to be more invites for players not aiming to go to the club shop.
If it can get up to four or five 72-holers, the Tartan Tour could be a nursery that is the envy of European golf again.