Forget warbling about solving a problem like Maria. The Sound of Music nuns at Nonnberg Abbey would’ve worked themselves into a quite dreadful fankle if they had to try to solve a problem like the amateur-to-pro transition in Scottish golf.
At least folk are beginning to sing off the same hymn sheet, though. This perilous leap continues to cause much head-scratching and harrumphing as seemingly talented players, with impressive pedigrees in the unpaid ranks, take the professional plunge and struggle to keep their heads above water. There’s no magic formula or one-size-fits-all blueprint for success, of course, but attempts to smooth this rocky road and aid the “historically fragile stage of a career” are on-going.
The latest initiative involves a welcome injection of joined-up thinking and pulled resources. Aberdeen Asset Management, SSE Scottish Hydro and Bounce Sports Management, a trinity of long-standing and enthusiastic backers of the domestic game, have teamed up with the amateur governing body, Scottish Golf, to provide both financial and managerial support to a chosen number of leading male and female players making the move into the professional arena.
At a time when the amateur-to-pro turnover has never been greater, and many make the move without having achieved anything of note in the unpaid scene, the package will target quality rather than quantity. “This is not a golden egg, it has to be earned,” said Stephen Docherty, who sits on the Scottish Golf performance committee. “There may be a year when nobody gets it.”
The first two recipients are former Walker Cup players, Grant Forrest and Ewen Ferguson, who are now both competing on the European Challenge Tour and were nurtured by the Bounce Sports Management team during a series of appearances in pro events while they were still amateurs last year. “Those experiences helped me understand what to expect,” said Forrest, who hit the ground running with a share of fifth in his first Challenge Tour event of the new season in Turkey last weekend. “Not all golf events take place 20 minutes from an airport. It can be two or three flights and a couple of hours drive when you get there. All that can wear you down so you have to be ready for it.”
It’s certainly no bed of roses and Ferguson has his own character-building experiences to draw on. “I was making my pro debut in France and was all excited,” he recalled. “I got there on the Sunday to prepare fully but my clubs didn’t arrive until the eve of the tournament on the Wednesday night. I couldn’t practice and missed the cut.”
One of the main drivers of the amateur-to-pro push down the years has been the tireless Iain Stoddart, the main man at the Bounce group. “It’s been my long-held belief that we need to catch the players before they turn pro so that when they walk out of the door, they have everything they need to give them half a chance of succeeding,” said Stoddart, who stressed this latest initiative is not a closed shop and is keen to see more backers come on board. “This is not just our baby.”
With the abolishment of the Scottish Golf Support Ltd programme, and further cuts coming in the sportscotland budget, this latest alliance demonstrates something of a show of united strength. “We can’t be successful in isolation,” noted Blane Dodds, the chief executive of Scottish Golf.
The one area harder to deal with is in the women’s European game, where the playing opportunities are less and the rewards are not as great.
“This initiative is a sort of umbilical cord,” said Stoddart. “Once the player gets to the main tour, you can cut that cord and introduce new sponsors. The dynamics of the ladies game are different. The reality is that you can’t let them go even when they reach the top-30 of the Ladies European Tour. Even then, with winnings of 60 or 70,000 euro they’re still barely covering their costs. The equivalent of the top-30 in the men’s game is a million euro and you can let them go with confidence. The pathway is not the same for the women.”
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