Life on rough edge of professional game

FOR a golfer just starting out on his professional career, life could not be more idyllic for Graeme McDowell.

On the long flight back from Sahalee, Seattle, having taken his place among the world’s top 75 golfers in the WGC NEC Invitational last weekend, the Portrush man, who just turned 23, will no doubt have had time to reflect on a whirlwind and extremely lucrative start just 11 weeks ago to his life as pro.

Victory at the Scandinavian Masters six weeks into his fledging career has catapulted the Ulsterman into golf’s elite. With 384,651 euro in the bank already, a lucrative deal with TaylorMade and Adidas Golf signed and sealed and a two-year tournament exemption on the European Tour to ease the pressure, McDowell has already laid the foundations for a successful career.

If only that was the case for Ireland’s other young professional hopefuls. Damien McGrane certainly wishes it was. The three-time Irish Order of Merit winner is widely acknowledged as one of Ireland’s best golfers outside of the European Tour and at 31 is well established on the Challenge Tour, golf’s second division in this continent.

But as McGrane explains, McDowell was the exception rather than the rule. And you can forget golf being a good walk spoiled if you are one of the game’s rookies. Just getting to the first tee these days can be a miserable experience.

“Graeme McDowell is a fantastic player and he took his chances,” McGrane acknowledges. “That’s what this is all about. He took his chances at the start of his career but most of the guys don’t win in their first year.

“Needless to say, though, it’s fabulous that he’s done it, he’s got his break and he should be set up for the rest of his life now. It’s fabulous for Irish golf that he’s done it.”

As McGrane points out, McDowell had all the credentials as a young amateur to make a successful transition to the paid ranks. A member of Britain and Ireland’s successful Walker Cup team against America last year, he was also the top collegiate golfer in the USA, winning a remarkable six tournaments out of 12 in the 2001-2002 season with a better stroke average than Tiger Woods enjoyed in his college days.

And he turned pro on the European Tour at the Great North Open with seven tournament invitations in his back pocket. For McGrane, this is the vital phase for an inexperienced pro.

“The first year you get the invites. Then the next year there is a new crop of top amateurs who will get the invites. Your management company will get you these invites and Graeme was lucky enough and good enough to win an event from one these invites.

“But that’s the difference. If Graeme didn’t win an event where would he be next year? Because then there’s a new whizzkid in town and he’ll be getting the invites.

“I had chances and didn’t take those chances. He had half a dozen chances and he managed to win one of them. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? That’s not to say the Challenge Tour is an obstruction. If Graeme McDowell didn’t win an event from those invites he would be going to qualifying school at the end of the year hoping to get onto the European Tour. And then if he didn’t get on the European Tour he would be hoping to get on the Challenge Tour. And if he didn’t get on either of those tours he actually has nowhere to go and play golf. So the Challenge Tour is still competitive.

“And needless to say then the top Challenge Tour players go straight onto the European Tour the next year. Of course, Graeme is beyond all that now.”

So McDowell has avoided the grind that is life on the Challenge Tour, although McGrane, attached to Wexford Golf Club, is keen to point out that it does have its merits. For one thing, it is a step up from the Irish pro-am circuit.

“Sure, I’ve won the Irish Order of Merit three times but that was then and this is now. I was teaching for a few years back then but I seem to be spending my time away playing golf at a totally different level alongside so many good players. Ireland’s a small country in golfing terms and it’s totally different playing here.

“The Challenge Tour is great, the competition is great ... once you get there. For me to get from Wexford to a golf tournament and then onto the first tee box is not an enjoyable experience every week. It’s just no fun, what with the amount of travelling and once you get there you are expected to play a good game of golf. So it’s very difficult from that perspective. But we all have to do it, you know, for as long as we can until you either make it or you don’t.

“All players love to play pro tournaments only. The pro-am format is great and we’re lucky to have it but it’s also difficult because you don’t focus on your own game to the same extent. When you’re away playing pro tournaments you focus on your game, the standard is very high and it actually picks you up and brings you along. All the players are so competitive.”

For McGrane and pros like him though, there is the realisation that the dividing line between success and failure is tantalisingly thin.

“You become comfortable in a certain environment and pro-am players in Ireland don’t get to play tournament golf. But the Challenge Tour is pretty much the same as the European Tour. The courses might not be as difficult because they don’t have as much time to prepare for a big event as they would on the European Tour. But they do get a month’s preparation and they are great when you get there. The difference is the level of competition, playing with players of similar if not better standard.

“There’s no difference between the top player and the player at number 100. The only difference is that the top player is confident in his game. I know so many players who have just missed cuts, are down on their luck and it’s just about getting their confidence back and shooting four good scores. I have a habit of shooting three good ones and then an average score. So that means I’m not in the contest.

“On the Challenge Tour these days you need between 15 and 20 under par to win. So if you have one average day you can’t shoot 20 under. It’s incredible. My best result this year was a few weeks ago in Moscow at the BMW Russian Open. I finished 15 under but finished fourth. My weakest score was a 70 but when the winner is on 19 under you can’t shoot one round of 70 or over.”

“So you just do your best each week; that’s what I’ve been trying to do anyway. Make cuts, win a few quid and hope for a good week. And once you get a good week then you get a right few quid. But it’s about playing golf essentially. It’s still the same game.”