Smart way ahead is one step at a time
With no problems regarding eligibility to play the full European Tour for the next 30 months is concerned, and blessed with a superb all-round game, the young Rathmore golfer is likely to quickly become Ireland's newest sporting millionaire which is magnificent to see and we wish McDowell all the best for a glittering career.
But there is another side to the coin; it is the fear that just because McDowell made the breakthrough so quickly other young Irish players will believe life on the European Tour is a piece of cake and that the path to riches for everybody else who fancies his golfing prowess is an easy one. Sadly, that is not so, and the number of youngsters who believed this but fell by the wayside is legion.
At the moment, we have decent golfers who are little more than middle-of-the-road amateurs dreaming of making it big in the professional game. They have entered for the preliminary stages of the European Tour School on September 17-20 and, given the fortunes to be made out there, this is perhaps understandable. But the brutal truth is that unless something completely unforeseen happens, they are literally throwing the large entry fee and other expenses away.
If they really want to make golf their career, they should, in my view, consider a different route. Players of this quality would always be welcome as assistants to an established club professional. Once they have learned the trade and qualified in their own right, they could then try their luck on the domestic circuit and if still showing promise attempt to go a stage further, always knowing they have a career to fall back on should they fail to make the grade.
This must sound mundane and unglamorous and indeed unfashionable when compared with the lifestyle enjoyed by McDowell, Justin Rose and others enjoying the fruits of success on the world stage. But one must be pragmatic about such matters. For every McDowell, there are hundreds who just haven't got what it takes and the statistics are there for all to see.
Damien McGrane is one of the few to choose this option. Now 31, McGrane is the club professional at Wexford where he is very happy and combines that job with several visits to the European Challenge Tour. He hasn't given up his dream of teeing it up with the big boys and currently stands in 31st place on the order of merit with 14,687 euro to his credit. To make his way on to the main tour he needs to finish in the top 15 at the season's end. It's a big ask given that he's currently about 13,000 euro behind the player in 16th spot. But as he says, "One good week could change all that."
Twenty-eight-year-old Dubliner Peter Lawrie and Kilkenny's Gary Murphy, 30 in October, opted to try for their cards by the direct route. They are former Irish Amateur Close champions, Murphy at Portstewart in 1992, Lawrie at Royal Co Down four years later. It was those victories that largely prompted these two undoubtedly talented players to try their luck on the European Tour. However, to say that it has been a hard slog for Lawrie and Murphy is putting it mildly.
Lawrie, who incidentally holds a commerce degree from UCD, has yet to win a card for the main circuit indeed he has struggled from time to time to even get on the Challenge Tour. There are, however, strong indications that this might well be his year. A share of 14th in the Rolex Pro Am in Geneva at the weekend earned Peter another 3,626 after which he stood 12th in the order of merit and desperately holding on to his place among the top 15. Murphy did his prospects of returning to the main tour no harm by finishing 2nd in the Skandia PGA Open in Sweden on Sunday. He picked up 10,550 euro for his efforts and duly improved to 30th place with 27,382 euro. But he still has the long road to travel if he is to crash the top 15.
On the debit side, another former Close champion, Ciaran McMonagle from Donegal, is 119th with a mere 6,261 euro from nine events while last year's Close finalist, Stephen Browne, is 155th with 4,200 euro from eight outings.
That shows just how difficult it is out there and why European Tour aspirants should think hard before spending large sums on pursuing dreams that may never be realised.
