Ridge ensuring Lowry has a bright future on the horizon
Ridge has kept a close eye on all the young, developing Irish golfers over the past number of years and had earmarked Lowry for success ever before his exploits at Baltray.
The point is well made by the young Offaly man’s presence at the Horizon barbecue on the eve of the tournament.
Nevertheless, Lowry would have needed reassurance that Horizon was the place for him rather than big firms in England who have massive resources and accordingly would have been in a position to make him some very attractive offers.
The fact that Ridge numbered among his clients players of the calibre of Ryder Cup star Graeme McDowell and Ross Fisher, the Englishman who defends his European Open title at the London Club this week and missed out on the BMW PGA Championship at the weekend by a shot to Paul Casey after firing a final round of 64 at Wentworth, was obviously an important factor in helping to make up his mind.
On top of that, recent Portuguese Open winner Michael Hoey and a whole host of other young Irish golfers have nothing but praise for Ridge, his partner Colin Morrissey and the other members of the Horizon team.
It is now their task to organise just about everything Lowry does, from finalising clothing, club and golf ball contracts to arranging travel, accommodation and his schedule.
When I suggested to Ridge that there is a considerable degree of pressure on the company to deliver on behalf of Lowry, he preferred to see it as “a healthy challenge”. He intends to use the talents of Neil Manchip, who coached the midlander throughout his amateur days, and the experience that Graeme McDowell has gained to help achieve his aims.
“Shane and I sat down with Neil in Carton House yesterday as part of my plan to help everything fall into place,” Ridge revealed. “I have no intention of cutting Neil off. I have total respect for his philosophy, not just on the golf swing but also on his man management skills. In fact, in a way you could say he has been Shane’s manager up to now and we are looking at his schedule together.
“On Tuesday night, Shane and I will have dinner with Graeme whose professional career began in slightly similar circumstances. He won his fourth tournament in Scandinavia and immediately came under the media spotlight. Graeme has a lot of useful advice to pass on.
“I have had a number of media requests for Shane but for now we will confine everything to Wednesday’s press conference at the London Club, otherwise he would spend all his time doing interviews and that sort of thing. Also, we are downplaying the contract side of things for the moment. We’ve noticed people losing the run of themselves about the money Shane could make. The stuff about millions and so on is nonsense”.
Ridge spent the first 16 years of his life in his native Galway before the family moved to Dublin. He did a commerce degree in UCD and a Masters in marketing at the Smurfit Business School before moving to Australia where he worked for more than two years with the Canon camera company. His chief responsibility was in developing their sponsorship of major sporting events and that experience was to prove invaluable.
He then had a spell with Drury Sports Management before setting up his own company a few years earlier and younger than he had intended. It wasn’t easy and indeed things were so difficult that he had to re-mortgage his house. Clearly, though, he was fearlessly ambitious and a simple rationale drove him on.
“Ireland was churning out all these great players, going back to Christy Senior through to Pádraig, McGinley, Clarke and Graeme,” he pointed out. “I could never believe there wasn’t an Irish management company to look after those guys. If there had been a company in Ireland at the time that was experienced enough and capable of managing Pádraig Harrington and Paul McGinley when they turned pro, would they have gone with them? Of course they would. Definitely. I did it because there was an opportunity there that hadn’t been explored before.”
All very fine in itself but the stars were already fixed up with companies like IMG and ISM and the young Irish players Horizon had on their books were struggling. They either lost their cards or battled away on the less than glamorous Challenge Tour. As they found it difficult to make ends meet, Ridge and his partner Colin Morrissey were also facing up to reality.
“We needed to attract a few bigger players by the end of ‘07 or otherwise we would have needed to make a call,” says Ridge. “I was pretty confident, though, because we had put so much time and work into it and we knew we were good at what we do. Then Graeme came along.”
McDowell has since been joined by Ross Fisher and Shane Lowry. It hasn’t happened overnight but the graph is climbing ever higher for the appropriately-named Horizon Sports Management.
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