Extending horizons

TWO and a half years ago Conor Ridge was managing a group of promising young Irish golfers and wondering if and when he was going to break into the space filled by the massive International Management Group (IMG) or the International Sports Management Group (ISM).

At the time he was on no more than nodding acquaintance with Graeme McDowell. And it came as a surprise when the Portrush golfer asked for a chat.

Ridge readily acknowledges that McDowell’s arrival “opened the doors for us to get into the big time in terms of being able to build a network of contacts at the highest level of the game. You can’t do that unless you have the players to get you into the places where that network is.”

It was a brave move by McDowell to leave Chubby Chandler’s well respected ISM and change to a company that was little more than a speck on the horizon at the time. All that, of course, has changed since the events at Pebble Beach.

“Obviously it opens up huge opportunities for Graeme personally and for us in the business,” he agreed.

“I suppose it’s why we do what we do, to try and get into the position of managing players who are top 10 in the world, are winning majors, or contending for majors, or whatever it might be. It has upped the stakes and put the company on a new level and the opportunity to really test ourselves.”

Ridge likes to think that McDowell’s US triumph won’t unduly affect his personal life whatever about his business life. He has a wife of 18 months, Emma, who is a busy lady in her own right, and they have to manage their time carefully.

“I’m trying to strike a balance,” says Conor. “I don’t want to find myself in three or five years running around the world not really having a base any more. The bigger the players become the more they need you. We’re building a good team, taking on a couple more people, and there aren’t many people in the world with the experience to do what we do.”

Ridge is a very hands-on kind of manager. He will try to be around the first tee and 18th green when his players are starting and finishing a round and he is often out on the course as well supporting them. He leaves little to chance.

“Colm Moriarty was playing in his first major championship at St Andrews the other week and he was the first I ever managed back in 2003,” he pointed out.

“I signed him when I used to work for Drurys after the 2003 Walker Cup and it’s important that he gets the same level of attention as Graeme. Those guys still mean a lot to me: for Colm to qualify for his first major and to play all four rounds and finish 37th along with Shane Lowry really delighted me.

“I think it’s important to stick to our roots and remember who got us to where we are now. We are very hands on and that’s what differentiates us from the opposition, I suppose. I look at Chubby’s model, they’ve always been very hands on and it’s how they built their success and, while I’m not trying to emulate them, I believe it’s the way players need to be managed, and the bigger the player you get the harder it is to hold on to that ethos.”

McDowell’s US Open success could not have come at a better time for himself or Horizon given that all his contracts are up for renewal at the end of the year. With bonuses, increments, etc., thrown in, Graeme will be an extremely wealthy man, but now that he has achieved the status of major champion from now on it’s all about golf and how best he can exploit his talents.

“He’s going to want to know that we can maximise his commercial value based on being a major champion and that we can manage him the way a major champion needs to be managed,” Ridge says. “I’m fully confident we can do it. Okay, we haven’t had a player who has won a major before, but then we hadn’t managed a Graeme McDowell or a Ross Fisher before.

“Graeme has spoken openly about the difference we’ve made to him and that gives you confidence to go up another level and we are going up big time to another level. “I believe Graeme is a brilliant brand, a brilliant image, a brilliant identity, a great profile… he’s good looking, he’s young , he’s articulate, he’s intelligent… the media like him because he’s got something to say. He’s a very good speaker and he’s thoughtful about what he says. He’s extremely intelligent and that’s why I see him as a business partner as much as a player at this stage.

“When I’m making business decisions on his behalf I include him in them because he actually has something to contribute, whereas there are some players that you wouldn’t simply because it would go over their heads. Not so with Graeme. We’ve got a unique player on our hands with real star appeal and I think the US is going to be a big commercial opportunity because he transcends Europe and the States. In a funny way, he’s born in Ireland and born in Europe, but made in America.”

The Horizon chief, along with his two right hand men, Colin Morrissey and Neil McLoughlin, have faced tough challenges since Pebble Beach with managing the media demands on McDowell’s time.

“It’s a bloody, big deal. One of the things he has got to be good at is saying no. And if he doesn’t get good at it, I will have to do it. You don’t want to let people down, you don’t want to be rude, but you have to understand that he can’t do everything now. We have to look after him as a person first, a golfer secondly and a commercial entity thirdly.”

Ridge is always on the look out for more big name players. “I know there are people interested in us, people at a very high level, too. It was happening anyway but if anyone was looking at us as a potential option, I’d say they’re pretty convinced now.”

When I asked if I should read anything into a chat I noticed him having with Ian Poulter during the British Open, he was honest and up front: “Could we do things for Ian? Of course. I know him really well and I suppose that’s a mark of where we have come from in the business. I’m sure three years ago he wouldn’t have said hello to me, wouldn’t have had a clue who I was, and wouldn’t have given me the time of day. He was the first man to ring me when Graeme won. He’s very much his own man and is a very clever guy.”

Ridge is also happy to do things for players attached to other “stables”, but insisted “I wasn’t targeting any other specific player, instead I am concentrating on what we have.

As is the nature of things, people are forever asking about the religion of people like Darren Clarke, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell and whether they consider themselves Irish or British or a bit of both.

Conor Ridge explains: “Graeme sees himself as Irish, no two ways about that. When you go to America, there’s no Northern Irish, it’s Irish, and that’s what he sees himself as. He is not into the religious or political connotations, he is apolitical, he’s Irish and doesn’t want to get involved in any debate that other people would want to. When it came to the Olympic Games, he said he’d be delighted to play for anyone. When he says that, he’s not playing the political game. He genuinely doesn’t mind.”

A close friendship has grown up between Ridge and McDowell.

“People are going to be watching to see if we can manage a major champion,” he acknowledges. “I know we can and what gives me huge confidence as Graeme is so intelligent and knowing that he backs me … I honestly believe we can do a better job for him than any other management company and he said that to me. If he thinks that, it’s good enough for me.”