Lloyd Saltman says he does not feel jealousy when he sees Rory McIlroy and his old friends and rivals tearing up the world of golf and still believes he can join them at the top of the game.
The Scot was unanimously regarded as one of best prospects from the Home of Golf for decades during a glittering amateur career which saw him regularly beat McIlroy head-to-head in competition.
Like Rory, Lloyd turned pro at the end of the Walker Cup in 2007 and was expected to become a star on the European Tour and beyond.
McIlroy has since won two majors and been world No 1 for the majority of the last two years. Others who played in those matches at Royal County Down like Webb Simpson, Ricky Fowler, Dustin Johnson and virtually all Saltman’s GB&I team-mates have also gone on to big tour successes. But Craigielaw man Saltman starts 2013 regrouping again on the Challenge Tour.
He has been given backing as part of Team Scottish Hydro, the scheme run by the Perth company to support young Scottish professionals reach the European Tour, after the personal sponsorship he won as a result of his amateur successes ran out with only one solid but ultimately unsuccessful year on the main European Tour to his name.
“I wouldn’t change anything this is what I want to do,” he said. “I’m not one to look back and think where I could be and where I was. I look at where I am now. I’m part of Team Scottish Hydro and I’m playing on the Challenge Tour.”
Saltman was the most consistent performer in amateur golf anywhere in Europe from 2005 to 2007, when he won multiple top-ranked events and the Open Championship Silver Medal at St Andrews with a top-20 finish in 2005.
He defeated McIroy on several occasions in head-to-head competition in those days.
“Rory was always younger than us but he was playing at our level which was very impressive,” he said. “But there were many guys who went head-to-head with him down the stretch at major amateur events at that time and beat him. I played him in the last group of the Lytham Trophy, the Irish Open, those occasions I came out on top.
“It wasn’t like he was a Tiger Woods of amateur golf. He wasn’t untouchable but he did hit shots that you thought ‘woah, that’s pretty impressive.’ He was always fantastically confident.”
McIlroy’s rise was “a dream story” and what all players wanted but the difference was just “fractions”, he continued.
“Guys like Rory, Richie (Ramsay), all those Walker Cup players have done really well and it’s nice to see them do it but I know, and all of us know, that when we are on the top of our game we can compete at that level and that’s exciting.
“A wee decision here or there can be the difference between winning a tournament or getting that result and the exemption to missing your card and being back on the Challenge Tour.
“It’s all fractions in this game but that’s the exciting thing about it. There are opportunities around the corner everywhere you go.
“Rory is a dream story and it’s what we all wanted to happen to us. He gave himself a year and he wanted to be top of the world. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t and it can change in weeks.”
Saltman still believes his ability and hard work will carry him back to being a regular on the main tour.
“I’m still just 27. You look at someone like Stevie Gallacher who has come good after a few struggles,” he added. “You know when you play like that you can do it, it’s just about getting the consistency. I know I can win and that has to be the focus.
“I’d never say ‘I’ll give myself another year’ or whatever. You just have to keep going. As soon as you stop believing in what you are doing, then it’s time to give it up.
“I don’t think there’s an age or a time to do it. If you work and train hard you know you can get to where you want to.”