In 25 years covering golf, I’ve heard it almost every day.
Sometimes it’s said confidently, sometimes with a shrug of the shoulders, often in resigned, regretful fashion. If I had a pound for every time I’d heard itI wouldn’t need to be writing this.
The oft-repeated phrase is: “and I’ll go to Tour School”.
A couple of weeks ago no Scottish golfer got through the six-round slog that is the European Qualifying School Final Stage, the first time this had happened since 2005.
This has been taken by some as symptomatic of a deep crisis within the Scottish game. The fact that Italy’s Renato Paratore, aged 17, was also a qualifier at PGFA Catalunya, heightens this panic. Why aren’t our young players developing and getting on to the European Tour?
But if I was advising young Scottish players about the future, I’d direct them as far away from Tour School as possible.
Because it’s a complete fraud.
Truly, if any player is pinning his professional hopes on qualifying from Tour School, as so many end up doing, he’s already beyond desperate. And in some respects I’d even include the players who are trying to regain their card having just lost it.
First of all, the princely sum of £1300 to enter constitutes the worst gamble outside the lottery.
As many as 1000 golfers are playing for 20 or so spots. If you’re entering at the first stage, then your gamble is even more ludicrous, given that a significant proportion of good golfers, many of whom are tour-hardened, already have an advantage on you by being qualified to enter at the second and final stages.
Really, those players entering at Stage One would be as well advised handing their £1300 to the nearest passing stranger. There’s more of a chance it’ll do that person some good than you have of getting on the European Tour.
But even if the stars aligned, you manage to play 14 rounds in the 60s and qualify, what do you get?
Jack Doherty, a Scot who qualified off Tour School last year, eventually played just 21 events out of a possible 47. Furthermore, Jack didn’t get into the BMW PGA, the Gulf Swing, the Dunhill, even the Scottish Open, all standard European Tour events he’d supposedly “qualified” for. His biggest paying event was the Open de France.
Jack ended up playing 45% of the schedule, in events that constitute something like 30% of the Tour’s total prizefund. Those who play better than Jack did get more chances, sure, but the bottom line is he hardly “qualified” for anything at all.
Given all this, why do they still enter?
That one-in-a-thousand chance, and blind faith, sometimes, in their own ability. But if these players were honest with themselves, they’d know that facing those Q School odds is a strong suggestion they haven’t got what it takes in the first place.
Obviously there are young players coming up for whom the Q School might be a fast track into the Tour proper, even at those insurmountable odds. There’s nothing to lose (but your £1,300 and perhaps some mental well-being) in attempting the process, you might think.
But the evidence is that Q School is no qualification whatsoever for Tour life proper. The last Scottish players to qualify from Tour School and retain their cards the following year were Stephen Gallacher and Steven O’Hara as far back as 2009.
Gallacher only played Q School that year for back-up as he had a medical exemption, and he earned enough to retain his playing rights through that and through invitations, those coming to him as he was already an established tour pro and a former winner of one of the top events, the Dunhill.
O’Hara regained his card in 2010 finishing three spots above the cut line, and lost it the following year. None of the eight Scots who have qualified from Tour School since have successfully retained their playing rights the following season.
Every year, barely a handful of Tour School qualifiers of any nationality keep their cards.
Given all this, the idea expounded last week that the Amateur champion from Blairgowrie, Bradley Neil, should have played at this year’s Tour School for the “experience” is shown to be entirely spurious.
The 18-year-old will get more experience at the Masters and US Open, which he has qualified to play in next year, plus the number of invites into big eventsthat will probably come his way.
The only thing he would gain from that six-round slog when he could be warm weather training with the SGU national squads in the Gulf is exhaustion.
Hopefully, Brad has the talent and sense to avoid Tour School altogether; if not quite by the Rory McIlroy method of earning enough cash from invites, then by the proper and best experience for the budding Tour pro, qualifying from the Challenge Tour.
The sooner the Challenge Tour becomes the sole method to qualify for the European Tour and the fraud of Q School is ended, the better.