Lots of things out here still amaze me.
Although admittedly, I only really remembered this one a week or so back when I commented on a Twitter post by Lawrence Donegan, who, for the benefit of any younger readers, is the author of the finest caddy book ever written: Four Iron In The Soul.
His post pointed out that not one of the members of the GB&I Walker Cup team made it past Stage 2 of the DP World Tour Qualifying School in 2024 while only four out of the 22 who graduated from the Challenge Tour to the DP World Tour were from GB&I. This pointed to a serious issue with how the home nations are “developing” the best amateur golfers.
It was a fair point very well made. All I did was comment pointing an additional finger at the lack of support the top amateurs from the UK get when they do turn pro, compared to their peers from the rest of Europe because basically, there isn’t any.
Even when they find themselves out on the DP World Tour, or even the Challenge Tour (Europe’s equivalent of the Korn Ferry) and that’s what genuinely fascinates me each year when watching the new talent tee it up on tour mainly because it’s as mad as it is lamentable.
You see from the outside it seems everything is fine when you’re an elite amateur in the UK and “playing” for the likes of, say, England Golf. You’re important. You’re supported, and to a degree, even heralded. But the minute you have the temerity to join the pro ranks, you’re dropped like a stone by the amateur bodies.
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Fundemental issues exists with the best amateur golfers in the UK
You’re cut adrift. It’s almost like you’re being disloyal to the system. So you don’t matter any more. I think I referred to it in my reply to Lawrence as it is as though you’d suddenly contracted leprosy.
Contrast this with the European Golf Federations. They are there not just to develop their country’s elite amateurs, they’re also there to support them in the next stage in their careers which, fairly obviously, is the transition to being a tournament pro.
But it doesn’t end there. There are warm weather camps where the professionals and amateurs both go in the winter to practise together, there is logistical help, former tour pros are acting as mentors, and there is financial help. The list goes on. After all, these are the men and women who will inspire elite amateurs, as well as the young boys and girls who will one day take their place on the ladder.
Now it might just be a coincidence that only four out of the the Challenge Tour-22 were from the UK or that three of these four were over the age of 30. It might even be a coincidence that only two of the 21 cards given out at the 2024 DP World Tour Q School went to guys with a Union Jack next to their names. Either that, or the European Federations’ model just works better which, in case you’re still unsure, it clearly does.
But I’m not sure there’s any real sign or hope of the UK changing any time soon and so Mr Donegan’s prediction that at some stage, we’ll see a Ryder Cup team with zero players from GB&I may not actually be too fanciful. At least not while the home nations’ amateur bodies continue to hold the whip hand.
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Theirs is a world in which what’s valuable and important is themselves and the amateur game and that trumps the larger picture, which is the value and importance of the men and women who pass through their ranks into the professional game, even though it’s really only in the professional ranks that they can even start to inspire others, starting with that eight-year-old boy or girl who takes up the game we all love because they see X, Y or Z on TV, and think, “That’s me. I could do that.”
Unless you fix this fundamental issue and change to putting the golfer rather than their status at the heart of everything you do, then there will be no production line of top British talent coming out onto the DP World Tour like there has been from the likes of France and the Scandinavian countries over the last few years.
I’d go so far as to say that as a Brit, if you make it to the very top of professional golf, it’s not because of the system.
It’s in spite of it.
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What do you make of this view about the best amateur golfers in the UK? Do you agree with the Secret Tour Caddy on the development of the best amateur golfers in the UK? Tell us on X!
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