James Byrne has no regrets and is still involved in golf - but now as content producer

Winning Walker Cup team member in 2011 features in our Where Are They Now series

Before the likes of Bob MacIntyre, Ewen Ferguson, Grant Forrest and Connor Syme burst onto the scene, David Law, Michael Stewart and James Byrne were arguably the three brightest hopes in the Scottish amateur ranks. Law has fulfilled his potential by becoming a DP World Tour winner and Stewart is still chiselling away at his playing career on the Challenge Tour, but what has happened to Byrne?

Well, he’s still involved in golf but not with a club in his hands any more. After a spell playing on both the Asian Tour and Asian Development Tour, the 35-year-old Banchory man is now working for European Tour Productions, which, in conjunction with IMG, produces and distributes coverage of DP World Tour and Challenge Tour events, as well as the Ryder Cup.

“I’m an assistant producer for the original and branded content team,” he told Scotland on Sunday. “There’s a live team who do the live broadcast every week. There’s a social team who puts the stuff out on social media. Then we do the branded content for the tour’s brand partners. For example, Hilton, BMW, DP World, Hero etc. Part of their deal for sponsoring the tour is that they get X amount of pieces of content every year and our job is to make great content for those clients.”

Banchory's James Byrne pictured during the final of the 2010 Amateur Championship at Muirfield. Picture: Warren Little/Getty Images.

During a successful playing spell at Arizona State University, Byrne also studied marketing and fell back on that degree when he decided to call time on his playing career at the end of 2017. He had a spell working for Fenix, a golf clothing company set up in Thailand by Aberdonian Michael Moir, before a move back to Britain with his wife, Tara, to coincide with starting a family opened up an opportunity in the marketing department at Wentworth Club.

“I was always keen to stay in golf,” added Byrne, now a reinstated amateur and proud to be the current Banchory club champion after taking great delight in claiming that title for the first time last year with his dad Paul looking on. “That’s why I went and worked for a golf clothing company then a golf course and now essentially for the tour, so I am still heavily involved in golf. Now probably more than before as we are going to events and working with the players to create this kind of fun and exciting stuff. It’s very cool. I’ve always been a big fan of the DP World Tour’s content and, fortunately for me, we are doing more and more and pushing the boat out with a few different things thanks to having bigger budgets, which is exciting.”

As was definitely the case when Byrne won the Scottish Boys’ Stroke-Play Championship at Macdonald Cardrona in 2007 then reached the final of the Amateur Championship at Muirfield three years later before flying the Saltire along with Stewart in a triumphant Great Britain & Ireland side in the 2011 Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen against an American line up that included Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay.

“Some great memories and some great performances as well to look back on fondly,” he admitted. “Even though I’m not playing golf now, those are massive achievements that still mean something. Amateur golf is amazing whereas pro golf can sometimes be quite stressful and quite draining as you are always thinking about your bank balance and can never enjoy the golf as freely as you do as an amateur. It’s great as well when you’ve got your friends and family coming out to watch you as it is usually quite local in either Scotland or the UK. Then when you turn pro you are playing abroad most of the time and it’s very different.”

James Byrne played in a winning GB&I team in the Jacques Leglise Trophy at Notts Golf Club in 2007. Pictured are, back row from left, Matt Haines, Andrew Johnson, Byrne, Fraser Fotheringham and Geoff Toye. Front Row: Tommy Fleetwood, Eddie Pepperell, Jack Hiluta, Michael Stewart and Paul Cutler. Picture: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images.

In that Amateur Championship final, Byrne lost to 5&4 to Korean Jin Jeong, who looked to be a star in the making as he then tied for 14th in The Open at St Andrews before seeing his career take a spectacular nosedive after landing a maiden professional win in the 2013 ISPS Handa Perth International. Might things have worked out differently for Byrne if he’d come out on top in that 36-hole title decider at Muirfield?

“Not particularly, no,” he replied to being asked if he had any regrets as far as his playing career was concerned, having turned his attention to the Asian Tour after being unable to secure a status on either the DP World Tour or Challenge Tour through a handful of Qualifying School attempts. “At the time, all the decisions you make, you think are in your best interest. You never know how things are going to turn out, so all you can do is try your best, which I certainly feel I did. Had I made other decisions, could things have worked out differently? You just don’t know. I probably wouldn’t have changed anything, but you obviously wish you had played better.

“Part of it as well is the jump up from amateur to professional golf. I had a good amateur career, but my actual standard of play probably wasn’t near the level that is required at professional level. It’s not as simple as linear progression. You are not just guaranteed to improve year on year. If you don’t find relatively immediate success, it becomes progressively harder because you are struggling to fund yourself. You are playing on the kind of mini-tours and it’s maybe not the nicest courses or set ups. And confidence wise if you are not winning or doing really well, it’s easy to get on that downward spiral.”

Playing amateur golf again has almost felt like a breath of fresh air. “I was genuinely delighted to win my club championship last summer and experience the nerves of competition again,” said Byrne, who now lives in Guildford with his wife and their two children, Bradley and Hayley. “It had been several years since I’d felt that. But I obviously have other priorities in my life now, raising a young family and progressing in a new career. So I’m fully focused on this next chapter of my life and looking forward to seeing what it brings.”