New rule on contracts will give SGU value for ‘investment’ in players

WHILE most of the announcements made this week by the R&A in revealing various rule changes were either expected or came down to common sense, a decision to open the door for amateurs to sign contracts with the home unions probably caused the odd raised eyebrow.

In a change that is separate to 18-year-olds being allowed to sign with an agent 12 months before turning professional as long as they are not making financial gain until then, organisations such as the Scottish Golf Union have now been given powers to have some control over leading players.

In essence, top amateurs could be asked to sign a contract with the governing body that ties them to the amateur game until after a Walker Cup. It could also include a clause that commits them to devoting the odd day to helping the next generation of amateurs once that individual has turned professional.

At a time when the home unions are forking out fortunes to take amateurs abroad for winter coaching – the SGU, for instance, sent players to Abu Dhabi and South Africa for two separate eight-week blocks last winter – Walker Cup captain Nigel Edwards sees sense in the rule change.

“The home unions are investing more and more money into players and you could say this is a way of helping them protect that investment as it enables the home unions to tie players into contracts,” the Welshman told The Scotsman.

“Take the SGU, for example. If they send players to Abu Dhabi and South Africa over the winter, it’s not a great investment if players then turn professional early in the season. By having a contract, players may have to commit themselves to amateur golf until later in the year.

“It would be great if these contracts led to players giving something back to amateur golf, that’s for sure. That’s what is happening on the Continent with the federations and it would be a great situation for all the home unions if they knew that by supporting players they had a guarantee of getting something back.”

One thing Edwards is absolutely certain about is that neither of the two changes introduced by the R&A under the Rules of Amateur Status are aimed at trying to stop the flood of players switching to the paid ranks these days.

Of the ten-strong Great Britain & Ireland team he led to victory in the Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen in early September, six – Tom Lewis, James Byrne, Paul Cutler, Jack Senior, Andy Sullivan and Steven Brown – have already turned professional.

Another two, Michael Stewart and Stiggy Hodgson, are expected to follow suit before too long, leaving only Rhys Pugh and Alan Dunbar as potential survivors when GB&I, with Edwards again in charge following his recent reappointment to the post, defend the trophy in two years’ time.

“I don’t think the R&A can do much to stop people turning professional – that’s the way of the world at the moment,” observed Edwards, who appears concerned, nonetheless, that so many players turn their back on amateur golf without either a sound education or a job to fall back on.

While Lewis, with his recent win in the Portugal Masters, has made a spectacular start to his professional career, Byrne and Stewart, as well as Scottish Amateur champion David Law, all failed to get past the first stage in this year’s European Tour Qualifying School.

“The Walker Cup players are the ones who have a more realistic chance of being successful [as professionals], but there’s not enough room for everyone on the main Tours,” added Edwards, a lifelong amateur who played in four matches against the Americans himself.

“A lot of the players who turn professional seem to forsake an education so early and, before making that leap, why not learn a trade over the winter because everything costs so much money these days?

“The guys who missed out at the first stage of the European Tour Qualifying School are now turning their attention to either the Asian Tour or the Alps Tour and they’re going to be racking up bills before they know it.”

Edwards, who saw his team defy the odds to beat a strong American side in Aberdeen, is delighted to have been asked by the R&A to stay on as GB&I captain for another term. That starts with next year’s St Andrews Trophy, a biennial match against Continental Europe, at Portmarnock, followed by the 2013 Walker Cup at the National Golf Links of America on Long Island.

“With so many players having either turned professional already or seem set to, it means we’ll have to start rebuilding again,” said Edwards, who has just been appointed as the English Golf Union’s new director of golf. “Rhys Pugh and Alan Dunbar, both of whom had great Walker Cups at Royal Aberdeen, will hopefully form the core of the team while the likes of Toby Tree and Harrison Greenberry could be contenders in two years’ time having played in the GB&I Boys’ team that wasn’t expected to win the Jacques Leglise Trophy this year but did.

“It will be a case of starting to build relationships again in the New Year but, with new people coming in, it will give us fresh minds and I’m looking forward to the challenge once more.”