£1m support body for nation's hopefuls primed for success

THE company set up to hand out £1 million over the next five years to help Scottish golfers make the transition from amateur to professional golf has now brought on board all the organisations trying to get more players from the home of golf back into the world's top 100.

In addressing concerns expressed by Sandy Jones, chief executive of the Professional Golfers' Association, chairman Graeme Simmers has invited Alan White, the PGA Scottish Region chairman, to join representatives of the Scottish Golf Union, the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association and sportscotland on the board of Professional Golf Support Ltd.

Former Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher has also agreed to provide an independant voice on the board and, while admitting he'd like to have seen things progress a bit quicker than they have since the project was announced in early March, Simmers, a former chairman of the R&A's championship committee, believes everything is now in place in order for the process to start in earnest.

"The first meeting was held on 17 June, though Bernard Gallacher could not make it. The next meeting is at the end of August and then the one after that in second week of December. Everyone will be at those meetings," he said.

The December meeting is when the first batch of players to receive support, likely to be about 30,000 per individual per year, will be identified, the criteria being that a newly-turned professional has to have either a European Challenge Tour card or better or, on the distaff side, a Ladies' European Tour card or better. In the event of no player achieving that status, Simmers and his fellow board members, who will receive recommendations from an operations' group led by Steve Paulding, the performance manager for Scottish Golf, could direct the money instead to players already on those circuits or, in exceptional circumstances, someone competing at a lesser level.

While excited to be involved in a project that has been talked about for around five years but is only now coming to fruition thanks to money being given to sportscotland by the Scottish Government, Simmers knows from his involvement with another sport that cash support alone isn't enough to guarantee success.

"Look at what has happened with the Lawn Tennis Association," he noted. "I'm a member of Wimbledon and every year we give 35m to the LTA. But when have we produced anyone as a result of that? It is not just a question of money. It is a question of putting the right pathways in place and I don't think tennis has done that.

"We will be holding discussions with people like Colin Montgomerie, Paul Lawrie, and Andrew Coltart, who had to go on the Swedish Tour when he had nowhere to play after turning professional.

Players who find themselves overlooked for support will have the right to appeal, with the likes of Callum Macaulay, Gavin Dear, Wallace Booth, Scott Henry, Kylie Walker and Carly Booth among those who could benefit if there are no new Scottish graduates at either of the Tour Schools in Spain in December.

"You are never going to please everyone. It will be a case of learning as we go on and I think the first year selection could be the most difficult one. But I think we will find out very quickly. While 200,000 is the maximum figure we can hand out each year - and we'll probably be looking to support six or seven players each year - we can carry money over from one year to the next," added the chairman.

In addition to providing coaching and other support through the Scottish Institute of Sport, the new company is hoping it will eventually have enough clout to help newly-turned professionals secure more starts in tournaments through invites.

"I think we have to give it two to three years individually to see some tangible results," Simmers said. "We are not unaware of the risk with something like this and you can only judge the success of this by results. If someone is not making it, you've got to say ‘sorry' and move on to someone else. But some take longer to mature than others."

Hamish Grey, chief executive of the SGU, is also on the board along with Shona Malcolm, the SLGA chair, Louise Martin, chair of sportscotland, and Stewart Harris, the chief executive of sportscotland. "We are part of this as is important for Scottish golf. Our focus is developing a conveyor belt of young talent with finesse," said Grey.

"Having invested in these players for so long, 10-12 years in some cases, it does not make sense to shake their hand and say, ‘good luck' when they are making the biggest step in their career. We've not had this resource over the last five years but now we have an opportunity to help to finish players off."