A war-chest of well over £500,000 pounds over four years will be available to Scotland’s Challenge Tour pros, including two prominent players from Tayside and Fife, to help with travel and accommodation expenses.
Gavin Dear and Jamie McLeary are among the first group of five players to benefit by joining Team Scottish Hydro, a sponsorship initiative by the energy company aimed at assisting Scottish professionals move on the European Tour.
The project was launched at Edinburgh Castle with the backing of prominent Scottish players Paul Lawrie, Stephen Gallacher and Andrew Coltart as well as European Tour chief executive George O’Grady.
Five players a year with Challenge Tour cards will get the backing, which could run to upwards of £25,000 per player per year.
The project is the brainchild of Scottish tournament promoter and golf manager Iain Stoddart, who will act as project manager for the new team.
As well as McLeary, a Challenge Tour winner at the Scottish Hydro Challenge in Aviemore in 2009, and Dear, who will be making his debut on the circuit this summer, there is Callum Macaulay, who has European Tour experience and was Dear’s team-mate in the team that won the World Amateur Championship for Scotland in 2009, and the two leading Tartan Tour players Craig Lee and Chris Doak.
Stoddart said the commitment was in addition to Scottish Hydro’s successful sponsorship of the Scottish Hydro Challenge event on the Challenge Tour, being held for the third time at Spey Valley in Aviemore.
“Everybody knows it’s a hard business getting to the European Tour and the Scots had something short of level playing field compared to other countries around the world in terms of sponsorship and assistance,” he said.
“We’ll see where we are at the end of the year and Tour School and then we’ll get together to select the five for 2012.”‘Tremendous difference’The plan is to provide cash for flights, accommodation and all playing expenses at tournaments on the Challenge Tour, freeing the players to set their schedules in advance and concentrate on improving their golf games.
Furthermore the project will assist the players in their dealings with the tour administration, banks, sponsors and other ancilliary activities to being a modern pro.
Dear said, “Going out not worried about trying to get deals or flights while you should be focusing on your game is going to be a great relief, knowing you don’t have to make a cheque to finance getting to the next tournament is massive.”
McLeary, a former Leven Golfing Society player, said he felt he could have made the top 15 of the Challenge Tour last year and qualified for the main tour if he had been able to afford to play in all the events he wanted to play.
“You spend all winter thinking about your first five events, how much you can afford, and you’re always worrying in the first event about your fifth if you’re unable to get off to a good start,” he said.
“A lot of the guys who came out of the amateurs at the same time as me maybe went backwards a little bit and didn’t fulfil their potential, but this will allow them to do just that and make a massive difference to their chances.”
Gallacher has been Scotland’s most successful Challenge Tour graduate, winning the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and last year taking home nearly a million euros from his most successful season yet.
“It’s a great learning ground, because you don’t qualify for the European Tour off the Challenge Tour without winning at least one event and it concentrates the mind on playing winning golf,” he said.
“It’s a great training ground but an expensive business to play on the tour, because there’s no courtesy cars or official hotels and you’re often flying into remote places across the globe, but this backing will make a tremendous difference to the guys and allow them to focus on their talent rather than all the outside stuff.”
Team Scottish Hydro will dovetail with the Scottish Golf Union/Scottish Government scheme to be announced next week, which also seeks to back young Scottish players in the transition stage between amateur and professional.