Frontline action lacking in Arnott's senior service

Having chalked up his half century last year, Robert Arnott was relishing the prospect of a new lease of sporting life. In this game for all the ages, the senior circuit is viewed as a cosy little haven, where competition, cash and camaraderie go hand in hand and players of various shapes, sizes and swings batter and clatter merrily away into their golfing twilight years. Life begins at you know what and all that.

Arnott, a fit-as-a-fiddle stalwart of the Scottish PGA scene, had hoped that 2014 would be a year of new opportunity having earned a conditional card for the European Senior Tour in the qualifying school at the start of the season. It hasn??t quite worked out that way.

??The first thing Andy Oldcorn (Senior Tour member) said to me was ??you??ve picked the worst year to get a card as there are no tournaments??,?? reflected Arnott, on a golden oldies circuit that has dwindled in recent seasons. A decade ago, the European over-50s scene boasted a 24-event schedule. In 2014, battling against the lingering financial strains that also hit the main tour in the wake of the Eurozone crisis, the programme featured 11 regular contests. The season didn??t start until late May and its grand opening was over the water in America, where the big box office names, and some fortunate others, competed in the US Senior PGA Championship. Arnott was left with more modest offerings. With only six full cards on offer at the qualifying school, Arnott, who finished just outside that lucky half dozen, always knew his conditional ticket would come with, well, certain conditions. In fact, the conditions were fairly barren. In the end, he played in only two events. ??I never actually got into any events that I entered and the two I did get into was by coming off the reserve list,?? said the 51-year-old former PGA Cup player. ??In a sense, it was basically nothing. Some of the other guys did say ??you??ll struggle?? but I did think I might have got a wee bit more than I did. There were a few phone calls, of course, saying you are first reserve but it was always pretty much last minute. I wasn??t going to spend 1500 quid to get out to Switzerland or somewhere and not get in. At the start of season, you look at it as a new lease of life; maybe get a few events and do quite well. But it hasn??t quite worked out that way.??

Next week, the European season will conclude in sun-soaked Mauritius where Colin Montgomerie will be crowned the order of merit winner. As a main tour mainstay down the seasons, he, like an ever-increasing old boys?? network, can use that category to parachute straight onto the over-50s stage. With earnings of over euro 600,000, Monty is almost euro 400,000 ahead of his nearest rival on the money list. Of course, much of that plunder was cobbled together from the majors which are included on the European schedule. He had two wins, in the US Senior Open and the US Senior PGA, and a second place finish at the Senior British Open. Throw in ??regular?? European circuit victories in Russia and at Woburn and it??s a decent bit of senior service. Montgomerie??s hefty haul came from just five events. In contrast, Arnott cobbled together about euro 2200. In this golfing pecking order, some seniors are more senior than others. ??There are so many guys coming off the main tour now and they all want to play on the Senior Tour,?? said Arnott, who still enjoys regular competition in his own backyard on the Tartan Tour. ??They are all coming in above you straight away. It??s almost like a closed shop to be fair. Six cards at q-school? It??s nothing really. You need to play very, very well. You have to be top six, it??s as simple as that. I??ll probably go to the tour school again even though I didn??t think it was worth it really. It??s £800 to enter and with travel and everything else it??s going to cost about £2000. But what else am I going to do? Get a real job at 51???

As they say; life begins at, er, 51.

ENDS