Touring professional, Scottish PGA champion, coach, taxi driver, club pro?
David Orr has had more roles than Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets and the well-travelled Glasgow man continues to revel in the multi-tasking.
Rather like a Swiss Army knife, Orr has turned his hand to many jobs during a professional career spanning almost two decades and the 40-year-old is now as busy as ever.
Things could have worked out differently, of course. A decade ago, Orr had a spot on the European Tour in his clutches going into the closing round of the qualifying school final in Spain but a ruinous 78 saw him tumble out of the card-winning places. "I didn't seize my chance when I had it," reflected the 2009 Scottish PGA champion, who had a stint on the European Challenge Tour and was a three-time winner on the PGA EuroPro Tour. "Maybe that is the one regret; that I never got the chance at the top table. If I could play that round again, with the knowledge I now have as a coach, then it would have been a different story. But that's golf and the small margins of the game."
Orr would never make the breakthrough to the big time but he did become one of the most prolific winners on the Tartan Tour, even though his career was jolted by a harsh, six-month ban for a breach of PGA training regulations. At one point, Orr divided his time between driving down fairways and driving for fares as he found himself at the wheel of a taxi to help bolster the finances. "The taxi is long gone and that's a big relief," he reported. "I never want to go back to those days but it had to be done. You get these dark moments when you wonder if you are finished in the game but avenues have opened up."
This latest opening will see Orr take up the head professional role at Eastwood on the south of Glasgow in the next month or so. While his amiable nature, as well as his expertise, should lead to him fitting in nicely with the membership, his enthusiasm for developing the game and looking to the future should also bring benefits. Over the past couple of years, Orr, through his work at the Mearns Castle facility, has fostered strong relationships with Belmont House and St Aloysius schools and the former British Assistants' champion is keen to build on the programmes that he has set up in an effort to encourage participation in these challenging times for the game.
"I was surrounded by golf at a young age so it was easy to get into it," recalled Orr, who is also an academy coach with the Scottish Golf Union as well as a tutor with the Renfrewshire Golf Union. "You'd spend 12 hours a day at the club, four or five days a week. There were not as many distractions as kids have nowadays. I made contact with the schools and it is my goal to try and get some open days with more schools in Glasgow and open it up. Eastwood has committed to coming forward with me so the schools will now come to the club for eight weeks. The demand is there and the schools are keen as there are so many qualities to golf; the physical side, the social side, the etiquette and the general life skills. So far, the kids have been responding and they want to come back. The aim is obviously to increase participation at the grassroots and, hopefully, that evolves into them becoming members of a club further down the line. That's the lifeblood and the future of the game and it's important to embrace that."
The all-embracing Orr, meanwhile, seems to be relishing his latest challenges.
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