As wake up calls go, it was probably as startling as having a bucket of ice cold water hurled over you in the army barrack bunks at 5am before being furiously bawled at by a ruddy-faced drill sergeant.
Stage one of the European Tour’s qualifying school finally drew to a conclusion last night and, at the end of four weeks of 72-hole shoot-outs across the UK and the continent, three of our most promising hopes for the future – Michael Stewart, David Law and James Byrne – are already pondering where to go next, having stumbled at the very first hurdle. Welcome to the real world.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this, of course. Barely a month ago, everything was rosy. Law, who lifted the Scottish Amateur title for the second time in July, had become the first player from the unpaid ranks in over 30 years to win the Tartan Tour’s Northern Open, while Byrne and Stewart were celebrating victory with GB&I in the Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen.
Management companies were hovering, invitations were being promised and thoughts were already turning to the lucrative bounty of the European Tour. And then the harsh reality of golf outside the comfort zone of the SGU elite set-up came barging in like an uninvited guest to throw a sodden blanket over the flames of optimism.
Stewart, who has delayed his move into the pro game until he has competed in next month’s South African Open as an amateur, was the first of the highly-rated trio to give the q-school a bash but a crippling 83, during the second round of his campaign in Cheshire a fortnight ago, put paid to his ambitions.
“I’ve been bitten on the backside,” winced Stewart in the aftermath of his stage one tumble.
The former Scottish Amateur champion, who is reportedly set to sign with Chubby Chandler’s management company ISM, has already declared his intention to compete in the third-tier Alps Tour’s qualifying school in November.
Like the PGA EuroPro Tour in the UK and the German-based EPD Tour, the Alps circuit does offer progress up the ladder, with the top-five on the money list at the end of each season moving on to the Challenge Tour. However, for Stewart the Alps Tour is, well, the third choice.
Byrne and Law, both now rookie pros, will also have to start thumbing through the brochures of Europe’s myriad satellite tours as they look to find a stage upon which to ply their trade after dispiriting and bitterly disappointing q-school missions.
Byrne finished six shots outside the cut-mark at Ribagolfe in Portugal last night with an 11-over 299, while Law failed to make the grade by 10 strokes at Frilford Heath in Oxford. To add to Scottish woes, Ross Kellett and Greg Paterson, both competing as amateurs, also found the examination too exacting.
As promised by the managers, there will be the occasional invitation, if not to main European Tour events then certainly to a few Challenge Tour contests, for Byrne and Law and there’s always the chance that one good finish could earn an exemption.
Yet trying to build a schedule out of bits here and pieces there is notoriously fraught, particularly in the early months of a fledgling pro career, when gaining a solid foothold is of the utmost importance.
Byrne has already benefited from the clout of his aides and gained a place in last week’s Dunhill Links Championship. However, the q-school was his chief focus and, having had little time to prepare for an ultimately fruitless qualifying campaign, you wonder if it did him more harm than good.
It is far too early to press the panic button, but failing at this first stage was certainly not in the script for Byrne, Stewart and Law. How they now respond to such a hefty, early dunt to morale will reveal a lot about them as golfers.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article