If you're a professional golfer these days, there seems to be more stages to ply your trade on than Broadway.
You could try the MENA Tour out in the Middle East or the Evolve Pro Golf Tour over in Spain. If you fancy keeping it closer to home, then there is the 1836 Tour or the Jamega Tour that both bounce around a variety of venues south of the border.
Of course, these mini-tours are another rung below the established satellite circuits like the PGA EuroPro Tour, the Alps Tour, the Pro Golf Tour and the Nordic League. While this quartet all offer a direct route up the pro ladder by promoting the top five finishers on the respective order of merits to the European Challenge Tour, the lower-tier circuits are, in many ways, a road to nowhere.
The proliferation of pay-and-play mini-circuits has coincided with a rapid increase in golfers taking the professional plunge. In the cut throat world of the paid game, only a few from an increasingly vast army of hopefuls will go on to gain a solid foothold at the highest level while the rank and file will muddle about in the foothills and look worryingly at their dwindling finances. "There are now too many unofficial tours," said Sandy Jones, the chief executive of the PGA. "The Tartan Tour and other circuits in the PGA regions are very much for guys who live and work in those countries. It's not meant for guys who want to be full-time players. If you are looking to be a full-time player, you should be on the Challenge Tour or one of the development circuits. That feeds through as a promotion system. Of course, there's a limit in terms of how many people can play in these events so that's led to other circuits popping up, many sadly that are being run by pros who've not been good enough to make the grade themselves as players.
"Winning on those circuits means nothing because it has no connection to anything. Yes, it gives playing experience but if someone is good enough then they'd be on one of the development circuits."
They are hard words but, then, professional golf is a hard business. When Andrew Coltart found playing opportunities on home soil few and far between in his formative years as a pro, he sought sanctuary on a circuit in Sweden. "Funnily enough, the PGA EuroPro Tour sprung out of that situation with Andrew," added Jones. "He came to see me and said that he wanted to be a pro but didn't want to work in a shop. He asked what he could do other than join the PGA training programme and I said, 'nothing'. The Swedes had a circuit on the go then and I said he should go there to get his career started.
"I always thought it was wrong that the UK couldn't offer players the opportunity they were looking for. That concept lived with me until I moved into the job as chief executive and I said we needed to start a tour for other players. We started the MasterCard Tour before Barry Hearn came on board with the EuroPro Tour. He's never been short in putting his money in as he believes in giving youngsters a chance."
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