You might liken the successful Tour players to astronauts, the few players who have been able to use their talents to rise above all, giving them a unique perspective on the world.
Then there are the pilots, very talented and accomplished individuals who also see the world from an elevated perspective. These guys are the second tier players, Challenge Tour players alongside the LET Access Tour fit into this category.
Then there are the Olympic trampoliners; the guys who understand the confines of gravity, have experienced weightlessness for a brief period and are extremely accomplished. But, they are as far removed from an astronaut as a ‘breaking even’ mini tour player is from a Ryder Cup player.
If we were to compare this weekend’s golf achievers in Matt Fitzpatrick and Charley Hull, with the guys who have just finished Tour School, against the guys who teed it up at Palmares this week in the Algarve Pro Golf Tour, you should begin to see there are no surprises in the ascendency of Tournament players.
Hull and Fitzpatrick are players of a generation. Take Matthew Fitzpatrick who has just won his third European Tour title. Winning at 22 years and 80 days he is now the youngest English player in the history of the European Tour to have won three events, beating Sir Nick by 220 days. Three years ago he was amateur world number one, winning the US Amateur Championship at nineteen; making the cut at the 2013 Open Championship (T44), making the cut at the US Open Championship (T48). Strong stuff for a teenager.
In 2014 he cruised through Tour School and in less than two years represented Europe in the 2016 Ryder Cup. Remember the World Number One Amateur statement, it carries a lot of substance.
Charley Hull’s rise was even more meteoric, she was playing in the Solheim Cup at age seventeen and is currently is the youngest ever player to represent their country at that event. Preceding this it was blatantly apparent that she was made of a completely different substance when she went training with the Under 18 Boys’ County Squad at age 13. This was not the girl amongst men scenario which you might have expected. Far from it, she just destroyed them, out hitting them and out putting them with ease. She showed the boys what talent really looked like that day. Nobody from Northamptonshire is surprised that the fearless young girl seven years ago, who has just turned twenty, is probably the most exciting Western Player on the planet.
As for the Second Tier players, they on occasion have to go back to Tour School. Amongst these guys you see some familiar names and wonder how they have sunk to that level. There is even a former astronaut present in Edoardo Molinari, Ryder Cup pick from the 2010 ‘Montgomerie’ side. This is really a sign that if you lose your way, take your eye off what made you successful things will fall away. He won his card back so you’ll be seeing him back on the TV next year, performances willing.
The guys to look out for in this year’s thirty person graduating class are the youngsters. The guys who have the rarest of attributes; youth, pedigree and class. Nathan Kimsey and Anton Karlsson stand out from the pack here. They are twenty two and twenty three respectively and have just finished first and tied fifth. Kimsey shot a ten under 61 in the fourth round to catapult away from the cut mark to leading. Very noteworthy indeed. But remember he wasn’t World Number One and he is a year older than Fitzpatrick already (if you see what I mean). Astronaut status pending.
So now to the third tier players, the Olympic Trampolinists; they just paid over €200 euros for an event which has a guaranteed prize fund of 10,000 with First Prize taking home €2,000. Some players with real potential, others with none but believing that an astronaut’s life is possible. Looking at the scores at Palmares, out of the hundred rounds played over the two days, there were only five rounds sub seventy.
A smattering of international level players, who picked up a cheque, were present but that was it. These guys still hoping that some success at the amateur level is enough to get them onto the space programme. I guess without belief you have nothing.
But to the public looking in, the old saying of “the cream always rises to the top” still to this day stands true.