The Pulling Power of the Pro-am

 “It’s like me….” chipped in the butcher.  “At Lords playing cricket the other week…bowled Tendulkar, middle stump. Got him for a duck…”

Fantasy land, of course. It just doesn’t happen. No way could ordinary Joes be out there in the world’s finest arenas competing with the professional elite, or at least, not while the ‘professional elite’ are in their prime.

Or could it?  At this point a smug smile crosses the face of all those golfers who have played in a pro-am tournament and found themselves partnering Seve, Nick, Tiger, Vijay, all sporting mega-stars of such global fame that they’re instantly recognisable by their Christian name alone.

So, had that bank manager observed: “I was in Luke’s team at Valderrama. Chipped in at the 17th and we beat Retief’s team by one shot…” he probably wasn’t telling porkie pies at all. It can happen….

Golf’s Pro-am tournaments must surely be unique among outdoor sports in offering amateur club golfers, even those of high handicaps, the opportunity to play alongside the professionals while they’re going about their business of competing for prize money.

“Just an irrelevance,” the sceptics would say. “An indulgence. A mere PR exercise.”  But they would be wrong.

The reality is that the very foundations of professional golf are built on the pro-am tournament. When the amateurs pay to take part in it they are substantially helping to ensure that a prize fund is available for the pros.

Nobody thinks of the pro-am as being a significant part of the fabric of professional golf. Yet if one were able to gather the information about these events that take place around the world in dozens of different countries, seven days a week, the collective prize fund would be a staggering amount.

“The pro-am is the lifeblood of regional professional golf,” confirmed Ian Randell, chief executive of The PGAs of Europe, formerly of the Ladies European Tour and before that a PGA Tournament Director based at their Belfry HQ.

The pro-am, as he confirms, is an integral part of most tournaments when negotiating with sponsors. Almost all of the big tournaments on the main tours begin with a pro-am, to which the sponsor can invite customers, clients, colleagues and other guests while attracting a source of income.  No pro-am, no tournament, simple as that.

The situation is even more acute in regional pro golf. The lucky, or persuasive, regional secretary can maybe get up to four or so Order of Merit events, supported by a main sponsor, in which pros play without amateurs, (though there my be a pro-am before the main event.)

The remainder of the annual schedule comprises, you’ve guessed it, pro-ams, without which there would be no tournaments offering prize funds for the local pros to play in. This basic scenario has been the situation for many years but, in recent times, the pro-am has assumed an even greater significance.

In those regions of the world where golf is starting to take off, the new players are hugely motivated by finding themselves with the opportunity to actually play alongside the pros who have been giving them lessons.

 THIS PRINCIPLE BECOMES AN INVALUABLE TOOL FOR THE SPORT’S DEVELOPMENT.

Outstanding examples of it can be found in three international pro-ams endorsed by The PGAs of Europe: 

·    one sponsored over a nine-year period by Beko in Turkey initially in Istanbul and later in the south of the country
·    another for the past three years, sponsored by Aegean Airlines, on the Greek island of Crete and switching to Porto Carras on the mainland in 2009
·    And a third, the Kempinski on the PGA-branded Antalya course in Turkey..

These are ‘stand-alone’ events in the sense that they do not precede a ‘professionals only’ tournament but instead, over 36 or 54 holes, provide the chance for the amateurs to be part of the main event itself, and for more than one round, too.

In each case they are intended for years ahead to be a shop window for this comparatively new sport to their local community, to encourage youngsters to place ‘golf’ as one of their sporting interests alongside ‘football’ and other activities and to be an incomparable magnet for tourism.

The part that the pro-am plays in promoting golf more and more among its participants is immeasurable, and in a wholly enjoyable manner that encourages them to love the sport even more, were that possible.

Against this background the Power of the Pro-am takes on a whole new strength and amateurs can be assured that the vast majority of PGA professionals acknowledge the realities of the situation. They’re well aware of who is doing whom a favour as they stand on the first tee with three amateurs, all shaking at the thought of an ‘air ball’ opener.

Like all club golfers who have played in pro-ams I have my own favourite tale to tell …and how I wish it was ‘chipping into the 17th hole for a birdie four at Valderrama…’ Not so.

My ‘debut’ was in a PGA Midland Region event at Glen Gorse in Leicestershire, playing off about 23. As I walked onto this particular green behind the other three I noticed, and picked up, a misshapen, slightly rusty metal pitch marker.

Before slipping it into my pocket I showed it to ‘my pro’ and commented that one of the group ahead ‘must have dropped it’.  “You had better put it back where you found it, ” he replied, all straight faced. “Why,” asked I. “ ‘Cos it’s mine’, said he.”

“ It’s marking my ball.”

Looking back across the expanse of green that I had just walked across I had, in my acute embarrassment, only the vaguest notion of where the repairer/marker had been lying when I picked it up, and so couldn’t ‘put it back where I found it’.

I do seem to recall that Silence is Golden was a big hit at the time…

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