In Focus / Tour School: Philip Reid on the demands facing the Irish players as they look to advance to the final qualifying rounds.
Usually, at a time of the year when the evening shadows lengthen, and those fighting for a card to play professional golf next year focus their minds and souls on having to battle through tour school, words are in short supply. For those destined to pay a visit, the school is uniformly known as "torture", a fate almost worse than death. It is something to be endured, not enjoyed. But, unless you're really good or really lucky, it is a part of life for anyone setting out as a professional.
Of course, in seeking to win one of the precious tour cards, luck too can come into the equation. Good luck, not bad. As one-time US Tour player Ed Furgol once remarked, "my luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery people would stop dying".
And, yet, for many fledgling or aspiring professionals, and some old hands, too, negotiating a way through the school is the only route available if they are to achieve their ambition of life as a touring professional and, if it comes down to a lucky bounce, so be it.
This week, eight Irish players are among almost 280 who have descended on two courses in Spain - Peralada and Torre Mirona - and one in France - St Cyprien - for the second phase (of three) in the PGA European Tour qualifying lottery. About 90 in total of those competing will progress to the final school, to be played over six rounds in the north of Spain from November 7th-12th, when they will join other, already exempt players in the final quest for a ticket to play with golf's big boys on tour.
The eight are something of a motley crew who have taken different roads to arrive at the same juncture in their careers. All, though, have the same goal. Starting on Thursday, they will endeavour to take the next step. In action at St Cyprien are Stephen Browne, Noel Fox, Richie Coughlan, Michael Hoey, Ciaran McMonagle and Damian Mooney; competing at Peralada will be David Higgins, while Chris Devlin is the lone Irish player at Torre Mirona.
Devlin and Coughlan are divils for punishment. Over the weekend, the pair ventured home to Europe after successfully negotiating the first stage of the US Tour qualifying school. Coughlan, from Birr, came through at Dayton Valley in Nevada, while Devlin, a native of Ballymena, overcame a horrible first round 74 to add on rounds of 70-65-66 over the following days to finish in tied-seventh at Stonebridge Ranch in McKinney, Texas.
Another Irishman, Sean Quinlivan, from Kerry, also successfully completed the first stage in the US, but he has chosen not to seek his card in Europe.
The egalitarian nature of what tour school is all about can be gauged from those Irish players who have opted for this form of self-torture:
Noel Fox has been an amateur - a member of the winning Walker Cup and Home Internationals teams this year - who knows that he owes it to himself to give it a shot to get on the professional circuit.
David Higgins is a player who has lived the life on the road, endured more bad times than good, but who has rediscovered his appetite and wants a second chance.
Michael Hoey turned professional as the British Amateur champion, found that professional life wasn't instantly going to be a bed of roses, but has stubbornly worked on his game to get to a point where he now appears able to fulfil his undoubted talent.
Damian Mooney is a teaching professional at the Laganview Golf Centre outside Belfast whose performances in the Irish Region circuit and occasional forays onto the tour have provided sufficient indications that he can survive on tour.
Richie Coughlan has twice possessed US Tour cards but, on the one occasion he also had a European Tour card, he opted to spend the season playing in America where he lives (in Troy, upstate New York).
Chris Devlin is something of a surprise packet in that he was the trendsetter who took up a golfing scholarship at the University of Alabama - before Graeme McDowell - but who then had to overcome a wrist injury that required surgery before finally getting to follow McDowell into the professional game.
Ciaran McMonagle, a former Irish amateur champion, the first from Dunfanaghy in Co Donegal, has shown his determination to succeed by playing in South Africa, the Far East and the mini-tours in the US in his effort to make it as a professional. He failed to come through European Tour school in either of the past two years, though.
Stephen Browne is a former European amateur champion, who came within a shot of securing his full tour card at last year's school. His time on the Challenge Tour this season was hindered with injuries, but he has improved his category for next year from "eight" to "six".
The four rounds they play this week, starting on Thursday, will go a long way towards determining where and how often they will be playing next season.
Here, we look at how three players who have had vastly different preparations for the examination ahead have approached Tour School II.
The Amateur Noel Fox
For any golfer, confidence is a hugely important 15th club in the bag; and, for Fox, the 2003 season has provided the perfect fillip for finally making the move towards life as a professional.
One success followed another this year as spring stretched into summer and then autumn. For starters, he won the Irish amateur strokeplay. Not bad as an appetiser, but things were to get tastier as the year progressed. He was on the Britain and Ireland team that won the Walker Cup at Ganton, then followed up by assisting Portmarnock to the Irish Senior Cup and, for good measure, assisted Ireland to victory in the Home Internationals - for the first time in a decade - at Ballybunion. Can golfing life get better? Fox sure hopes so.
If it has seemed that Fox has taken his time in making the move to the professional game - and, under the rules, he can still play as an amateur next year if he doesn't get his tour card - then his patience has been justified. "Things are going pretty good," he conceded, before flying out to the south of France where he will compete at St Cyprien in stage two of the PGA European Tour qualifying. "I've had a great year's golf, but there is a little more to come. I'm getting closer to D-Day.
"I've just got it into my head that, once I can walk off the 18th green believing that I have played well, that will be good enough for me to move on. If I don't feel that, then I will have performed below my level.
"But going through qualifying school is very much a step by step thing, and the format is one that has worked out well . . . I know that this course can be very windy, so I'm going out to play with a picture of Baltray in my head.
"After playing so much golf towards the end of the (amateur) season, I had to give my body a break after the first stage of tour school and I took about 10 days off. Now, I feel I am competitive again.
"I know I am capable of shooting low rounds, but I am not going out there with that intention. If it happens, it will be a bonus. But the main thing is not to shoot yourself in the foot by having high numbers on a hole."
The Tour Pro Stephen Browne
On last Friday morning, finalising his preparations before heading to France for the second stage of the qualifying school, Stephen Browne took in a round over the Montgomerie course at Carton House where, among a group of fellow-professionals, was included John McHenry. If Browne wanted an insight into the trials and tribulations of tour school, then the Corkman's brain is as good as any to pick.
Browne, though, believes he has matured. "It's been a year when I have had a huge amount of learning," he insists, "and I am raring to go (to the school). This is what you have to do to win your tour card and, to be honest, on the full tour is where we all want to be."
At least Browne has some back-up should things go haywire. Despite suffering a couple of injuries this season, he has improved his Challenge Tour ranking fromeight to six.
The injuries he sustained were not conducive to his golf. Firstly, he got a neck strain - he was asleep on a plane when it landed in Heathrow, jarring his neck - and, then, he suffered a knee injury, the result of too much training, gym work and running.
Now, however, the Dubliner is ready for the next examination in his bid to win a tour card. I've always been something of a late bloomer. Even as an amateur, I would struggle early on in the season and then get better as it went on . . . so I am looking forward to this week. I believe St Cyprien suits the Irish game. It is usually windy and, having qualified out of there last year, I also know and feel comfortable with the course."
A year ago, he had Brian O'Connor, a boys international from the Hermitage, on his bag, and he has decided to keep with the partnership for the four rounds this time round.
Although Browne didn't finish high enough in the Challenge Tour Order of Merit to claim one of the full tour cards (there were 15 available), he believes that Gary Murphy's performances on the full tour this season proves that a card from tour school is one worth pursuing.
The Club Pro Damian Mooney
Unlike the country's top amateurs, who seem to play golf incessantly, morning to night all week, things are different for those Irish Region PGA professionals whose pro-am circuit provides the mainstay of competitive golf. Yet, as Damien McGrane has shown, those who come from a club or driving range background are well able it mix it with the best once given the opportunity.
Certainly, Mooney - one of the biggest hitters around - would feel that his game is suited to life on tour. But he knows that it will take four rounds of good golf to keep the dream alive.
"There's no doubt the standard has improved . . . everyone at school can play. I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself, but I feel if I play steady and within myself I should make it through."
The lack of competition is an obvious drawback from Mooney's point of view, but he is philosophical about it all. In fact, he has enjoyed a fruitful season on the Shamrock Tour with seven wins - just losing out to David Higgins for top spot in the Order of Merit - and simply aims to bring that form to France with him.
Mooney could justifiably feel that he is owed something from the school. Last year, having secured a Challenge Tour card, he had the misfortune to slip on the floor at home. "I was wearing socks, no shoes," he explains. Mooney is a big man, and the fall had to have some impact. It did. He broke his hand. "Ah sure," he says, "life goes on. It was a setback, but that was last year and it doesn't bother me now."
Having missed so much of the season due to injury, Mooney didn't attempt to return to tour school last year, but this year his form has been such that he knows he has to give himself another chance. It doesn't come cheap.
Just competing in the first two stages alone will set him back €5,600, as he has brought his own caddy.
"The way you look on it is that it is an investment if all goes well. But also you really have to give yourself the chance to win your card. Sure, you'd kick yourself to death if you didn't."
