Golf’s new star turns his back on pro-game cash

August 29, 2006

RICHIE Ramsay, the young Scots golfer who made history by becoming the first British winner of the coveted US Amateur title in almost a century, will today turn his back on an instant sporting fortune by carrying on his career in the unpaid ranks.
His spectacular victory at Hazeltine National on Sunday to secure the Havemeyer Cup – a trophy whose previous winners include Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer – has assured him of star status.
It would also have guaranteed the unassuming Aberdonian a lucrative career in the professional game, with sponsors queueing up and the prospect of huge tour prizes. Instead, by remaining an amateur for the present, he is destined to partner reigning champion Phil Mickelson at next year’s US Masters at Augusta and Tiger Woods at the US Open, as well as qualifying automatically for the Open Championship at Carnoustie – three of golf’s four majors.
And he is now certain to wait until the end of next year before going to the European Tour school in an attempt secure a place among the sport’s professional elite.
Whatever the future holds for him in the professional ranks, Ramsay is already assured a place in golf history. He is the first Scot still living in his native country to clinch the US Amateur title.
The last Scot to lift the Havemeyer Cup was Findlay Douglas, originally from St Andrews, who won the title in 1898 after emigrating to America. And Ramsay is the first British winner of the prestigious event since Harold Hilton in 1911.
Yesterday, as he celebrated his achievement, the 23-year-old said: “I just can’t belive it. It has been a long, tough season. There have been lots of ups and downs. I just can’t believe I am here at the moment.”
Ramsay, a member of the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team, continued: “I think it will have a big impact on Scottish golf. I am just a guy from Aberdeen and I love playing golf. I work hard at it, and it shows what someone can do when they put their minds to something.”
Back home in Scotland, his parents, Iain and Sandra, joined fellow members of Ramsay’s home club at Royal Aberdeen for a champagne celebration.
His father, a lecturer at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, revealed that his son had been planning to qualify for the European Tour this year after he graduates from Stirling University.
But all these plans are now about to change radically. Mr Ramsay said: “He had arranged to go to the European Tour school in the autumn, but he has to be an amateur to play at Augusta and in the Open Championship and the US Open. Playing at the Masters is every golfer’s dream. It’s Boy’s Own stuff, isn’t it? And I think he will re-evaluate his options and work now towards the Walker Cup in 2007 in Northern Ireland.
“That would be wonderful, because I think he still harbours a desire to help wrest the Walker Cup back from the Americans on home soil. And who knows where he can go from here?”
Until his victory over John Kelly, an American, in the 36-hole final at Hazeltine, Ramsay’s inclusion in the last Walker Cup side had been the pinnacle of his golf career.
The game is a passion he has pursued since being a toddler. One of the pictures in the family photograph album is of him about the age of two with a plastic golf club in his hand.
It was his late grandfather, Roderick Robertson, a former headmaster at Hazlehead Primary School, who introduced him to the game proper.
Mr Ramsay said: “When Richie was about five or six his grandfather used to take him to Hazlehead to play the nine-hole course there and in his later years in primary school he joined the club as a junior. He used to play in the junior pennant team, and that’s where he got a taste for competition.
“By the time he was 14 or 15 he was playing rather well and beginning to win tournaments and he was advised he should really be in a bigger club that had a links course. Without playing on a links you don’t get anywhere in golf.”
Francis Clark, a leading Aberdeen fish merchant and former champion at Royal Aberdeen, helped Ramsay to secure membership at the club. Within two years he was playing off scratch and celebrated his 18th birthday in Japan playing for Scotland in the world boys competition.
His father recalled yesterday: “Richie is extremely competitive. When he was younger he used to play golf against his brother, Robin, who is four years older than him. He used to struggle to keep up with him and he would become frustrated.
“But by the time he was 14 Richie had passed his brother altogether. And I remember when he was just 17 he and some other promising junior were invited to play in a seniors’ competition at the club to give them some experience, and he went and won it in a thunderstorm.”
It was that determination to win against the odds that his father believes led to his sensational triumph in America.
Mr Ramsay said: “We got a text from him just before he set out on the final. All it said was: ‘Can’t wait’. We could tell from the determination written on his face on the photographs from Hazeltine, that he was going to win. Now we are absolutely elated.”
Also joining the celebrations at Royal Aberdeen was Ronnie MacAskill, the club’s director of golf. He said:
“He is a very unassuming and humble young man. He is not like a lot of these young guys who are good at golf who tend to be get very conceited. That didn’t happen to Richard.
“But he has always had quiet self-belief and came across as having the mental ability to get to the top of the game. He has proved that in no uncertain terms by winning one of the hardest trophies there is to win in golf.”
Money traps that amateur golfers must avoid at all costs
ALTHOUGH Tiger Woods and his fellow professionals can earn millions in prize money and endorsements, golf is one of the last bastions of amateurism in sport.
The national amateur events in Britain and the United States are two of the most prestigious tournaments in the game, despite the absence of prize money, and major professional events offer places to leading amateurs on the requirement that they refuse any winnings.
The criterion for a golfer to retain his or her amateur status is highly codified and strictly enforced. Perhaps only boxing continues to make such a strict distinction between amateurs and professionals.
The Royal & Ancient, golf’s governing body, says amateur golfers must not accept cash prizes at tournaments or any prize with a value of more than $500 (£265), although golfers can be reimbursed for the expense of travelling to tournaments. The proviso about prizes is very strict – an amateur who accepts a car in a hole-in-one contest, for example, can no longer play in non-professional events. While amateurs can accept free equipment from manufacturers, they are not allowed to carry logos on their equipment.
Amateurs also lose their status if they are paid to publish articles about golf, accept honorary memberships at golf clubs or gamble on the outcome of tournaments.
Once amateur status is forfeited, golfers can apply for reinstatement as an amateur after waiting one year; however, it can take years for an application to be approved.
Source: sport.scotsman.com

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