It's child's play no longer

For many amateurs, pro ranks a tough road

By Michael Whitmer, Globe Staff  |  April 30, 2009

Danny Lee is thrilled to be part of one club, and trying desperately to avoid joining a second club.

Lee, an 18-year-old who was born in South Korea and moved with his family to New Zealand when he was 8, made history last August when he became the youngest man to win the US Amateur. With it came certain spoils: spots in the following year's Masters, US Open, British Open, and a handful of other PGA Tour events, such as the Memorial, which typically invites the reigning Amateur winner. Possession of the famed Havemeyer Trophy, named after the US Golf Association's first president and given to the winner of the USGA's oldest championship. And the knowledge he survived a grueling eight-round slugfest to win one of golf's most demanding tournaments.

But Lee might find that it comes with something else, at least recently. Winning the US Amateur provides no guarantee that a long, lucrative career in professional golf is on the horizon.

The Amateur, which includes a who's who among its winners - Francis Ouimet, Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lanny Wadkins, Craig Stadler, Mark O'Meara, Hal Sutton, Phil Mickelson, and Tiger Woods - lately has inspired another response: Who's that?

Colt Knost. Richie Ramsay. Edoardo Molinari. Bubba Dickerson. Any of those names ring a bell? They've all won US Amateurs since 2001, with Knost, Ramsay, and Molinari the three winners before Lee.

Now that Lee has turned professional - he made his debut last week at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where he had rounds of 76-75 and missed the cut by eight strokes - all of the recent Amateur champions are playing for pay. With today's golf purses, it's easy to see why. Their results, though, are sketchy at best, disappointing for many, embarrassing for a few.

If we lump all the Amateur winners since 1994, they've combined to win 68 times on the PGA Tour and earn more than $105 million. OK, 66 of those wins and $83 million belong to Woods. Taking him out of the equation, we're left with 12 Amateur champions, beginning with Matt Kuchar, who won in 1997. Those 12 have only two PGA Tour wins, and none since 2002; less than half - five - currently play on the PGA Tour.

"Being an amateur and playing with professionals, then being a professional and playing with professionals, it's going to be different," said Lee, who also missed the cut at the Masters and, because of his decision to turn pro, has forfeited his guaranteed spots in this year's US Open and British Open.

Long gone are the days when the country's best amateurs were known by the majority of golf followers. Now you'll need a deep memory bank to remember scores of names, and good reading glasses to scan the small results print in the back of golf magazines from select amateur events.

Not many had heard of Lee when he arrived in Pinehurst last year. He had won the Western Amateur a few weeks before, and finished 20th in the PGA Tour event in Greensboro, N.C., his first tour appearance.

Nobody can dispute his talent; unlike a one-game scenario, where an inferior team might get hot and spring the upset, winning the Amateur takes skill and perseverance, since it involves two qualifying rounds to get into match play, five matches scheduled for 18 holes, then the 36-hole final. It takes a lot of game to succeed at that level.

Why, then, has that success not transferred over to the professional ranks?

Lots of reasons. Depth of the PGA Tour. Self-imposed pressure, compounded by the pressure others apply after winning such a prestigious event. High expectations and being under the microscope can be a recipe for failure, no matter the sport or scenario.

Nick Flanagan, the 2003 US Amateur champion from Australia, said this last year, the only season he's spent on the PGA Tour: "I don't think it's got anything to do with feeling intimidated out on this tour. I've had years where I've struggled. My first full season as a professional I struggled a lot, and I had no tour to play on for a year and a half. I know where I've come from."

Kuchar, in a 2002 Golf Digest interview, pointed to the difficult transition from amateur to professional golf.

"My game was struggling, but I was also struggling with travel. Every week you're living out of a suitcase," Kuchar said. "You don't go home. At Georgia Tech, I couldn't wait to go travel somewhere. You were with the team, five best friends. Travel was a blast. Here, you're paying everything out of your own pocket."

Kuchar is one of the exceptions. Since joining the tour in 2002, he's made at least 21 PGA Tour starts in six out of seven years, captured the 2002 Honda Classic, and has earned more than $5.7 million. Paying out of his own pocket isn't a problem, at least not anymore.

Lee is still looking for his first paycheck. He'll get his next chance in three weeks, at the HP Byron Nelson Championship.

Plenty of exciting senior moments

Flipping over from Game 4 of the Celtics-Bulls series at 3 p.m. Sunday for the start of the final round from New Orleans, I forced myself to actually watch some of the Champions Tour, since the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf coverage was being extended because of a playoff.

The ensuing 40 minutes was . . . entertaining, which is what the over-50 tour should be hanging its hat on. The playoff offered four recognizable names: the teams of Tom Lehman and Bernhard Langer, and Craig Stadler and Jeff Sluman. It also offered a little drama and some priceless reaction.

Faced with a long birdie putt on the first playoff hole, Langer calmly rolled it in, sending the excitable Lehman rushing toward him. Both men jumped in the air, looking like they were headed for a chest bump, but pulled back at the last instant, awkwardly attempting a double high-five that didn't totally connect. Golf has seen its share of clumsy celebrations - Tiger Woods and Steve Williams struggling to land a high-five after Woods chipped in on the 16th hole at the 2005 Masters comes to mind - but Langer-Lehman had it all: elevation, last-second confusion, poor execution.

Putting immediately after Langer and from almost the identical spot, Stadler stepped up and improbably rolled his lengthy birdie putt in, sending the playoff to a second hole. Credit Sluman, though. The tale-of-the-tape lists Sluman at 140 pounds, Stadler a generous 250. Sluman, showing the experience of a savvy veteran, decided against the chest bump, and went with a fist-bump instead.

Lehman and Langer had the last laugh, winning the tournament with a par on the second playoff hole. Appropriate that Lehman made the winning putt, since it let him join 12 others who won in their Champions Tour debut. Mark Wiebe had been the most recent, in 2007.

Daly set for Eurotrash tour?

When last we saw John Daly, he was outside his RV, smoking cigarettes, hawking merchandise, and signing autographs across the street from Augusta National during Masters week. Big John wasn't in the Masters field, but was noticeably slimmer: 40 pounds, he said, due to a surgical procedure that placed a silicone band around his stomach. The scene reminded me of Pete Rose setting up shop a block from the Baseball Hall of Fame during induction weekend. Inappropriate might be an appropriate word. Or sad.

Daly is back on the course this week. Not the PGA Tour, where he's still serving a six-month suspension for prior transgressions, including spending a night in a North Carolina jail in October after he was found outside a Hooters. Some thought he was drunk; Daly says he sometimes sleeps with his eyes open. Um, OK.

He'll start a four-tournament European Tour run today at the Spanish Open. Then, if all goes well (never a guarantee) comes the Italian Open, Scottish Open, and the BMW PGA Championship in Surrey, England.

You can catch the Spanish Open on The Golf Channel, but you can also keep up with Daly on Twitter. Turning 43 Tuesday, he sent this to the 1,072 followers on his account (www.twitter.com/PGA_JohnDaly): "Birthday today & lots of Practice - great to have another year to be celebrating."

Golf could use a healthy Daly; it's hard to think of a better story if he were to make a comeback and come anywhere close to the form that produced two major championships. Unfortunately, most of the news the past few years with Daly has been negative. Perhaps the next month can be a new beginning. Here's hoping.

Etc.

The announcement this week that the HSBC Champions in China will become the fourth World Golf Championships tournament will only resonate here if enough of golf's top stars decide to play. The $7 million purse, in line with the three other events that make up the elite, limited-field global series, should help, with Woods and defending champion Sergio Garcia already committed to playing. But the location and the late date (Nov. 5-8) might scare some people off, despite the money. It's encouraging - PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem called it significant and logical - that they're taking such an event to an emerging golf country; one of the complaints about the series is that too many of the WGC tournaments have been held in the United States (25 of 31 since the series debuted in 1999).

It's been a whirlwind few weeks for Kenny Perry. The 48-year-old coughed up a golden opportunity to win his first major at the Masters with three late bogeys - on the final two holes of regulation, while trying to protect a two-shot lead, then on the second playoff hole, which gave Angel Cabrera the victory. Gracious in defeat, Perry retreated home to Franklin, Ky., where he was surprised to receive, in the week after the tournament, more than 600 supportive e-mails, 100 letters, and phone calls from Phil Mickelson, Scott Hoch, Greg Norman, and former president George H.W. Bush. This should tell you something about Perry: he probably wasn't ready to get back out on tour, but felt an obligation to play in New Orleans, which is still rebuilding, four years after Hurricane Katrina. Perry played, made the cut, but faded with a final-round 78. He's back in his native Kentucky, and will be joined by his 85-year-old father, Ken, today at the Kentucky Derby Parade, where they will serve as grand marshals.

Lorena Ochoa holding off Suzann Pettersen and defending her title at the Corona Championship in her native Mexico made for great TV over the weekend. Well, it would have made for great TV if the LPGA Tour event had been televised in the United States. It's become a recurring problem for the tour this year, with three of its seven events nowhere to be found on US television. Because of a condensed schedule and off weeks, there's been one four-week gap and two three-week gaps between televised LPGA Tour events, making the ability to generate fan interest or build any momentum virtually impossible. A new 10-year agreement with the Golf Channel starts in 2010 and will give the LPGA Tour an exclusive, expanded home, but until then, if you're a fan of women's golf, any big news coming from the course might be heard, but seldom seen.

Plenty of young stars - Camilo Villegas and Anthony Kim, in particular - received their share of attention before the season started, implying that the PGA Tour could be dominated by youth, a popular story line almost every year. Well, 18 tournaments have been played, and there are twice as many winners over the age of 40 than there are winners under 30. Leading the over-40 charge: Perry (48, FBR Open), Jerry Kelly (42, Zurich Classic of New Orleans), Michael Bradley (42, Puerto Rico Open), and Retief Goosen (40, Transitions Championship). Neither Kim nor Villegas has won this year; the under-30 winners are Nick Watney (28, Buick Invitational) and Dustin Johnson (24, AT&T Pebble Beach).

The Nationwide Tour yesterday postponed the Mexico Open (May 21-24) because of the swine flu outbreak.

The tournament, which will be rescheduled, will be played at El Bosque Golf Club in Leon, located about 200 miles northwest of Mexico City.

"A significant number of lives have been lost in Mexico, which is tragic," Nationwide Tour president Bill Calfee told the Associated Press. "There are more important things for people to focus on at the moment."

In addition, the Canadian Tour has postponed the San Luis Potosi Open, which was scheduled to begin today in Mexico because of the outbreak.

Birdie: Kelly. He coughed up a three-stroke lead in the final round, but made two clutch birdies on the back nine and chased down Charles Howell for his third PGA Tour win, and first since 2002.

Bogey: Howell. What's up with Chuck? For the second time this year he's turned what should have been a win into a bitter defeat. Two strokes up while playing the 12th hole, Howell didn't do much right coming in, making bogeys on 15 and 17 and squandering a chance by making par on the relatively tame par-5 18th. More proof that he's stuck with the can't-close tag, until he finally does.

Birdie: Henrik Stenson. Playing in the Ballantine's Championship in South Korea last week, Stenson offered this: "Hopefully I can show off some good golf and win a few fans over here with my clothes on." Stenson, you may recall, stripped to his boxers to play a shot from a hazard at the CA Championship at Doral last month.

Bogey: Laura Diaz. She had six top-10 finishes a year ago, but is still looking for her first top-25 finish this year. Through six 2009 starts on the LPGA Tour, Diaz has two missed cuts, including at the Corona Championship last week, and a scoring average just under 74.