My regular Thursday Post column is up on the web. It can be found here.
For those who need enticing, here’s a taste:
It is a rare thing to see a golfer move briskly from the top of the amateur game to the heights of the professional circuit. It happens occasionally — with the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson who both skipped straight onto the PGA Tour — but more often than not a golfer’s progress in the pros is more reflective of the experience of Wes Heffernan, Derek Gillespie or Adam Speirs.
The three golfers were all standouts prior to entering the Canadian Tour. Calgary’s Heffernan, the runner-up in the 1999 Canadian Amateur, hit the tour in 2000 alongside Gillespie, from Oshawa, Ont., who took the Canadian rookie-of-the-year honours in 2001. Speirs, two-time Manitoba Amateur champ, turned pro a year later.
Great things were expected from all three. Despite that, all three find themselves still on the Canadian Tour this year, potential largely unfulfilled.
“I don’t think people realize how hard it is to play professional golf,” the quiet and observant Heffernan says. “All they see is Tiger Woods.”
Robert. In the past I have read a number of your articles & cringed at the journalistic lack of facts.
No more.
This article of the threesome on The Canadian Tour is by far the best…most accurate statement of reality that I have read on your blog.
Good show…keep it up.
Oh, Neo, with all that leather and now these kind words, you’re making me blush. Thanks, I’ll try not to make you cringe too often.