SO THERE he was, bouncing around from Cordoba to Buenos Aires, two tournaments into 2008 and no round below 70, one 34th place finish and one missed cut, €880.43 to show for a fortnight that cost him a whole lot more. Things not going so well for Richie Ramsay now. That old frustration there all the time. "I'm hitting it well but not scoring." The plaintive cry of the professional golfer the world over.
Still, early days, he told himself. It'll all change in Colombia. In Bogota it would be different. How right he was. It was different for sure – and a whole lot worse. For three days Ramsay played nice golf and scored reasonably. He was three rounds
into the tournament and on schedule for a half-decent finish when that queasy feeling he'd been having all week suddenly assaulted his body with a vengeance. Every time he stood up he felt like he was going to faint. He wasn't hallucinating, exactly, but he wasn't all there either. He announced he was withdrawing, made his way to the medical centre and lay down.
"I'm in this ambulance, hooked up to a drip. I haven't eaten in two days and I have a day and a half to wait until my return flight which goes Bogota-Miami-London-Aberdeen. That's not a trek you look forward to when you're healthy not to mind when you're ill. I don't know what happened to me, food poisoning maybe. But it wasn't nice. That was a tough old trip home. I'll not forget that in a hurry."
For his three days' work in Bogota, Ramsay got a cheque for ?343.18. That's a shade over ?1,200 for three tournaments. Not how he planned it. Not what was supposed to happen in his first full season as a professional golfer. Then he went to France, to Brittany, in April. Going sweetly again. Striking it well, scoring heartily, in contention for the first time. He's in second place on the back nine on Sunday and feeling good about his game. Then the little demons get to work in his head.
"You get to thinking about the money. You start putting a value on each shot. If I miss this, how much will it cost me? If I don't get up and down from here what kind of damage are we talking? It's a terrible thing to have in your head but for a lot of guys on the Challenge Tour it's the reality. I didn't play the last four holes well at all and I put it down to worrying about the money. I fell away into 12th then followed it up with a 53rd in Morocco. I wasn't panicking but you're aware that you're a business now and you've got X going out and less than X coming in."
Enter the Craig Group, the Aberdeen-based shipping and energy services company. A deal was done, some sponsorship was in the bag along with Taylor Made and Ramsay was free, free to think about nothing but golf. The very next tournament he finishes third in Poland, the week after he finishes 9th in England, the week after that he's 6th in Spain. His season is up and running.
His season has now got two tournaments to run and already he has secured considerable playing rights on the main tour for next season, achieved largely on the back of victories in Düsseldorf in August and in Toulouse this day last week. He's still buzzing from France, still warmed by the memory of the 5-iron into the 18th green on Sunday; 195 yards over water and sand, put a lovely little draw on it and left it 15ft from the hole. Two putts and the trophy was his.
Next time we see him he'll be in with all the big boys, where he's always wanted to be. Last time we saw him he was right there, in with the superstars of the world game. The Masters of 2007 and he's teeing off with Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott. The US Open and he's got Tiger Woods and Geoff Ogilvy. Four bombers and Richie. Four of golf's modern greats and the US amateur champ.
"I don't think I was overawed by them. I did stand there on the first tee wondering what can I say to these guys. Should I say anything? Should I just shut up? There was definitely a sense of 'that's Tiger Woods over there and this is the US Open and, it's not a dream, you are playing with him'. But I felt like I was pretty confident walking the fairways with them.
"Augusta was when I fully realised that I can play very well tee to green but to be a successful professional you got have a top short game. Mickelson was a great illustration of that. He hit two or three of the best shots I've ever seen in my life around the greens. Even trying to emulate them in practice you might pull off one in 50. But to nail them in the Masters was unreal.
"He hit this flop shot on the 7th. Can't have been more than 2ft off the back edge of the green. He was on a downslope, pitching on to a green that was almost as hard as this table. He's just flipped open this lob wedge and it's gone miles in the air and come to rest 4ft from the pin. I'm standing there and I feel like applauding along with everyone else. It was crazy. Playing with Phil and Tiger and Scott and Ogilvy, you realise how important the short game is, especially putting. That's what I took from those majors. I had to go away and get a lot better. Off the tee and with my irons I didn't feel out of place but around the greens was the big lesson for me."
On to the Challenge Tour he went. Was it a come-down from the glory of Augusta and Oakmont? "Not at all. It's still a big stage for me. Even though there's nobody there you still want to play well. Whether there's five, 500 or 25,000 watching doesn't matter. Playing for your living always makes it interesting. It's like somebody is dangling a golden ticket in front of you every week. I'll play here, there and everywhere to get to where I want to be. I'll play in far-flung places and that's fine because it's a means to an end."
He says he's grown up in the past year or so, has become a better player for all the sink-or-swim qualities of the Challenge Tour. "I think I've learned how to approach things a little better. I think I'll always get excitable on the golf course because that's where my fire comes from. I still talk to myself because that's how I gee myself up and it works for me. But there's a way golf should be played. I've definitely matured. I've spoken to pros about what I can do better and it's working."
Two wins, five other top 10s, sixth in the rankings and with all the game to go higher with two events to go. It's working right enough. Tomorrow he departs for Italy. Come the winter, he'll be in the kind of company he's always dreamed about. Do-or-die. The way he's going, you've got to like his chances.
The full article contains 1265 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
