SOME golfers get one chance at making the grade in the big time. They work hard, wait patiently for an opportunity and, when it comes along, hope to get the odd break here and there. Like getting a sponsor's invite at a crucial stage of the season, for example.
Around 20 such spots were up for grabs in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and, after mulling them over – believe me, that was easy when you're covering an event played at a snail's pace – I just can't get my head round some of the decisions ma
de when it came to those being handed out.
I can see why the organisers thought it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a couple of Americans, Brad Faxon and Bryce Molder, in their fields at Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and St Andrews. Faxon, in particular, loves links golf and has always been a player worth watching on his visits to these shores.
Jean Van de Velde definitely has entertainment value, especially when he revisits the scene where he became famous for all the wrong reasons after jumping into the burn at Carnoustie ten years ago, while Andrew Coltart has Dunhill form, having been in the winning Scotland team with Colin Montgomerie and Sam Torrance in the event's old format.
As the leading Scot on the European Tour this season, it was surely right that one of the spots went to David Drysdale and his compatriot, Callum Macaulay, has shown enough promise as a rookie to have merited his place. I've got no real problem either with Daniel Chopra, the colourful Swede who won the Mercedes-Benz Championship on the PGA Tour two years ago, or even Danny Willett, one of the rising British stars on the European circuit.
I haven't got a clue what Graham Delaet, Scott Arnold, Branden Grace, Brett Quigley, Joakim Haeggman or Richard Bland were doing there, but there was certainly a Rory McIlroy factor in the decision to offer places to Wallace Booth, Gavin Dear, Keir McNicoll, Sam Hutsby, Dale Whitnell and Luke Goddard.
With the exception of McNicoll, they all played for Great Britain & Ireland in the recent Walker Cup and, in effect, were making their professional debuts in the event McIlroy finished third in two years ago as he, too, was given an early taste of life in the paid ranks.
Did Booth and Dear deserve to appear on such a stage when they've still to really prove themselves? Having helped Scotland win the Eisenhower Trophy for the first time last year and establishing themselves as two bright prospects, I reckon they probably did.
McNicoll, though, was a lucky man. Yes, he had won the St Andrews Links Trophy at St Andrews, comes from Carnoustie and had caddied in the event in the past. But, purely based on form this season, surely Paul O'Hara, another new recruit to the paid ranks, had a stronger case to earn one of those coveted spots.
An even stronger candidate, however, was Chris Doak, who will probably feel so sore at missing out last week that he would thump anyone who dares mention the words "Dunhill Links" within earshot.
In the end, he finished up one short of getting in through his ranking and, in effect, might well have seen his chances of retaining his Tour card for another year disappear in the process.
Doak, a naturally-gifted player, secured the chance he had cherished for so long by coming through the Tour School last season, producing one of the rounds of the year as he shot a 62 in the fourth round of the marathon test in Girona, Spain.
At the start of the year, the Greenock man must have been happy as Larry as he looked forward to all the events he would get to play in but, sadly, the reality is that opportunities can often be few and far between for players who come through that process.
Since his first event as a Tour card holder, the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in South Africa last December, Doak has only secured 20 more starts. What's more, he has teed it up only four times since the Barclays Scottish Open, most recently in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles more than a month ago. Lying 166th on the Race to Dubai Order of Merit, Doak now has little or no chance to retain his card. Indeed, he will be lucky if he gets to play in another event before the end of the season.
The Dunhill Links would have been his 'Last-Chance Saloon'. Sadly, he did not even get through the door and, in some respects, players like him must feel as though they are being short-changed at times by the Tour.
Last year, Craig Lee, another decent player to be spawned by the Tartan Tour, was in exactly the same position as Doak and lost his card. This season he was not even eligible for the Challenge Tour and that, I'm afraid, is neither right nor fair.
These players should be encouraged, not discouraged. Doak's dream is dying and, frustratingly for him, he is not getting the chance at the moment to do anything about that.
De Los Santos provides inspirationHE MAY have missed out on a place in the final round at St Andrews but Manuel De Los Santos certainly made an ever-lasting impression on those of us who witnessed his appearance in the Dunhill Links Championship. The 25-year-old, who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident when he was 18, taught himself to play golf after watching a Hollywood movie and, helped by hitting 2,000 balls a day at the start, he now plays off three.
His display last week was truly remarkable and, playing with Englishman Richard Bland, De los Santos came within one shot of earning another round on the Old Course yesterday.
"Playing in a professional tournament is very different and, at first, it was a little nerve-wracking," he admitted before heading home to France. "But I soon began to enjoy the atmosphere and wanted to play well.
"I am overwhelmed with the support I have received from both the spectators and the professionals during the week. For someone like Lee Westwood to say I'm an inspiration to him is just unbelievable."
De los Santos should be an inspiration to us all. I, for one, will certainly remember that the next time I'm out on the golf course and start feeling grumpy with myself simply because I can't hit a straight shot or hole a three-foot putt.
