When news of the change in amateur status rules was announced midweek, there were two people in golf in the United Kingdom I knew I ought to contact because I was sure they would have something to say. One was Peter McEvoy, 68, a former world No 1 amateur and leading amateur at the 1978 Masters, who competed in the Walker Cup for Great Britain & Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s, and then captained two sides that defeated their American counterparts. The other was Rhys Davies, 36, a former Walker Cup player who turned professional, climbed to 44th in the world ranking, won five tournaments and was once introduced on the first tee of a tournament as the “best putter in the world.” With an impeccable sense of timing, Davies last week announced his retirement from the professional game to work for a leading management company where his role will be recruiting and nurturing young European golfers.
McEvoy is known for being a thoughtful player, administrator, observer of the game who has long believed that the amateur status situation was not satisfactory. Currently, and broadly speaking, amateurs are barred from receiving any significant amounts of financial support, i.e., money or sponsorship. Theirs is a status not far removed from the age-old dictionary definition of an amateur: “a person who engages in a pursuit, especially a sport, on an unpaid rather than a professional basis.” Using the word amateur adjectivally as in amateur golf it means “engaging or engaged in without payment.” The authorities cleaved to the definition of an amateur as best they could, even though as time went by they must have realised it was becoming less and less relevant, rather like a non-waterproof garment in a torrential downpour.
“The problem was that the standard at the top of amateur golf required players to be full-time and yet the rules prevented them from getting any money. If you can think of a better definition of unsustainability then you are a better man than I am.”
Peter MCEvoy
Golfers who strove to become professionals had to more or less fund themselves or go to the Bank of Mum and Dad or via some other means like stacking shelves in a supermarket during the winter months in order to get as far as they could in the amateur game. Nothing wrong with self-financing. Most of us have had to do it. But too many very good amateurs were leaving school as soon as possible, turning professional and attempting to win money on one professional circuit or another – and failing to do so.
“The problem was that the standard at the top of amateur golf required players to be full-time and yet the rules prevented them from getting any money,” McEvoy said. “If you can think of a better definition of unsustainability then you are a better man than I am. It was forcing people at 18 or 19 into the professional game.”
This practice, undoubtedly well meant, saw the rise of ingenious schemes to circumvent the money rule. One of the most common was the paying of a relative of the player, making him or her a consultant and thus securing that player’s services when they turned professional. That may have been legal but it was not a good look for golf, a game that is trying to become more popular and more inclusive.
Now, after widespread consultation, it has been decided with effect from 1 January 2022 to eliminate all advertising, expense-related and sponsorship restrictions on amateurs. “This is particularly important for the modern elite amateur golf, where many of the players need financial support to compete and develop to their full potential,” Grant Moir, director of rules at the R&A said. “The new rules give them the opportunity and will help to make the game even more inclusive.”
“Of course, I would have liked this to have happened 20 years ago,” McEvoy said. “But you know, big tankers move more slowly. I am glad it has got there now. If you wanted to see how good you are and there was no money the only way was to make the jump and turn pro. Now if you are not successful at least you are not lost to the amateur game.
Davies, who lives in south Wales, won a golf scholarship to East Tennessee State University and thus has the benefit of an opinion influenced by amateur golf in both the US and Europe. “Golf is very expensive to play in America and the parents of elite juniors and elite amateurs are responsible for quite large amounts of money to get their child travelling across the country to play in these various tournaments,” he said.
“It is important everybody has the opportunity to do so irrelevant of their financial circumstances. There is not many if any industries where you compete and put that much time and effort into something with effectively no reward or no gain. It is possible people would turn away from the sport as opposed to encouraging them to play it. I think this encourages more to participate.
“Teenage boys and girls can improve very quickly in golf specially if they spend their summers at golf clubs and practice facilities,” Davies continued. “But not all of them can go on to have successful and financially rewarding professional careers so if they slip through the net in that transition period they could almost be lost forever and that is not what the game needs or wants because they are still excellent players who have huge value within the sport.”
From January next year, accepting prizes worth more than £700 or $1,000 in a handicap competition will result in a loss of status. (This rule applies only to tee-to-hole competitions played on a golf course or simulator. It no longer applies to long-drive, putting and skills competitions that are not played as a tee-to-hole competition). So will playing as a professional, accepting payment for giving instruction (with certain exceptions) and accepting employment as a golf club professional or membership of an association of professional golfers.
Of the millions who play golf, the vast majority are amateurs – young and old, male and female, golfers who have neither the skill nor the desire to turn professional. For them little will change. Those who are affected are the tiny proportion of elite amateurs. “I think this change is good,” Davies said. “It has to be good. That transition (from amateur to pro) over history has always been a dramatic one. Now it is less so.”
For the game’s elite amateurs, then, this is a red-letter day. A game sometimes characterised as being hidebound by its rules, has made a change for the better.
Top: Peter McEvoy (right) has long believed the young players he has captained in amateur events need more of a helping hand.
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