Ahead of the Turkish Airlines Challenge, we are looking at some of the talented hopefuls who are aiming to get their 2017 campaigns off to a great start at Gloria Golf Club in two weeks’ time – beginning with a strong Scottish prospect.
Only two years ago, Bradley Neil was preparing for the Masters Tournament as reigning Amateur Champion but, as the world’s best golfers assemble at Augusta National for the first Major of the season, Georgia is a long way from the young Scot’s mind.
In 2015, Neil was one of the hottest emerging talents in the game, turning professional after again rubbing shoulders with the greats of the sport at the U.S. Open by joining paid ranks the following week at his home event, the SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge hosted by Macdonald Hotels & Resorts.
A chastening 18 months has followed, with the hype and undoubted potential giving way to inconsistency and struggles – 17 events on the European Challenge Tour in 2015 and 2016 only saw him make four cuts, while on his seven European Tour outings he never survived to the weekend.
Still only 21 years old, Neil is starting to rebuild his confidence, having successfully navigated the gruelling marathon of Qualifying School last year – winning his First Stage event and ultimately making the cut at Final Stage to secure full status on this season’s Road to Oman.
After a career-best result at the Australian PGA Championship before Christmas, Neil ground out a top 30 in the Challenge Tour’s season-opening Barclays Kenya Open and, with a full pre-season behind him, he is hopeful of kicking on in 2017.
“I’ve spent quite a lot of time at home,” he said. “I went away more at the start of 2016 but this time I played Australia in December on the European Tour, then I played the Dimension Data Pro-Am on the Sunshine Tour in February but that’s the only two weeks since Q-School that I’ve been away until Kenya.
“I’ve just spent a lot of time at home with my coach. The season is a long season, you’re away from home for such long periods of time that I really enjoyed being at home and just having the chance to truly work on my game again, like how it used to be in the amateur days.
“Once the season finished after the Eisenhower Trophy or the Home Internationals you had about six months of working on things on your own, getting in the gym, just really grinding at things.
“That’s something I’ve not really had in a while so I thought it would be good for myself, with such a long season ahead, just to spend a lot of time at home with the family and just working hard on the range with my coach, and hopefully I’ll see the benefit this season.”
The start of a new season is inevitably accompanied by fresh hopes, with the Road to Oman defining itself by the top 15 who earn European Tour cards at the end of the year.
Discussing his own goals for the season, Neil is honest enough to admit that European Tour graduation is the target, but realistic enough to acknowledge the level of competition he faces as the Challenge Tour enters the new year on the back of one of its hardest-fought seasons in memory.
“I think everybody comes out here and obviously the top 15 is the main prize,” he said. “Considering how the first year and a half of my professional career went, I feel very fortunate to be in the position that I am in.
“I’ve always seemed to do pretty well at Q-School and fortunately my game came good there last November and this is the position I’m now in – anybody who’s out here and has a full card is capable of getting in the top 15, but the strength in depth this year is incredible.
“Realistically if I was to finish in the top 45 and play Grand Final I’d be delighted with that, and get straight into Final Stage as a result, so give myself two really good opportunities to get a European Tour card, so that’s my aim for the year, to finish in the top 45.
“The strength in depth on this tour is just ridiculously good this year and the top 15 is always so hard to predict – last season I think it was Bernd Ritthammer who was the first guy to win twice and that took about 21 events or so, whereas the year before I think Rhys Davies won twice really early, so it’s incredibly strong right now.
“That just shows how hard it is to win, but also how good it is for the development of the game for guys coming through and trying to get onto the European Tour – it really prepares you really well for the bigger stages I think.”
Scottish golf has a number of hopefuls on the Challenge Tour this year, with Neil part of the younger guard, along with Ross Kellett and David Law, supplemented by the experience of Chris Doak and Craig Lee.
Last year, Duncan Stewart showed how it is done, winning the Challenge de Madrid, the third event of the season, and never dropping outside the top 16 as he earned a European Tour card at the end of the year – an approach that is inspiring Neil and his compatriots for the year ahead.
“Duncan put it well when I asked him what he did really well,” he said. “He told me that winning helps and that the confidence grew, but that after that, every time he was playing well, the good weeks had to be really good weeks – he had to take advantage, try to get top fives really.
“If there was a week he wasn’t playing so well, if the course didn’t suit him, he still had to grind it out and work hard for a top ten or top 20 and make sure he was still earning a couple of thousand to keep chipping away on the Rankings.
“Those are the sort of things I’ve been told so now I’m just hoping I can put some of that into practice for the coming season.”
