Garrick Porteous, a former star of the amateur game and the current Amateur Champion, makes his full professional Challenge Tour debut this week at the Turkish Airlines Challenge and the Englishman is relishing the experience.
The 24 year old joined a prestigious list of Amateur Championship winners, which includes José María Olazábal, Sergio Garcia and Matteo Manassero, last year when he defeated Finn Toni Hakula in the final at Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club.
That victory earned him a place in three of the four Majors but after gaining the experience of The 2013 Open Championship and the 2014 Masters Tournament, the Newcastle native decided to forfeit the chance of playing this year's US Open Championship and turn professional.
Porteous travelled straight from Augusta to the Maybank Malaysian Open in April before making his latest European Tour appearance at the Madeira Islands Open – Portugal – BPI last week, but he plays his first Challenge Tour event as a professional this week at the stunning National Golf Club in Belek.
“I know a lot of the players on the Challenge Tour from amateur golf so it’s been good fun so far,” said the former Walker Cup player, who played two events on Europe’s second tier as an amateur. “It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster ride since turning professional.
“I played in Malaysia, Indonesia and then Madeira last week but it’s been a good experience so far. Obviously the golf is the same, but it’s the travel that I have to get used to. I went straight from Atlanta after the Masters to Kuala Lumpur so that was a bit of a trek but you have to get used to it.
“That’s the biggest change. With amateur golf it’s just Britain or Europe but now it’s all around the world so you have to make sure you schedule everything right and get enough rest.
“I'm just taking it all in, playing with all these different guys, and it’s just been fun. It makes it easier knowing so many people around this tour, because they’re all going through the same thing. We’re all trying to get on The European Tour.”
While Porteous has played in the Belek region of Turkey before, he has never played the tight and challenging lay-out presented for the Challenge Tour players this week at National Golf Club and he has been very impressed by the David Feherty and David Jones-designed course.
“It’s definitely a ball-striker’s course,” he said. “It’s a lot tighter than Madeira and a bit more receptive. The greens seem to be rolling good too and the accommodation is pretty spot on too so I'm looking forward to it.
“I think last week I was a bit rusty after a few weeks off but we move on for this week and I need to take things in my stride.”
While Porteous has enjoyed some of the biggest tournaments in the world in the last 12 months, he believes a full season on the Challenge Tour would be a perfect learning curve at the beginning of his professional career and he is hoping he can pick up some big results in order to force his way up the Rankings.
“It’s definitely a good step-ladder,” he said. “It’s a good building block for getting onto The European Tour. I think it would definitely benefit me to get a full season on here. The Challenge Tour has a really good schedule and it’s a good step up from amateur level towards The European Tour.”
