Tom Green: What it takes to make it
Nick Cunningham during the Clutch Pro Tour Major at Stoneham Golf Club on July 16, 2020 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
I have always been fascinated by the idea of, ‘the best player in the club’. The concept that in a small ecosystem of a local members golf club there is one person whose skills surpass their contemporaries so vastly that they are crowned, ‘the best’. The golfer who you would hate to find yourself up against on club champs day. The man or woman who carries themselves slightly taller than the rest as they wade through the mediocre hackers in the clubhouse after another faultless 18 holes.
But the question which always comes back to me is this - how good are they really? Does shooting an 8 under once mean you have got what it takes to make it on the PGA Tour? We all know the answer is ‘no’. But the question still lingers, how far off are they? Given the right opportunities, the right coaching, the right moments over the vast sands of time, if things had been slightly different, could this individual be transported from the lowly heights of ‘best player in the club’ to the vastly superior, ‘best player on tour’.
There is no denying that at some point in the late 80s Tiger Woods was just another, ‘best player in the club’, grinding his way around that Navy golf course near Los Alamitos in California. Nobody knew what fate lay ahead for him.
I want to find out what it takes to make it. What separates those who believe they can make a career in this sport from those who retire from the professional game early, with ambitions never met and scores left unsettled.
Essentially, I want to know what the difference is between a major winner and just another ‘best player in the club’.
Nick Cunningham is a current card holder on PGA Canada. Credit: Gravity.
Luckily, I am friendly with a man who is taking on this grand challenge. Nick Cunningham. A previous winner on the, unfortunately now defunct through funding problems, EuroPro tour and current card holder on PGA Canada, a feeder tour to Korn Ferry over in America. A man who has undoubtedly held the crown of best in class at his local members patch, but does he have what it takes to play in the big leagues.
“I put together a presentation for the guys at Gravity, we sat down on a call after EuroPro ended and I made my case for giving PGA Canada a go.”
I have played with Nick various times in the past and have always been wowed by his determination to win, his pure class over 18 holes and his belief that it is a question of ‘when’ not ‘if’. I have never met a golfer before with a killer instinct quite like Nick’s.
I drop him a text and we agree to take on The Marquess course at Woburn in a weeks time, the home of Ian Poulter and a course Nick is closely associated with. Once again I regret becoming a fair-weather golfer this winter, see last months article for more, and hit the range to prepare for what promises to be a great round. I can not hack my way around another Top 100 UK & Ireland course, I did that earlier in the year during a drenched stag do at the Celtic Manor. Not a particularly pleasant experience.
Before we get into that day with Nick, let’s look at the paths a player has when trying to make their dream of golf fame and fortune a reality.
Firstly, they could try their luck at Qualifying School, battling it out with players from across the globe through three stages to gain a place on the DP World Tour. This is a
difficult test but one that has proved lucrative in the past producing major winners, Ryder Cup legends and World Number Ones like Justin Rose and Miguel Ángel Jiménez.
Justin Rose of England in action during the Qualification School in San Roque, Spain. Credit: Paul Severn /Allsport
Q school is a true test, The Final Stage sees 156 players compete over six rounds with the top 25 and ties gaining access to the DP world tour. If you can get through all three stages you have the opportunity to change your life by performing out on the golf course week in, week out for prize pots of up to $10m. However, Q school comes at a cost, it is £2000 to take on the challenge.
It is incredibly competitive and requires world class golf performed again and again and again to get a chance.
Secondly, working your way up through lower level tours to help build experience and climb up the Order Of Merit e.g. the promotion / relegation system. This is the system that sees the best players in the UK ascend from The Clutch Tour, to the Challenge, to the DP World and eventually to the PGA tour.
Tommy Fleetwood chose to take this path, playing on EuroPro back in 2011 bagging a win at the Formby classic, promoting himself to the Challenge Tour where another win followed the month later. There is a long list of households names who have done the same; Tyrell Hatton - EuroPro Rookie of the Year 2012, Louis Oosthuizen being the first EuroPro Tour alumni to bag himself a major, Robert Rock, Brandon Grace, the list goes on and on.
What is often not discussed though is the struggle these players face when trying to keep up with tour schedules on these lower level leagues. The cost of accommodation and travel to these events is often crippling. With limited budgets, small prize pots and little support, players can feel the financial pressure bubbling away under the surface, making winning even harder. Take for example Nick’s EuroPro win in 2022, that 1st place finish netted him £12,500, which is an awful lot of money for a weekends work, however take away agency costs, travel, accommodation, coaching etc and there is not an awful lot let. Compound that with the fact that £12,500 is for a first place finish, you can not be expected to be there every Sunday and the money quickly falls away as you drop down the rankings. There is a lot more to making it out on tour than simply being the best ball striker.
I arrive at Woburn on a slightly damp May afternoon. The full force of a British Summer having not quite taken hold yet, with a forecast for potential heavy downpours as the afternoon progresses. I am glad I have still got my waterproofs tucked away at the bottom of my bag.
Woburn is golfing heaven, with three Top 100 Golf Courses at your disposal, the World Class Titleist fitting centre and magnificent Tavistock Short Game area, opened in 2015 by Mr.Poulter himself. It is a course I would love to call home, however with a rumoured long waiting list and £10k plus joining fee, I think I might have to bide my time.
I catch up with Nick and his manager Alex Katter, Co-Founder of Gravity, in the indoor fitting bay. Nick is handing out a free lesson to Alex, I guess this is the advantage of having a professional golfer on the books. We all take a few practise shots on GC Quad, a process which separates the men from the boys, as watching a pro do their thing with driver on an indoor simulator is quite a sight. The numbers are impressive and the sound
of it matches. Nick is kitted out by Titleist and as a golfing geek for 29 years, I it is a good look.
18 holes of the championship Marquess course is the plan of action for the day, with the G4D Open taking place on the Duchess course next to us, there is a real feeling of event, Rolex branding is placed everywhere and digital R&A Scoreboards are littered around the holes.
Nick Cunningham current official PGA TOUR headshot. (Photo by David Zimmerman/PGA TOUR via Getty Images).
Nick turned pro in 2016 and got his EuroPro card the same year, he has kept that card ever since then and has played events up and down the UK. He recently qualified for PGA Canada by shooting a final round 67.
He tees off first down the beautiful, tree lined, par 4 opening hole. A little 3 wood cut puts him on the right hand side of the fairway. I hit a thin, nervy, bullet speed driver down the right and into the trees. It is not the start I am hoping for. I really should not have stopped playing golf in the winter months.
Nick seems excited about the challenge of moving over to Canada and taking on his new adventure. He is going to be doing it in 6-8 week stints, keeping the cost of transatlantic travel down to a minimum. It is all business for him, he knows he has got the ability to shoot low scores, he just needs to go out there and prove it. The aims are clear - go out there, shoot low, win tournaments and progress to the Korn Ferry. When he says this to me there is no doubt in his mind that he has got what it takes. I like that about him, golf is a game which is all about self belief. He has seen peers of his progress through Q School and knows on his day he is better, everything just needs to align for him.
That killer instinct is something which he has been working hard on, recently getting a coach onboard to help with his mental approach to the game. He admits this has been fundamental to the big improvements he has made recently. The coach works with Nick week in, week out to make sure he has got what it takes between the ears to get it done on big competition Sunday.
That mental game is what could make the difference. Nick recounts a story about having to turn his phone off after a particularly bad round of competition golf so he could focus on his game and getting it right the next day. Family and friends can sometimes think they are being supportive when really their messages are not what you need to hear.
The ambition Nick possesses has played a huge role in why PGA Canada got chosen.
Nick - “I put together a presentation for the guys at Gravity, we sat down on a call after EuroPro ended and I made my case for giving PGA Canada a go.”
He pushed to make that move, instead of taking on the Sunshine Tour, piling all his efforts into Q school or going down the LIV Tour route.
What he makes clear though is how difficult the challenge is going to be, especially when the American collegiate system is constantly pumping out world beaters into a sport which already feels like every possible angle is being worked. Take Colin Morikawa for example, he won The PGA Championship at Harding Park and The Open at Royal St George in his rookie 2020 year.
Golfers leave that system ready to go out and take titles. This has been a shift which has taken place over the last 10 years, previously golfers would progress through the years getting patient and crafting their skills before hitting their stride in their late 20s. Not anymore. They leave university at 21 ready to go and takeover the tours. It is a daunting challenge for people trying to make their mark.
I think what becomes clear as well is that there are certain paths and circumstances which can help nurture a player from an early age, whether that is the American collegiate system, which gets its eyes on potential players from an early age. Or is it the support that some governments put in place to help bring players up through the ranks, Irish and Scottish government being examples of these, where there are funds make available to help support talented individuals. It is clear that this support can be the difference between someone making it and someone not. Support which is not available so readily to English players.
3 holes in, it starts to rain. Not the sort of rain you keep playing in, the sort of rain which makes you take cover under the nearest large tree. Luckily at Woburn you are surrounded by them. Then the rain turns to hail. Then the hail turns to thunder. At moments like this you do question how English golfers have ever managed to prevail when the climate conditions are so against us. What I would give for the clear links of Jupiter, Florida, right now.
TG - “You won’t get this over in Canada”
NC - “You are right, I can’t wait! and being a PGA Canada Card holder gives me access to practise on the TPC courses over in the US. I am not built for these conditions.”
I get the feeling Nick does not like playing in the rain, I don’t blame him.
We then get onto chatting about the opening event on the schedule in Canada. Royal Beach Victoria with a purse of $200,000, previous winners having shot -16, -19 and -20 across the four rounds there. Nick seems ready for the challenge, commenting that he is going to need to win a few of these things across the year to get to where he wants to be.
“ I have certainly uncovered that the work needed to get to the top is vast, that the raw golfing skills are only 30% of what you need and that belief in your own ability is far more important than I ever realised.”
Again the effort and sacrifice these players put into making it on tour becomes apparent. For most golfers on PGA Canada the purse strings are tight, so they opt to stay in the properties of members whose course they are playing on that week. Which is a nice idea, but after a difficult Thursday, would you like the idea of getting back to a strangers home and having to make polite conversation over dinner? I often struggle to make polite conversation with mates after I have fatted a chip, never mind doing it with complete strangers at their own dining tables. The gap between the private jet lifestyle of the top of the PGA Tour and the boys trying to work their way there could not be more pronounced.
The weather has started to clear up now and we continue to make our way around the magnificent Marquess course. For me it is a clear contender for top 5 courses I have ever played, controversially landing higher than its sister course The Dukes, which often people consider to be superior. The architecture and design of the holes are incredible, the way it bends and contorts arounds the trees and plays perfectly with the land it has got available is beautiful. It is tight and difficult and fiddly, with steep runaways from the greens and fairways you can’t miss. It’s superb. It is a must play for him.
To watch Nick pick his way around the course was amazing, long fizzing iron shots placed perfectly onto greens and, without a doubt, one of the best 100 yard in approach shots I have ever seen. Hole 16, a one hop, it grabs the turf and settles down next to the hole for an easy tap in birdie.
Tom believes Nick has got what it takes to make it big in the game. Credit: Gravity.
The round rolls away before us and the rain we had earlier in the day transforms to one of those perfect early summer evenings, the temperature settles and long shadows are cast on fairways as the sun dips below the horizon. The back 9 becomes one of those lasting golfing memories you have, the type one often believes are only found in junior golf days, where summer evenings are vast and spent eating sausage sandwiches and having chipping competitions for mars bars and fresh Pro-v1s. Is it clear I completely romanticise this sport?
We finish up on 18 with handshakes and promises to do it again soon. I make it clear that next time it is my honours and we must play The JCB. The club that sits at the top of my list of places I love.
Nick’s golf is in great condition, he is primed and ready to head over to Canada and win. I wish him every bit of luck in the world, because he is going to need it. This is an incredibly unforgiving sport, and a certain portion of luck is needed to get to the top of the tree. But I do believe Nick has got what it takes, he is surrounded by a great team in Gravity and has the skillset to make it work.
When I set out to write this piece I wanted to discover what it takes to make it in professional golf, what separates the best golfer at your club to the best golfers on this planet, it won’t surprise anyone that in 3,000 words I probably have not found all the secrets, but I have certainly uncovered that the work needed to get to the top is vast, that the raw golfing skills are only 30% of what you need and that belief in your own ability is far more important than I ever realised.
So, keep an eye out for Nick over the next fews weeks, he might just make you a few quid on a sneaky bet or two. I’ll only take 15%.