Golf is a true merit sport wherein your status is totally based upon how well you perform. If you are a professional golfer and you miss the cut at this week”s Phoenix Open, then you do not receive a paycheck even though you paid an entry fee, paid for a caddie, stayed in hotels, and ate meals at restaurants.
If you come in 10th place at the conclusion of play on Sunday, then you”ll receive more money than the golfer who comes in 20th place. There are no guaranteed contracts nor are there any “no-cut” contracts.
When all is said and done, the most successful golfer makes the most money. In other sports, the home run king or the league”s top quarterback don”t necessarily have the best paying contracts. An injured Peyton Manning received his full salary from the Colts this year whereas an injured Tiger Woods received zero compensation from the tournaments that he couldn”t play in last year. Golf is a true merit sport.
The most recent linkster who is causing a bit of a buzz in the world of tournament golf is South African Branden Grace. The 23-year-old Grace turned professional at the conclusion of the 2007 calendar year as an 18-year-old. In 2008, he went through the European Tour”s Qualifying School and made it onto the circuit. He had limited success, not surprising for a teenager suddenly playing alongside Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood. He was able to stay within the top-125 money winners for that first year, but in 2009 he finished 148th on the European Tour”s money list and suddenly he was without status, playing in the occasional local event on his home circuit.
From 2008 through 2011, Grace did have one moment of glory. While competing on his home circuit, the South African Sunshine Tour, he did have a first-place finish in the 54-hole Coca-Cola Charity Championship in November of 2010. While known South African golfers such as Ernie Els or Retief Goosen will sometimes support the Sunshine Tour and enter the occasional tourney, the majority of the field is comprised of competitors who are a step below the caliber of those professionals who compete on the American PGA Tour or the European Tour.
Grace did get through the Q School process last November and was able to regain his status on the European Tour. Last month he entered the Joburg Open, a European Tour event that is played on South African soil. Grace caught lightning, shooting rounds of 67-66-65-72 for a 17-under-par 270 and a one-stroke margin of victory over Jamie Elson.
The following week on the European Tour was supposed to be an off-week for Branden Grace. The tour schedule called for the playing of the Volvo Golf Champions, an invitational tournament of champions for European Tour members. However, because Grace had won the Joburg Open the previous week, he was suddenly a champion invitee into the Volvo in George, South Africa, at The Links at Fancourt.
Grace opened play at Fancourt with rounds of 68 and 66 and shot to the top of the leaderboard. During Saturday”s final round, Grace did the expected for a relatively young professional, ballooning to a 75 on a day when Masters champ Charl Schwartzel shot 68. Suddenly it was a very crowded leaderboard with Grace hanging on for dear life alongside major champions such as Schwartzel, Els, Goosen, Jose Maria Olazabal, Padraig Harrington, Paul Lawrie and reigning British Open winner Darren Clarke.
Grace shot a solid 2-under-par 71 during Sunday”s fourth and final round. Perhaps I”m misusing the world solid when I describe the final score. Perhaps successfully erratic is a better word as he bogeyed three of the first four holes to lose his lead, only to follow it up with five birdies over the course of the last 14 holes. Grace recorded 22 birdies and an eagle during the four rounds but those numbers were offset by being 13-over on the other holes, including three double-bogeys. Obviously Grace is capable of going low as a birdie-making machine, but he also shows the up-and-down nature of a long-hitting young golfer who can pile up the over-par numbers.
At the conclusion of play on Sunday afternoon, Grace found himself tied atop the leaderboard with a 12-under-par score of 280. He was tied with two of South Africa”s more iconic golfers, namely two-time U.S. Open champion Goosen as well as two-time U.S. Open champ and British Open winner Els. He was in a playoff with two world-renown golfers and if there were ever a time to snap hook one out of bounds and settle for the second-place money, the time was now.
Yet Grace”s playoff with Els and Goosen did end in the mere blink of an eye, but it wasn”t because he faltered in the heat of the moment. Playing the par-5, 550-yard 18th hole as the first sudden-death hole, Grace was the only member of the trio to hit the green in two strokes. Goosen and Els had to settle for pars while Grace was able to two-putt for a birdie-four and win his second European Tour title in a two-week span.
How much of a rags-to-riches climb has this been for Branden Grace? Well, at the start of the 2012 calendar year he was the 258th-ranked golfer in the World Rankings. Today he finds himself in 92nd place. He sits atop the early standings of the European Tour money list, and continued good play could get him into the Masters, the United States Open and the British Open. Last year, he lacked exempt status in Europe and had to return to Q School. Now he has a place on the European Tour through the year 2014.
The present for Branden Grace is pretty rock solid and the future could be very bright as long as he continues to improve and earn his place in golf”s hierarchy alongside Els, Goosen and the rest. After all, it is a game of merit. The clubs and the golf balls don”t know whether they”re being hit by a three-time major champion or a recent graduate of the Qualifying School process. And in its own way, that”s what makes it such a great game.
