GULLANE PGA TRAINING CAN BE GOOD FOR McNICOLL'S CAREER

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Gullane Golf Club head professional Alasdair Good (pictured left) – the founder of the Wee Wonders Championship – recently added Carnoustie's Keir McNicoll to his team of assistants.
Yes, the same Keir McNicoll who was the first Scottish amateur golfer to earn a +6 handicap, winner of the St Andrews Links Trophy and Leven Gold Medal in 2008 and a Walker Cup team candidate whose form and confidence have been on a downward spiral since he became a tournament pro in October 2009.
The move is unconnected to but follows on from the decision of another past Scotland amateur international Peter Latimer (St Andrews New) to opt out of the lemming-like rush to the self-employed tour pro ranks and join the staff of Felixstowe Ferry GC’s head pro Robert Joyce to start four years of PGA training.
Alasdair Good says:
“Many of our leading amateurs could benefit from the PGA Training Programme. The key is to find the right job that provides adequate opportunities to play, with a facility to learn about the very latest equipment and to be able to study and teach the golf swing.
“I'm keen to employ the best staff and to continue raising the standard of service I offer. As well as Keir, all of my other assistant professionals – Emma Fairnie, Ian Rowlands and Jordan Ramanauskas - are university graduates.
“Their further education is an advantage to them in preparing for the PGA Degree Programme and will also benefit them as they look to their own futures. With Keir's experience he's an asset to my business and to Gullane Golf Club.”
After a stellar amateur career, it just has not happened for McNicoll in the pro ranks. He was running out of places to play and the money to finance an increasingly unpromising future.

McNicoll, pictured right, made just one cut in 10 outings on the PGA EuroPro Tour in 2011 and then missed the cut at the Alps Tour School. It was probably then that the Scot realised that his tour pro career was in free fall and a big decision had to be made.
“I’d lost a lot of confidence in my own ability and I knew I needed to try to build my game and self-belief back to where it once was – and I couldn’t see that happening if I continued to play on the EuroPro Tour,” said the Scottish amateur championship runner-up of 2007.
“Signing up as a PGA trainee was a thought at the back of my mind and when I went down to see Alasdair Good at Gullane, he told me that he wanted me to join his staff sooner rather than later.
"I decided it was time to try and do things a different way, take a different direction, hopefully reaching my original goal in the end and collecting PGA status along the way."
McNicoll still aims to be a full-time tournament player again some day. But in the meantime he is going to give his PGA training his best shot with the hope that four years' working in a new golfing environment can rekindle the competitive flame that once burned brightly within him.
“The PGA training programme is good and it gives me a chance to learn about the game in a slightly different way. It’s great to be working for Alasdair Good and Gullane has the best pro shop in Britain as far as I’m concerned,” said McNicoll whose father Dave, who played professional football for Hearts, Dunfermline and St Johnstone, owns and runs the Carnoustie Golf Shop.
“Alasdair Good knows that I am still desperate to play and I will get opportunities in assistants’ events, but, for the meantime, the PGA training comes first.”
McNicoll, like two contemporaries who did earn Walker Cup honours - Lloyd Saltman and Gavin Dear, has somehow lost the skill that had him averaging six under par scores as an amateur.
But McNicoll has not lost the brain that earned him a business administration degree as a student at Lynn University, Boca Raton in Florida.
Full marks to Keir for taking a reality check, and, yes, eating a bit of humble pie as well, in deciding to become a PGA trainee instead of pursuing the dream of becoming a successful European Tour player.
As Alasdair Good says, many more of Scotland's leading amateurs in recent years would have been better off becoming PGA assistants than plunging out of their depths in the highly competitive world of pro tournaments.