West Ham's Gary O'Neil playing EuroPro events - is this fair on the bread and butter pros?

West Ham midfielder Gary O'Neil is playing in his 2nd Euro Pro event this week - the Ulster Bank Open at Galgorm Castle.

I know that some of the players have been debating whether it is fair to deny a place to somebody who is trying to make a living from the game in order to accommodate a "celebrity" player on an invite. O'Neil missed the cut after 2 rounds last week, with a score of +28, which I guess shows the difference between a club scratch player and even the lower ranked pros.

Extract below from the EuroPro Site

West Ham United midfielder Gary O’Neil made his professional golf debut at Bovey Castle last week and will feature again at Galgorm.

Speaking after missing the cut in Dartmoor, the newly-promoted Premier League player admitted he felt the nerves when teeing off on Wednesday and hopes to be more relaxed in Ballymena this week.

“Bovey Castle was my first ever professional golf event,” he said. “It was nice of the EuroPro Tour to invite me to come see what it is all about and it was a good experience.

“I play off scratch at the London Club in Kent but it’s a bit different playing there on a Sunday morning with friends than it is playing on the EuroPro with the professional lads who are on tour doing it week-in, week-out. I found it difficult at Bovey but I tried to enjoy it anyway.

“It was tough going, it was quite nerve-racking as well. Because of the play-offs I didn’t get much practice in before the event. I did okay on the first day but struggled on the second day. Hopefully at Galgorm I’ll feel a little more comfortable. I hit some bad shots at Bovey that I can’t remember ever hitting before, so hopefully I’ll be a bit more used to it and a bit more relaxed at Galgorm.

“I love my golf and I know some of the EuroPro Tour players. I was invited to come and play a couple of weeks and see what it is all about. It’s something that, if I can get good enough at, I’d be interested in doing once I get to 35 and stop playing football. It’s a chance to see what it was all about and how my swing would stand up under pressure. Unfortunately it wasn’t great at Bovey!

“I made seven on the first on day one and nine on the same hole on the second day, so hopefully I’ll be able to deal with my first-tee nerves a bit better next week.”

I remember when another West Ham player was going to turm pro once he finished playing football. Julian Dicks legend hardman turned pro and don't think he ever made the cut, so packed it in I think

I think he quit owing to bad knees but i believe it's correct that he never did very well.
Pretty sure he only ever played in 2 and 3 round events and so wouldn't have missed a cut but never did great

I think there were a few in that West Ham team who were pretty good golfers. Just goes to show there is a huge difference between scratch and pro

To answer Mary's question - no, I don't think it is fair. Whoever this person O'Neil is, probably has earned a decent living kicking a ball about so should not need to take a place away from a struggling youngster trying to start out in the golf world. He should go back to taking vast amounts of money from his mates at the elitist London Club (which is in the depths of Kent).

Doc wrote:I remember when another West Ham player was going to turm pro once he finished playing football. Julian Dicks legend hardman turned pro and don't think he ever made the cut, so packed it in I think

Julian Dicks used to play in a golf society that I am a member of after he retired from football. He told us that for the last two years of his West Ham contract, when he was not fit to play due to knee injury, he earnt 800k and towards the end was not even required to show up at the ground. Not huge earnings by footballers standards but 8k a week is not bad money for doing nothing and it gave him plenty of time to practise his golf. To be fair, he had plenty of natural ability as most footballers do and he worked hard at his game and got down to scratch.

He did have dreams of turning pro and got a guest invitation to a pro event in Holland. An opening round 92 ended that dream with the realisation of how different the pro circuit is to knocking it around a few under par with your mates or in a relaxed society day. He ran a couple of pubs for a while and then got back into football taking the managers job at Grays Athletic for a couple of seasons. That wasn't too successful, I think he found that level of football to be very frustrating. In interviews on local radio after the game he was often highly critical of his players endeavours.

Not sure what he is up to now, he hasn't played in our society for a while. I always got on alright with him, he played golf the same way he played football, very competitively!

JD was on Talk Sport a while ago, and I think he mentioned that he is now based in Spain, so probably still playing plenty of golf. He was born in this neck of the woods, and his brother, Grantley, played for Bath City - his playing style was similar to Julian's.

About 5 years ago I was on a plane to Malaga with a group of friends for a golf trip. It was the end of the football season and there were about 8 Colchester United players on board heading to Peurto Banus amongst which was Chris Iwelumo.

"Going out for some golf Chris?" I asked. "No" came the reply, "Going out for some liver damage"

O'Neil tried his luck at first stage qualifying for The Open yesterday at The London club. Along side him in the field was Lee Bowyer. Both were unsuccessful in their attempts but at least they finished. There were plenty of WDs, NRs and a lot of DQs at The London yesterday; wonder what was happening there?

Come back Maurice Flitcroft - all is forgiven!

Lee Bowyer really? Christ I hope he was not one of those disqualified, he would have headbutted the official!

Blue - I would back John Paramour against Lee Bowyer any day!

I heard Gary O'Neil being interviewed on Talk Sport yesterday, and he said that he did feel a bit out of place amongst the guys who are trying to make a living from golf, but was pleased that he came 51st on the leaderboard. Sounded like a nice guy, who appreciated the difference between a scratch player and a pro.

Think we might see more of this as these tournaments needs sponsors, and sponsors want big names to attract the crowds.

If this is what it takes to keep the sponsors, then so be it.