Challenge Tour Interview with Stephen Browne: John O'Sullivan talks to a golfer with great hopes of graduating from Europe's satellite tour to earn his full card
It was like the famous opening scene of Lawrence of Arabia. Four tiny dots on the horizon framed against the Moroccan desert. In David Lean's epic film it is Omar Sharif's character that rides into view on a camel; last Thursday, just outside Agadir, it was Hermitage's Stephen Browne and three English golfers who offered a surreal sight to guests of the nearby hotel who happened to be in the compound.
Some may have considered it a mirage, initially. After all four professional golfers with pro-bags strapped to their backs, still wearing spikes, perched on camels wouldn't be an everyday sight. The explanation was, however, simple.
The bus bringing the quartet from the Golf Club de Soleil back to their hotel spluttered to a halt about a mile short of its destination. It would have been a long walk in the hot sun, but rather than take the hump, they literally grabbed one.
Browne laughed: "This is Morocco, the only means of transport we had was camel. It was so funny that it was well worth the pain. I just pitied the poor camel. I suppose we may claim to have invented a new sport, Moroccan polo."
It was a light-hearted aside to what proved to be an excellent week for the Dubliner. Rounds of 68, 67, 70 and 65 saw him finish in a tie for fifth place - alongside Waterville's David Higgins - and a consequent cheque for €4,875 that boosted his season's earnings on the European Challenge Tour to €35,862.71, and more importantly brought a place in the top 25 on the Order of Merit.
There are two tournaments left on the schedule, an event this week in Donnington Grove in England and then the Challenge Tour's grand finale in Bordeaux the following week when only the top 45 on the Order of Merit are eligible to compete for a prize fund of €200,000; comfortably the most lucrative event of the season.
Browne's goal is to make it into the top 15 on the Challenge Tour final standings over the next fortnight and thereby earn a full European Tour card for next season. To do so he must catch Sam Little, who's currently on the bubble in 15th place, some €6,000 ahead of the Irishman.
Even if he fails in that objective Browne won't be going to PQ2, which takes place from November 3rd-6th over three courses in Girona and Valencia, having already gained an exemption into the final qualifying school at San Roque, near Cadiz, from November 11th-16th.
His experiences over the past two seasons on the Challenge Tour allied to a mature and philosophical approach to professional golf ensure that Browne won't fear the rigours of Tour School if that's the way things pan out over the next fortnight.
"I'm looking forward to Tour School. It's a huge opportunity. A lot of guys say that it's the worst week of the year but I have a Challenge Tour card next year to fall back on, something I didn't have when I first went there in 2002 (which represents his only time at Tour School).
"I found it comfortable the last time. I missed out by a shot but I birdied the last to miss it by a shot.
"I felt comfortable because I played lot of top class amateur golf. The most nervous I felt on a golf course was playing my first strokeplay round for Ireland. You handle pressure differently. I'd feel more pressure at times trying to make a cut than say leading in Norway."
The last reference is to his maiden Challenge Tour victory earlier this season when he claimed a weather-affected Norwegian Open that was reduced to three rounds by three strokes. "It's largely down to being comfortable with your game and that gives you the confidence to cope with stressful situations. For me making the (European) Tour this season is not the be all and end all.
"It's a goal certainly but since turning professional I have seen my game improve and I know that if that progression continues I will make it eventually."
This season Browne has played 22 events on the Challenge Tour and earnings to date of a little shy of €36,000 illustrates just how difficult it is to make a decent living. Sponsorship, from Carroll Estates over the last three years and Cuisine de France under the auspices of Team Ireland have enabled him to defray expenses. Browne admitted: "Without Team Ireland Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy mightn't be out on the main Tour and I certainly wouldn't have been out on the Challenge Tour. Their backing has been crucial to Irish golfers over the past six years. I'm lucky to have that funding."
It has allowed him to stay patient and concentrate on his golf, as has his understanding wife Elaine. For others, especially those with a family to support, there is a desperation, an impatience to succeed quickly. They are not qualities that underpin a successful professional golf career.
An ever expanding Challenge Tour schedule means that Browne has been offered a more rounded education - on and off the golf course. The season started in Central America, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama to be precise.
"In Guatemala, we had a police escort to the golf course every day. These places are so poor that they're dangerous for those who don't know the ins and outs of day-to-day living. We weren't allowed to leave the hotel complex there. They made that very clear.
"Then you get to the golf courses and they're absolutely sumptuous. It's about one per cent of the community who have access to these places. You contrast this with your caddies who have no shoes. Your heart would go out to them. Anything you'd give them, they'd be over the moon. Old golf balls: that sounds terrible but it's true."
Given the fact virtually no one on the Challenge Tour travels with a caddie, the players must choose their own when they arrive at a venue. Browne has met some interesting characters amid the budding Steve Williams's. None would be in Tiger Woods bagman's financial stratosphere.
The going rate for a caddie at last week's Moroccan Classic was €15. At the Central American stops it was about $20, while in Zambia and Kenya that descended to about €5 per round.
Browne smiles: "They really don't know much about tournament golf. When you hit a bad shot, he tuts. There is nothing more annoying than that, having your caddie giving out."
These caddies are bag toters pure and simple, offering the starkest contrast to often palatial surroundings.
Petty theft is rife, with mobile phones and even wallets known to have fallen out of zipped pockets.
"Stuff going missing is a problem. Most guys, what they do is count out the money they have in their wallet in front of the caddie, put it in the wallet and then put it back in the golf bag.
"It's still not safe because often what'll happen is that they will drop it at a point on the course and then go out and get it later on. So they won't be caught with it on them. That's happened with guys' phones, plenty of times.
"In places like Africa most of the guys would wear their watches around their belts. That's why you see a lot of South African golfers hook their watch around the belt; it's a force of habit."
It raises the question of why golfers simply don't stick their wallets in their back pocket. Apparently pride of place in that location goes to the strokesaver and the pin sheet. Browne concedes with a laugh that it's more likely a matter of vanity, something about golfers liking to look good.
In Morocco there was the small matter of the fact the caddies wouldn't walk on any greens or tees as they would normally be fired for such incursions, even in their barefoot condition.
"They are not allowed walk on the greens or tees. You have to take the pin out and give it to them. They can't go on the tee so when you want to take a club out of the bag you have to go backwards and forwards several times if you're not sure.
"No matter how much you tell them they won't do it because they must fear the sack."
Colourful situations are commonplace, not least the time in Zambia when after hopping into the taxi, a Toyota Corolla, Browne realised there was nothing under his feet but the road and had to clasp his legs above the tarmac for a high-speed journey.
In Panama, several golfers, the Irishman included, were picked up by the local police who could not believe they found them walking the streets; in Vienna a conference for 30,000 heart surgeons meant that Browne searched in vain for a hotel room all night before ending up sleeping in a car.
It's been an interesting road trip. There are potentially just a couple more stops. The probability is there'll be three unless he can manage to carve out two top-10 finishes in the next fortnight. Otherwise it's off to Tour School and the ultimate challenge.
