It is the feel-good story of this past week in Australian golf. Scott Gardiner, a proud Aboriginal, will next year become the first of the original Australians to play for the massive dollars on the USPGA Tour.
We all knew Gardiner had talent in shag bags-full when he first introduced himself to the Australian golfing public at large when, in 2000 as an amateur, he finished tied eighth in the Greg Norman Holden International and then tied seventh in the Australian Masters.
Scotty turned pro, and finished tied fourth in our now defunct Players Championship. In 2001, he played on invite on the European Tour in 12 events and won 156,000 Euros. Some financial genius will surely convert that to our dollars, but it is of no matter in this comparison – in 2000, Adam Scott played 11 events in invite on the European Tour and won the lesser 146,000 Euros.
Scott so nearly won this year’s British Open, and is currently ranked No 5 in the world; Gardiner is 346th; Scoot has played 196 PGA Tour events, winning eight times with total prize money of more than $US28 million. Gardiner? Well, he has never played a PGA Tour event, but now he is in 2013. All that remains is for it to become official.
Last weekend, he finished tied second in the Boise Open, with a collect of $US47,850 to bring his earnings on the secondary US Web.com Tour to $US212,710. Finish runner-up of the big tour and it would be around a half million dollar payday, but it is mean and lean on the lesser tour with the rainbow and its proverbial pot of gold beckoning with a card to the riches of the PGA Tour if you finish in the top 25 on the money list. Gardiner is now ninth, and cannot be dislodged for the top 25 no matter the results in the remaining six events.
Gardiner has been playing the secondary tour full-time since 2005, and has gone ever so close to winning a card in the past. In 2010, he made a late double-bogey in the final round of the last event, and finished 26th.
His potential in 2000-2001 was such that IMG signed him up. The international company no longer manages him, but those who dealt with Gardiner still barrack for him without the dollar signs in their minds. Put simply, Gardiner is one of the nicest blokes you could ever meet in golf, perhaps too nice, for all successful professional golfers have a touch of mongrel in them.
Gardiner has played just four times in Australia in the past four years, and now lives in Farmington, Arkansas with his American wife Kristin whose daughter Tatum from a previous relationship lives with them, and they have a four-year-old son Ka who Gardiner says is his Web.com profile is the best thing that’s ever happened to him.
What it all mans, though, is that we’ll see Gardiner here in Australia for our major tournaments – the Masters, Open and PGA – if he gets an invite as he has now exempt status here. The wrath of the media pen – or computer these days – will descend upon the promoters if they don’t issue him invites.