THROUGH THICK & THIN

Steven Tiley spent lockdown making hand sanitiser, but his commitment to professional golf hasn’t wavered

- Jeremy Ellwood

Ah, the glitz and glamour of the tour pro’s life. Private jets, big cheques, fancy cars, nice hotels, sponsors queuing up. Yes, it may be like that for a high-profile minority, but further down golf’s pecking order, living a very different life yet equally dedicated to the cause, lurk scores of hard-working professionals battling it out on the Challenge Tour and mini-tours, hoping and believing that their big breakthrough will eventually come.

One such pro is 37-year-old Steven Tiley, who plays his golf at Royal Cinque Ports in Kent. Tiley played on the England men’s team before spending three-and-a-half years on a golf scholarship at Georgia State University. After turning pro in 2007, he spent two years on the Asian Tour, and since 2009 has played mainly on the Challenge Tour, with a couple of years on the European Tour via Q-School in 2011 and 2017.

In 2017, he made only five cuts from 18 main tour starts, with a best finish of T22nd in the Hero Indian Open. He returned to the Challenge Tour, where he has enjoyed two reasonable seasons, finally securing his maiden Challenge Tour win last year in Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge, but not doing enough for automatic promotion.

Tiley had tasted victory three times on the Jamega Pro Tour in 2009 when he also won the Egyptian Open before it became an official Challenge Tour event. But his best ever ‘official’ cheque came via a tie for 26th in the 2013 Muirfield Open, where he pocketed €43,264, nearly €10,000 more than for last year’s Challenge Tour victory. He also qualified for golf’s oldest and grandest Major Championship in 2004, 2010 and 2012.