Success through sacrifice

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/09/2010 (5721 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Many are the stories of the creative and resourceful ways aspiring young professional golfers set themselves up to embark on a career in the game.

But what about the amateurs?

Nobody pays them to play golf, and they don’t play for prize money but many still dream about elite performances at major competitions.

The honour of the amateur is kept alive by heroes like Masters founder Bobby Jones and also by many of the world’s generous company and business owners and managers who understand an elite athlete’s drive to compete.

Three-time Manitoba Willingdon Cup team member Scott Markham of Niakwa is already many steps down that amateur road and has a growing appreciation for those who back his dream to be a top-level player while he pursues a legal career.

Just finished another summer stint at local law firm Aikins, MacAulay & Thorvaldson, the 24-year-old Winnipegger sounds almost embarrassed that he played well this summer, finishing fourth at the Manitoba Amateur and then playing for the province at the Canadian Amateur in Ontario.

“Right off the hop I was saying to them, ‘Is it all right if I take a week right at the beginning to get prepared for the (golf) season?’ It was no problem,” he said. “That was one week, and then during the season, I had a week off for the Manitoba Amateur and then making the (provincial) team, I’m not going to pass that up, so I asked for another week for the Canadian Amateur.

“Add a couple more days for the Manitoba Match Play in early June and it’s three, three-and-a-half weeks for golf tournaments out of four months.”

Markham said he felt a supportive atmosphere the moment he stepped in the door for his first interview at the firm.

“They were very encouraging,” he said. “I think it’s important for any young person in sports, not just golf, to find out what kind of importance the company you want to work for places on work/life balance.

“This is where my principal, (partner) Jim Ferguson, has been so great. I haven’t had anybody there trying to hold me back.”

Markham, now back at law school this fall, knows things are going to be vastly different next year and beyond. He plans to article next summer and could be fully certified as a lawyer within two years.

“It’s different for summer students, because it’s usually set hours,” he said. “They’re great bosses to have for a summer student. They know what you’re going to go through as an articling student, as an associate in the future, so they tell you, ‘Get out of here at 4:30. Enjoy your summer, you’re going to have the rest of your life to work.’ So it was great in that respect.

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“If I’m back there to article, it’ll be completely different, the expectation. You can do what you want (golf) but you might have to work until midnight.”

Markham knows his golf and his schedule will change but that hasn’t stopped him from having a keen eye on next summer’s Canadian Amateur, which will be played at his home club.

“Sure, I’m really looking forward to that one,” he said. “I would like to compete in Manitoba Amateurs and Canadian Amateurs in the future, but given that I’d like to do corporate and commercial work, if I sign up to play and something comes up at work, I might not be playing.

“It’s great to be out there meeting people in the business community and compete at the same time, but it’s going to get tough to compete with the 18- and 19-year-olds.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca