PLAYER FEATURE | PETER UIHLEIN
Making
it in
Europe
Lewine Mair talks to the young American Peter Uihlein, who unlike his fellow countrymen at least, is following a road less travelled.
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nusually, there was no sign of any of the big five of Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter and Justin Rose at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews in September. Ernie Els shone to a degree but, other than the winner, David Howell, no one did more to make the event go with a swing than America’s Peter Uihlein. The 24-year-old narrowly missed out on recording the first 59 in European Tour history when he returned a 60 at Kingsbarns on the Friday, while he only lost out to Howell at the second extra hole of a sudden-death play-off. This son of Wally Uihlein, the CEO of Acushnet, has everything it takes – the looks, the grace and the game – to make him a crowd favourite. Again, the story he has to tell comes as a welcome antidote to the usual tale of Europeans defecting to the States. When, at the end of 2011, he failed to win his PGA Tour card, Uihlein took heed of Butch Harmon and Chubby Chandler, respectively his coach and his manager, when they concurred with his father's view that he should head for Europe. Peter had no doubt that they were right, though he will tell you that he was swayed rather more by the thought that he would be following the same path as his great hero, Adam Scott.
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“As far as I’m concerned,” said Uihlein, “Adam always does the right thing. He’s definitely a world player and that’s what I want to be.” (He has stressed as much many times since.) Though he did not play well enough in the European Tour’s qualifying system to pick up a full European Tour card, Uihlein started out on the secondary Challenge Tour where he finished his first year in 26th place. Not too many of the Challenge Tour habitués knew the first thing about the American or his father when first he appeared on their patch. England’s Simon Wakefield, who was demoted to the Challenge Tour for 2012, befriended the newcomer but he knew nothing of the young man’s background. “Peter,” said a bemused Wakefield earlier this year, “never mentioned anything about it. He was just a regular chap who mixed in with the rest of us no bother …”
When, at the end of 2011, he failed to win his PGA Tour card, Uihlein took heed of Butch Harmon and Chubby Chandler, respectively his coach and his manager, when they concurred with his father's view that he should head for Europe. Not, mind you, that Uihlein has ever had any problems in handling questions about his family when they do arise. There were plenty of occasions during his amateur days when friends would ask for a handful of golf balls. Peter, in turn, would issue a cheerful reminder that it was his dad who worked for Acushnet and not him. Even now, he enjoys pointing to how he has had the same set of blades in his bag since 2002. When Uihlein’s fellow players became aware of the situation, there were plenty who wondered why he had decided to join them when he could almost certainly have established himself on the PGA Tour via invitations. Not only would he have merited a few starts on the basis of the 2010 US Amateur Championship he won HKGOLFER.COM
Uihlein has been consistency personified in the latter half of the season, racking up a slew of top 10s to comfortably make the elite field at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai
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There were plenty of occasions during his amateur days when friends would ask for a handful of golf balls. Peter, in turn, would issue a cheerful reminder that it was his dad who worked for Acushnet and not him.
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Clockwise from top: Uihlein is clearly enjoying his time in Europe and has won a new bunch of admirers and friends since crossing the Atlantic at the beginning of the year; Uihlein in action at the Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews; like Rickie Fowler, Uihlein often wears the tangerine colours of his alma mater, Oklahoma State, on the course 66
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on his 21st birthday, but his family background would surely have come in handy. Peter, however, makes it abundantly clear that he has no interest in short cuts. “All of the opportunities I’ve had in golf have been earned,” he says with understandable pride. “None of them have been based on my last name.” Uihlein admitted that he found the Challenge Tour and its travels a tad uncomfortable at the start – and never more so than when he and Brooks Koepka, the American player sharing in his European dream, called for a taxi at an event in Kenya. The driver ignored their instructions and took them on a long and scary journey which, mercifully, would end without incident. That apart, the pair had a ball, visiting virtually every country under the sun. In South Africa’s Mossel Bay, they spent a couple of hours watching great white sharks from a sea cage; in Korea, at the start of this year, Uihlein had to pinch himself to believe that they were playing just 20 miles away from the North Korean border at a time when no one knew quite what to expect next from Kim Jong-un. The changes in temperature probably threw the two-time Walker Cup player as much as anything. In growing up in Florida, where he spent part of his schooldays at the David Leadbetter Golf Academy in Bradenton before heading for Oklahoma State University, he had HKGOLFER.COM
hated playing in a sweater. So much so that on those occasions when he did wear one, he would go through the rigmarole of taking it off to play a shot. In Europe, in contrast, there have been times when he has been cocooned in four layers. It was in May of this year that Uihlein won the Madeira Islands Open. It was a full European Tour event, but one which the household names chose to ignore. As a result he qualified automatically for the main tour, and though few expected too much of him among the big guns at the following week’s BMW PGA Championship, he found a liking for Wentworth and finished in a share of 12th. People were surprised at the easy assurance demonstrated by the young American when he was playing alongside the stars. There was the assumption that he must have been fraternising with top sportsmen since he was a toddler but, when questioned on that score, he was quick to explain that that did not apply. “Brad Faxon has been a long-time friend of my father’s but he was really the only ‘famous’ golfer with whom I had any contact before coming to Europe,” came his reply. On a slightly different tack, he could remember the excitement on that day – it was in 1999 and he was still only 10 years HKGOLFER.COM
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There was plenty of talk as to how the number of Americans going through the European Qualifying School system was largely down to “the Uihlein effect”. Heaven knows how many will survive to tee up at the start of the 2014 season but, even if they should come in force, they can be assured of a warm welcome.
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In 2010, on the occasion of his 21st birthday, Uihlein defeated David Chung 4 & 2 in the 36-hole final of the US Amateur Championship at Chambers Bay. He would finish the year as the number one-ranked amateur in the world 68
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of age – when the then teenage Sergio Garcia turned up at the family home while playing in the Ryder Cup at Brookline. Since Wentworth, Uihlein has notched a couple of top-10 finishes in addition to a second place in each of the Wales Open and the aforementioned Dunhill Links and has all but secured his place at the end-of-season DP World Tour Championship in Dubai this month. The extent to which Uihlein is all about being the best golfer he can be shone through loud and clear on the East Lothian coast. On the Monday of tournament week, he posted the following note on Twitter: “Kingsbarns is one of my favourite courses in the world”. Four days later and he had an eagle putt to do a Jim Furyk and hand in a 59. The putt slipped by on the right but his 60 was still something to celebrate. Gary Player was among the first to send a congratulatory text. Uihlein had started the last round at St Andrews with a two-stroke lead. He had returned a 65 over the Old Course the day before and, it was not too long before he was in birdie mode again. But Howell was making even more and, where the 40-year-old kept churning them out, Uihlein missed a series of makeable putts down the stretch. None was more agonising than the 15-footer which got away on the final green. Though Uihlein was fully prepared to talk to the European Tour’s press officer after he had lost, this normally most erudite of men – he would not be out of place alongside his father in the boardroom – struggled to say a thing. You could tell, from the faraway look in his eyes that his mind was swimming with those missed putts. He just about managed a “Hats off to David!” before muttering something about Howell having holed the more putts. That, though, was the extent of it. A couple of hours later and he gave a slightly more detailed summation on Twitter: “Congratulations to ‘Howeller’, one of the classiest guys out there. Gutted I didn’t win but it was a great week at the home of golf.” At the time of writing, there was plenty of talk as to how the number of Americans going through the European Qualifying School system was largely down to “the Uihlein effect”. Heaven knows how many will survive to tee up at the start of the 2014 season but, even if they should come in force, they can be assured of a warm welcome. Certainly, no one will equate them with those overseas players who drop in on the UK solely to play in The Open or to pick up a useful dollop of appearance money. Uihlein and those like him see the European Tour as a great place to be. HKGOLFER.COM