Sam's ProfileMy golf career began at the age of 12, chipping a Top Flite around the back garden. It nearly ended six weeks later, but for my luckiest golfing break ever. For some reason (it may have been a bet) I was trying to hit a wedge over my parent's house from the back to the front garden. Unfortunately, I got a bit quick on it and thinned it straight towards the kitchen window. I was just wondering which of my parents would injure me most seriously, when it hit the inch-wide divider between the two large panes of glass and rebounded back to my feet. As Gary Player once said, 'the more I practice, the luckier I get. 
My first handicap was 23 at Bedford and County Golf Club. I was down to scratch by the time I was 18. I had a strong grip, hit it a maximum of 220 yards off the tee with a little fade, but I had bags of attitude and could get it up and down out of a ball washer. I represented Bedfordshire at Junior and Colts level. I joined Woburn Golf Club in 1989 and represented BB & O (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire) at Full County level, combining pretty much Full Time Amateur golf with 'working' at the American Golf Discount Store in Biggleswade, then masquarading as a Sales Agent for a number of golf companies including R.D.A Smith, Cape Crest, Rhythm Clothing and Yonex, (apologies to the companies involved and to their customers).
The highlight of my Amateur career was reaching the Final of the English Amateur Championship at Hunstanton in 1995. The Final was an anticlimax. I got spanked by Mark Foster (now a winner on the European Tour), losing 6 and 5. This gave me the opportunity to play for England in a tournament in Greece in September 1995.
I spent the next three years trying to find 40 yards off the tee and to avoid getting a proper job. I turned professional in 1998 and got a card to play the Australian Tour in October. I returned to the UK in the spring of 1999 to play on the various Mini Tours which were becoming established. These were basically massive sweepstakes where all the players put in the prize money, and the top half dozen and the tournament organisers kept most of it. A serious back injury saved me from the poorhouse, but put me out of the game for two years. I helped set up the EuroPro Tour in 2000, before taking a sales role with legal software firm FWBS Ltd. Recovery from injury and an aversion to money prompted me to start playing again in 2002 and I played full seasons on the EuroPro Tour in 2003, 2004 and 2005, during which I had a number of top ten finishes, my best Order of Merit position being 47th in 2004.
