From the slaughterhouse to the World Cup, it has been a long road to the European Tour for Duncan Stewart.
Since turning professional in 2007, the Scot has worked in an abattoir, driven a delivery van, and sold shares in himself, all in a bid to fund his dream of competing with the game’s elite.
Now after a spectacular eight months on the European Challenge Tour, Stewart will be representing his country alongside childhood friend Russell Knox at the lucrative World Cup of Golf.
As the 32 year old prepares to tee it up in the biggest event of his career to date, he fondly recalls his youth in the Highlands where he first discovered his passion for the game.
“I play golf as it is pretty much the only thing I am good at,” he said. “I have always loved golf since I was three or four years old, whether it was going out looking out for golf balls or just hitting balls, it has always been a passion and thankfully I am half decent and am making a living out of it – not many people can say their passion is what they making a living doing.
“There were a lot of golf courses where I grew up, and as there wasn’t that much to do you just played sport. I played golf in the summer, and in the winter I played badminton. I was the youngest of all my cousins so I pretty much just tagged along with them and did whatever they did.
“It was fortunate that I was a member at three clubs when I was a junior and it came to just £20, so it was very much encouraged and it was great – summer holidays were spent on the golf course from eight in the morning to eight at night.”
Like many aspiring golfers, Stewart longed to study in America. After initially thinking a college career was just a pipe dream, he received a phone call from fellow Highlander Knox – asking him to join him at Jacksonville University.
“It was always a dream of mine to go to the States,” he said. “I thought to be honest it had fallen through.
“I missed out the first year after finishing school so I was 19 when I went, and I was actually almost a week away from going to New Zealand on a trip with the boys for a year, but then I got the call from Russ saying ‘I’ve just spoken to our coach from Jacksonville’ and I said ‘perfect, sign me up I’m going’.
“I ended up spending four years there and it definitely improved my game. I would recommend going there to anyone.
“We had a team of three Scots and Russ and myself were very competitive with each other. Each week we wanted to beat each other – but in a good way.
“The number of times one of us holed a putt on the last to tie or win was a big thing and we really pushed each other. We are going to be playing a lot more events together now and hopefully we can push each other again.”
While Knox stayed Stateside after graduation, and became a regular on the PGA Tour, Stewart returned to Europe, hoping to bring his college form to the professional game.
After quitting golf for 11 months in 2009 and 2010 to work in a slaughterhouse, and after spending winters driving delivery vans to earn extra money, Stewart won his maiden Challenge Tour title in Madrid in May this year.
As was the competitive nature of the 2016 Road to Oman, a victory alone was not enough to secure a European Tour card, meaning Stewart had to maintain his top-16 position with regular high finishes – something which Knox helped him to consistently achieve.
“When Russ called me in the middle of the season about the World Cup that gave me a real boost,” he said. “We had a lot of events around that time on the Challenge Tour and that spurred me on and filled me with confidence at the right time when I was starting to get a bit tired.
“It feels great to get a European Tour card. Now I have one I will hopefully get off to a good start. I can’t wait to play at the World Cup which will be a really good buzz by playing in such a big event.
"After that I’ll play in the Australian PGA and in Hong Kong and rest up before trying to hopefully get in to the South African events and then the Desert Swing. You just have to get some money on the board and build some momentum.
“I’ve not played great the last few years but the Challenge Tour has been a good learning curve. It has been an incredible 12 months and hopefully it will get better and better.”
