Uihlein Donates £10,000 To Help Scottish Golf Union Player

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Martin Dempster reports that the European Tour's Peter Uihlein, one of the hottest golfers on the planet right now heading into the Race To Dubai, has donated £10,000 to the Scottish Golf Union, "to specifically help with Bradley Neil’s playing expenses after being impressed by the Blairgowrie teenager during their four days together in last month’s Dunhill Links Championship."

Now I know your heart strings have been tugged at upon learning of this noble charitable act, but the question has been asked by the five people who still think there is such thing as amateur golf: how is that one can donate money to be used for a specific player and said player remains an amateur?

Dempster says the R&A is monitoring the situation but there is no evidence whatsoever of tampering.

“Bradley was a pleasure to partner and I was very impressed with his performance,” Uihlein, the Madeira Islands Open champion, told the Associated Press. “He has a great chance of achieving success in the game if he continues to work hard. I will be following his career and hope the donation can play some small part in helping him progress in the right direction.”

Privately, Neil is understood to be delighted – understandably so. Due to the Rules of Amateur Status preventing players in the non-paid ranks from promoting themselves or being linked with either individuals or companies assisting them in such a way as Uihlein, though, he is prohibited from commenting publically on the matter.

Doing so would be deemed as publicising a sponsor and, in this instance, the R&A is likely to be watching the situation closely due to Uihlein’s links with equipment manufacturer Titleist. His father, Wally, is the CEO of Acushnet, its parent company.

Hey, just like IMG thought Earl Woods was just that good at scouting young talent, I'm sure there's nothing here. Move along!