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Is new pro Lewis setting himself up for a fall?

Tom Lewis wants to replicate his Open Championship success © Getty Images

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• Profile: Tom Lewis

After a year to remember, Tom Lewis now faces a few weeks that could perhaps go on to define the rest of his career.

Having won the Silver Medal for the best-placed amateur after a memorable turn at this year's Open Championship at Royal St George's, Lewis now turns professional - setting himself the daunting task of earning his playing privileges for the 2012 European Tour season by making enough money from his handful of invites to the final few events of the year.

It's a task another player, Rory McIlroy, successfully completed in 2007 to establish himself on the tour, subsequently going on to forge a reputation for himself as one of the best players in the world - the bright hope of the sport he is today.

It is also a task reminiscent of the one Tiger Woods set himself back in 1996 - when the youngster won twice in seven starts to launch his professional career, and pulled back the curtain on a new era in golf that would get fully underway at the next year's Masters.

Most players, however, battle their way onto tour through the nerve-shredding year-end grind of qualifying school, before then playing a daunting schedule for a year around all corners of the continent to try and retain their playing rights for the next year.

It takes most players years of steady improvement to graduate to anywhere near the top table of the European game (even Martin Kaymer played on the Challenge Tour to get to the big leagues) but Lewis, perhaps to his credit, thinks he can avoid that fate.

"If someone came up and offered me a Tour card I'm sure I would play well enough to retain it," the 20-year-old told The Independent last week. "But the hardest thing is actually getting that card. For me, with all the expectation and attention, qualifying school would be a big ask.

"The best opportunity may be to play really well in the seven starts I'm allowed through invites and earn enough to finish high enough on this season's money list. That's what I'm hoping and I can do it. Rory did it."

To do so, Lewis needs to earn around £200,000 from the seven events he plays in - no easy task. To put that into perspective, 21-year-old Frenchman Victor Dubuisson - like Lewis a respected amateur, who instead turned pro late last year - has earned barely that much after playing 19 events already this season, and finishing in the top ten twice.

Four years ago McIlroy completed his feat primarily by finishing third at the Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews, a lucrative tournament that earned him his money in one fell swoop. Lewis has form at the historic course - winning the links championship there this year - but it is nevertheless a lot of pressure to put on the outcome of one tournament.

The Welwyn Garden City native, however, thinks he can do it primarily based on his performance at the Open - where an opening 65 had him in a share of the lead before he slipped away over the final three days (if not for his amateur status, he would have won around £29,000).

"I knew I'd play well that first day," said the 20-year-old. "And I was pleased how I came across afterwards and what it did for my profile, which will be really useful when I turn pro. But I felt angry with the way I played the last three rounds. The way I saw it was that if I'd shot three level pars I would have been in a play-off with Darren Clarke."

Another way of looking it - as harsh as Lewis' view is unrealistically bullish - is that if his first round score had been switched with his tally from the final two rounds, he wouldn't even have made the cut. Nevertheless, that 'raising of his profile' is part of the reason he will receive invites for the tournaments over the closing phase of the season, something others in his position might not be lucky enough to achieve.

Owning the silver medal - inheriting the honour from the likes of McIlroy, Chris Wood and Matteo Manassero - is both a badge of honour and a selling point, although Lewis seems unperturbed by its value.

"I was happy to finish leading amateur as it would have been embarrassing if I hadn't," Lewis said. "But deep down it didn't matter to me. My attitude was: 'If I'm not going to win the Open, then I'm not that bothered'. After my Saturday round, my dad was waiting for me on the range, but I didn't show up.

"I knew at that stage I wasn't going to win, so I felt it was all a waste of time. I didn't want to be there, I felt like I had blown it. That's the way I am and I hope I stay that way."

That attitude, particularly in the draining world of pro golf, could stand him in good stead. But it could equally put an extra weight on his shoulders if his lofty goals don't prove as attainable as he believes they will be. We've seen how Justin Rose - and more recently Nick Dougherty - can struggle if breaks start not to go though their way.

"I want to earn my Tour card, keep it, then win an event, finish in the top 10 on the Order of Merit, qualify for the Ryder Cup and win some majors," Lewis noted for the BBC, perhaps heaping unnecessary pressure on himself. "It would be nice to win my first event within the next three to four years, although that could happen in the next month of course.

"But if I've not won by the age of 23, I'll be disappointed."

It's a big ask, perhaps even a foolish one to note so publicly. Lewis doesn't have the greatest of amateur records when compared to his predecessors (the 2009 Boys Championship, a junior event, is perhaps his biggest success), while the manner in which he was beaten by both former US Amateur champion Peter Uihlein (who was shanking six-irons out of bounds at points during the week) and Russell Henley (the owner of a victory in a professional tournament already on the other side of the pond) in Walker Cup singles on his supposed home turf at the weekend suggests he is not quite the 'blue chip' prospect he considers himself to be.

Then again, if his words are not just rhetoric he would appear to have a similar psyche to the likes of Woods and McIlroy, and with IMG in charge of his management and Pete Cowen as his coach he has an astute group of agents and a fine judge (and developer) of golfer already in his corner.

In both his words and actions there appears to be a lot of Ian Poulter in Lewis - if like him he responds to pressure by raising his game then Lewis, who suffers from dyslexia and dropped out of school at 16, may actually be better off without any safety net to distract him.

"I didn't go to a school designed to cope with someone with dyslexia. There was nobody there to help me - but, to be honest, I didn't want help," he says of his education (he turned down the chance to go to college in the US). "I was just looking forward to leaving at 16. A lot of people talk about having a back-up, but to my mind if you are talking about a back-up your concentration is not fully on what you want.

"I've only got one goal. And if golf doesn't turn out to be my life I'm going to struggle."

Dubuisson, like many amateurs before him, had to go through qualifying school to earn his playing rights for this year. The likes of McIlroy and Woods are the exceptions, not the rule.

Lewis might be another in their ilk, but the odds aren't exactly in his favour. Hopefully he is able to realise everything he expects of himself but, if he doesn't (at least initially), let's hope those around him have formulated a back-up plan for his rise up the pro ranks - even if he hasn't.

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