• Out of Bounds

Tom Lewis - an apology

Tom Lewis holds aloft his prize © Getty Images

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• Profile: Tom Lewis

Dear Mr. Lewis,

First of all, congratulations on your victory at the recent Portugal Masters. To win in just your third start as a professional is remarkable, but the manner in which you finished off the job in Vilamoura was impressive in the extreme. To birdie five of your final seven holes - to win by two - was a fine way to achieve the historic.

And now, Out of Bounds must apologise. Regular readers of the column (hello to the four of you) will be well aware that Out of Bounds hasn't always been the biggest fan of the golfer formally known as Tom Lewis.

At the Open, where you stormed into the public consciousness with a remarkable opening round of 65, we decided not to focus on the numerous positive aspects of your performance and instead focus on the one negative - the nature of some of your sponsorship.

"At the very least, it all leaves a sour taste in the mouth," we concluded, with no little sanctimony, after you wore Ping and Hugo Boss-branded apparel throughout the event. "At the worst, well, perhaps he should never have been handed the silver medal in the first place.

"This isn't about whether or not Lewis will be a good or successful professional. It's whether he was an amateur in the spirit of golf's rules.

"The suspicion, unfortunately, is that he was not."

After being forced to recover from that slight against the good Lewis name, you waited until after a generally underwhelming Walker Cup campaign in September before finally turning professional. Perhaps already aware that Out of Bounds had what the hip hop community (of the 1990s) might call "major beef" with you, perhaps you weren't that surprised when this column immediately scoffed at your suggestions that you would earn enough money from sponsors' invites to claim playing privileges for the 2012 European Tour season.

"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," you said at the time. "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.

Ice-cold Bud

Bud Cauley has a bright future © Getty Images

• Tom Lewis isn't the only recently-graduated amateur to have made an impact this month. On the PGA Tour, Bud Cauley secured his playing rights for 2011 with another strong showing at the McGladrey Classic.
  
  Cauley, 21, followed up his third place at the Frys.com Open with a top 15 in Sea Island, doing enough to put him inside the all-important top 125 despite only turning professional prior to this year's US Open (T-63).
• 
  A look at some of the names who have played their way onto the main tour in the same manner suggests Cauley could well be one to watch - Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Justin Leonard all achieved the place in similar rapid fashion.
• 
  He needs to rein in his temper a bit (although hopefully that will come with age) and may find himself held back on longer courses by his diminutive stature (a harder problem to resolve) - but he appears to have the all-round game and mental strength to compete regularly at the highest level.
• 
  Following Lewis into the winner's circle might be the next challenge, but for now Cauley has given every reason to suggest he could be a future major winner.

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

Proving we hadn't run out of sanctimony in our previous polemic, we retorted: "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."

At the time, we considered you, Tom, to have been put firmly in your place - especially after you subsequently blundered your way through the weekend at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship (the most lucrative event on his schedule, where Rory McIlroy earned his card in the same circumstances you were attempting by finishing third in 2007).

Game, set, and match, we thought (although a golf metaphor would, admittedly, have been more appropriate).

And then you won in Portugal.

To you, Tom Lewis: €416,660 and the satisfaction of achieving one of your stated aims in record time.

To Out of Bounds: A huge slice of humble pie.

But we are big enough to admit when we were wrong. Okay, nearly big enough (we're still working through some stuff). We still don't think you were behaving within the true spirit of the amateur game at the Open - as perhaps evidenced by the continued presence of that irksome Hugo Boss shirt and Ping cap in Portugal - but at the end of the day you can't argue with a win.

Or maybe we can. After all, you only equalled Alejandro Canizares in winning on your third professional start - and what has he gone on to achieve, eh? A blistering start is no guarantee of a long-term career at the very top level; the Spaniard has been solid ever since but little more.

But, hey, what exactly do we know? Everyone else is saying you are golf's next superstar - and, at least based on recent records, we'd probably trust their judgement over ours.

So, well done Tom. You win this round. Enjoy it. But it's only the first round, and there will be many more to come.

Rest assured, we'll be there to take unreasonable pot shots at you each and every time you look like failing.

Yours sincerely,

Out of Bounds

P.S. The humble pie actually tasted pretty good. Not 'first-professional-win-and-€416,660-cheque' good, but better than what Mother Out of Bounds usually serves up. Although that isn't saying much.

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