After 15 years of ups and downs on Tour, Andrew Coltart has a stoical view of the life of a pro.
For every Tiger Woods or Padraig Harrington, there are hundreds of professionals who don't enjoy the success and financial rewards that come with being a regular winner, or even contender.
One player who knows all about the highs that come with winning in golf and the low of failing to make cut after cut is Scotland's Andrew Coltart.
In the 1990s Coltart enjoyed two European Tour wins, was twice Australian PGA Champion and he played in the Ryder Cup - against Tiger Woods no less! But he lost his playing privileges in November 2007, dropping out of the European Tour's top 125 players.
This week he received a sponsor's invitation to take part in the Indonesian Open and
Golf Night caught up with him. Now it might have been the result of the Indonesian massage he had just received prior to his interview but we found a relaxed and philosophical Coltart.
Achievements
He said: "I have been out here for 15 years, so if things stopped immediately I would still look back on it and think it was fantastic. I achieved an awful lot, more than I ever thought in the early days that I was capable of achieving."
So golf has treated him well, or at least it was treating him well until last year, because since teeing it up against Tiger, Coltart has hit leaner times and in 2007 he fell to 168th on the European Order of Merit, missing 18 of 27 cuts. He then failed to recapture his card a Q-School.
He said: "Having to go to Q-School when you have been out here 15 years, you say to yourself 'I am one of the best players here', that was quite a shocking point where I felt I had played alright but nothing panned out for me. I wasn't even close to making the cut, so that was quite a smack in the chops.
"After a bit of soul searching, a bit of thought, obviously I still wanted to be out here. I am still very, very hungry and I still have a few years left and I still want to do something with them; I have a hell of a lot of goals I still want to achieve."
Sponsors
And so the current life of Coltart, the life of a player outside the top 125 and hoping for invitations, has its pro and cons, as he explains.
"It can be quite exciting because you don't make a plan and then someone phones up and says you have managed to get an invite this week," he said.
"It is fantastic and you rub your hands and really look forward to playing, which is good. You have had a little bit of time at home with the family and then you get to go off and play in a tournament. Because you are going to have limited starts, you really look forward to it.
"Spending more time with the family is fantastic. You miss your kids, you miss your wife and you don't get to do a lot of normal things that normal families get to do together.
"Ok, when things are going well the financial rewards are very, very good but when things don't go well, it is tough for everybody.
"Just to spend a bit of time with them and re-evaluate the situation and learn a lot about yourself - hopefully I can use all that for a positive."
So far, the positive approach is working. He made the most of an invitation to Qatar, where he finished 13th. He has made the cut in Indonesia, which means another cheque is on the way.
Before Jakarta he was just inside the top 100 on the Order of Merit, so at least for now a return to Tour School, and another smack in the chops, is not on the horizon.
