FROM THE US FUTURES TOUR NEWSLETTER(Courtesy of Gillian Kirkwood)
(Photo by Gillian Kirkwood - all rights reserved)
Friday night is always the busiest night in the chip van for Campbell Feggans.
Truth to tell, he’d rather be home watching his daughter’s golf scores over in America as they trickle in on the Internet.But then again, the camaraderie of an entire village makes it that much more fun as he rolls his van, known as the “Nippy Chippy,” through the streets of Patna in Ayrshire.
On a Friday night, which most often happens to be the first round on the Duramed Futures Tour where his daughter Pamela Feggans plays, Campbell serves up his trademark fish and chips to the locals, while getting golf scores from his wife, Jean.
Jean is also in the chip van, bouncing between waiting on customers and calling friends with computers for regular updates from the Tour’s “Real-Time Scoring.” Once they get the scores, Jean and Campbell relay the news to the locals along with their steaming fish and chips, haggis and sausages.It’s the usual ritual, and those regular customers are pleased to get both the crispy fish and potatoes, along with the news of how one of their own is doing outside the village.
And for the record, Feggans – playing in her first full season as a professional – is off to a solid start. She has made the 36-hole tournament cut in all four events she has played, posting a career-best tie for seventh two weeks ago in Louisiana.With sub-par opening rounds of 67-71 that week, Feggans played in the leader’s group for the last two rounds. She was a bundle of nerves that week, and her friends back home could just about feel it an ocean away as the steam from the fish fogged their faces in the gloaming.
“It’s kind of cool to know that so many people in the whole village are watching my scores,”
said Feggans, 25, who came to the States to play college golf.
“Everybody knows everybody there.”
With a population of less than 3,000, Patna is a working-class village 35 miles south of Glasgow. The village was established in the 1800s to provide housing for coal workers. It has a nine-hole golf course on hilly terrain where young Pamela got her start in the game at age 12.
“You need one leg shorter to play there, but I learned every lie in the book on that course,”
she said.
“When I went to a flat course, it was easy.”
Feggans was the only girl in Patna to embrace the game, so she spent her time on the course with the boys, trying to out-slug them from the same tees. In the summer months in Scotland, daylight allowed the youngsters to play until 11 p.m. If her family wanted Pamela to come home, they had to go find her on the course.
By the time she was 18, she wanted to follow others from her homeland to play college golf in the U.S. She had never been Stateside and didn’t know that all of America did not look like Midland, Texas, where she enrolled at Midland Junior College
"It was the desert with a lot of oil wells and cowboys,”
said Feggans.
“I was so naïve. That was my first taste of America and I just thought that was the way it was everywhere.”
But after one year at Midland, the school canceled its golf program, so Feggans went on a recruiting trip to Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Fla. Florida Southern boasted a competitive NCAA Division II program that had just won two national championships.
The Scot was a welcome addition to an already successful program and the sophomore-transfer quickly went to work, playing in the team’s No. 1 position.Feggans was an NCAA Division II All-American for three years, made the Sunshine State All-Conference team for three years, was the 2005 Conference Golfer of the Year during her senior season, and finished second, third and second individually in three consecutive NCAA Championships.
“Pamela is a terrific, goal-oriented young lady and she knows that whatever she wants, she has to work for it,”
said Norm Benn, the Florida Southern assistant coach who recruited Feggans.
Of course, Feggans once told Benn that she didn’t plan to graduate from college – she just planned to play golf and turn pro. That was a statement that still makes Benn laugh out loud.
“She did graduate and she was the first one in her family to graduate from college,”
said Benn.
“Her family came over from Scotland for her graduation and her father wore the kilt and everything.”
Celebration, it was. But instant success, Feggans was not.During her last semester of college, she played poorly at the Duramed FUTURES Tour’s Q-School and went home to Scotland in December 2005.
During those winter months, she and her dad operated the chip van, up and down the streets of Patna. All she could do was daydream about golf. She didn’t touch a club until April 2006.A recurring back injury minimized her playing time. All of the lifting and leaning over in the van didn’t help. Feggans took more time away from the game to rest her back and to perform strengthening exercises in physical rehab.
“My dad told me to go get another job, but I was working in the van to give my mom a break,”
said Feggans
“She’s a cleaner in the morning and worked with my dad at night. I was trying to help them out.”
Feggans also began preparing for her second attempt at the Duramed FUTURES Tour’s Qualifying Tournament in November 2006. But like the first effort a year before,
“that one didn’t go too good, either,”
she said.
“I put too much pressure on myself instead of relaxing and just letting it happen,”
said Feggans.
So it was back to the chip van for most of 2007. Feggans played in the U.S. Women’s Open Qualifier and advanced into the second stage, but fell short of qualifying for the Open. She also tried to qualify for the Women’s British Open, but missed by a couple of shots. She even was unsuccessful in getting an invitation to play in the Scottish Women’s Open.
“I just didn’t know where I was heading and I was getting down in the dumps,”
said Feggans.
“I was starting to wonder how many chances I was going to get?”
The Scot knew she wanted one more chance at the Duramed FUTURES Tour’s Q-School, so she began working with teaching professional Karyn Dallas at home. Dallas helped her with the mental side of her game and worked with Feggans on a swing change until the middle of 2007 – a change that also helped with her sore back.
“I guess I needed a lot of encouragement and Karyn tried to talk me into not giving up,”
said Feggans.
“Maybe it was ‘third time lucky,’ but it was great to finally call home and tell my parents that this time, I did it.”
Feggans earned her exempt status at the Tour’s Q-School last fall, which paved the way for her to return to America. Friends in Lakeland helped the player find some financial backing to get her started. It’s still hit or miss. And it’s still hard for Feggans to be away from her family.
When her grandmother died in February just before the 2008 Lakeland tournament, Feggans was still grieving when she teed it up on the familiar course she played often in college.
“When I left home, I knew deep down it would be the last time I’d see her,”
said Feggans of her grandmother.
“And at the Lakeland tournament, I couldn’t just call her and tell her how I played.”
But the Scot’s grandmother, like the rest of Patna, would be proud of how far the chipper’s daughter has come. With a quiet determination, a calm smile and a big drive off the tee, Feggans seems to be finding her comfort zone this year.She knows her best golf is just ahead. And she knows the faces all too well back home who cue up for battered fish and fresh news about her game.
“I’m excited about this year because I’ve been given the opportunity to be out here and do something I love doing,”
she said.
“My parents want to give me the opportunity to chase my dream and I’m very lucky to have a family that sacrifices as much as they do.”
And while Pamela Feggans is no longer riding in the chip van, in a way, she still is. Her scores and her ability to compete alongside some of the best women professionals in the world are right there on the menu and in the imaginations of so many every Friday night, rumbling along the streets of Patna with a direct link all the way to America.
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