Turning a dream into reality

An unknown golfer has shot into the limelight by winning golf's first TV reality show

Justin Peters. That's a name not even the most ardent of golf fans will recognise. Yet about three weeks back, he gave himself an early New Year gift "" four exemptions onto the 2004 Canadian Professional Golf Tour.

The Florida resident came through as the last man standing in The Big Break, golf's first-ever TV reality show. The show was so titled, because for each scratch golfer, it provided a chance to get the "big break of his golfing career".

Promoted by the Golf Channel in the US, it was a 10-episode show that started with 10 hopefuls picked from hundreds.

The Big Break was taped in July, but contestants were legally prohibited by contract from revealing the outcome.

The show, aired over 10 weeks starting in October, was filmed at the Treetops Resort in Gaylord, Michigan with the course owner and Golf Channel's Rick Smith, who instructs stars such as Phil Mickelson and Rocco Mediate, co-anchoring the coverage.

The ten final contestants were put through a series of shows where they vied with each in various kinds of skills, involving putting, chipping, driving, accuracy, bunker play, long irons, shot irons, wedge shots and so on. Competitions involved knockdown shots, flop shots, playing from a buried lie, chipping and driving.

The skills challenge was innovative in that it tested skills like chipping as many balls as possible in 90 seconds and getting them into three gasoline tanks which had different points depending on the degree of difficulty in getting the ball into each of them.

Then there was the challenge of hitting shots from 150 yards to as close as possible to a line painted ahead. Each golfer was given 10 shots and the average distance from the centre of the line was used to determine the winner.

Another interesting aspect of each weekly challenge was that those who were placed first in each skills challenge received a mulligan, an extra shot that the player was allowed to use at his disposal in the subsequent elimination challenge.

One player was eliminated each week and the last man left at the end of 10 weeks was Justin Peters, who was crowned the Big Break champion.

In addition the 10 players on the show were asked to name one other player who deserved an exemption and that vote went to Randy Block, who will receive exemption into one event.

After nine weeks (actually nine days, because it was all taped in advance), it was down to two golfers, Anthony Sorentino and Justin Peters. They squared off in an 18-hole match play situation with no more offbeat challenges. It was pure golf and Peters won 3 to 1.

Pro golfers can be a strange breed. They will blow their bank accounts and then even go to the extent of borrowing to chase that dream further.

Peters is just that type of a golf dreamer. He is just the kind of a winner, the channel and the Canadian Tour was looking for. Peters is 26 years old and plain broke.

Peters has battled adversity all his life. His father committed suicide. He and his daughter now live with his mother to get by. And his mother vowed that she would quit smoking if won on The Big Break. Now that he has, it remains to be seen if she can stick to her word.

Peters was the Player of the Year in Massachusetts while attending University of Nevada. That's where he began dreaming of playing pro golf about three years ago.

Some friends agreed to sponsor him and he went for the Qualifying School, where he nearly made it. He felt it was no big deal and expected to make it the following year, but he has not even been close to it.

For the next season, he used up his entire bank balance and to play the 2003 season, he took out a bank loan of $18,000 to pay the entry fee for the Golden Bear Tour, a mini tour in the US. Just to break even and pay his loan, he needed to make $40,000.

While high-level competitive sport is always cruel, golf can be worse. In many other minor leagues, players do make a living. In golf, you make money only if you make the cut, otherwise, you don't get a cent for even bed and food.

A PGA Tour qualifier has an entry fee of $4,000 plus expenses and you could be out in the first stage. And if you do get past that, there is still two more stages to go.

Among the mini tours, there is the Golden Bear Tour on Florida's east coast. It has an entry fee of $17,500; nearly 200 golfers paid that to play it last year.

More than three quarters of them failed to cover the entry fee, but two golfers did make more than $100,000, which is what a pro golfer would need to pay entry fees, travel and live decently while on a mini tour. And sponsors are not easy to come by.

Coming back to Peters, there was a period for about six months, when he caddied to make ends meet besides which he also did a stint as a telemarketer selling cleaners.

Golf may be his passion, but he needs to play well to support that passion, which could become his livelihood. He has a mortgage, school loans, car loans and his new entry fee loan, and he also has custody of his four-year-old daughter.

The Canadian Tour is where the 2003 Masters champion, Mike Weir began and that has been used a catchline for the reality show. The Canadian Tour, which partnered the Golf Channel in this unique show, feels that this kind of TV exposure will get it more eyeballs and advertising in the coming season.

But now the Golf Channel has given Peters a chance to come closer to his dream. Four starts on the Canadian Tour can change his life. Watch out for that name, Justin Peters, who has used a TV show to turn his dream into a reality.