Making it in Europe

Not too many of the Challenge Tour habitués knew the first thing about the American or his father when first he appeared on their patch.

England’s Simon Wakefield, who was demoted to the Challenge Tour for 2012, befriended the newcomer but he knew nothing of the young man’s background. "Peter," said a bemused Wakefield earlier this year, "never mentioned anything about it. He was just a regular chap who mixed in with the rest of us no bother …"

Not, mind you, that Uihlein has ever had any problems in handling questions about his family when they do arise. There were plenty of occasions during his amateur days when friends would ask for a handful of golf balls. Peter, in turn, would issue a cheerful reminder that it was his dad who worked for Acushnet and not him. Even now, he enjoys pointing to how he has had the same set of blades in his bag since 2002.

When Uihlein’s fellow players became aware of the situation, there were plenty who wondered why he had decided to join them when he could almost certainly have established himself on the PGA Tour via invitations. Not only would he have merited a few starts on the basis of the 2010 US Amateur Championship he won on his 21st birthday, but his family background would surely have come in handy.

Peter, however, makes it abundantly clear that he has no interest in short cuts. "All of the opportunities I’ve had in golf have been earned," he says with understandable pride. "None of them have been based on my last name."

Uihlein admitted that he found the Challenge Tour and its travels a tad uncomfortable at the start – and never more so than when he and Brooks Koepka, the American player sharing in his European dream, called for a taxi at an event in Kenya. The driver ignored their instructions and took them on a long and scary journey which, mercifully, would end without incident.

That apart, the pair had a ball, visiting virtually every country under the sun. In South Africa’s Mossel Bay, they spent a couple of hours watching great white sharks from a sea cage; in Korea, at the start of this year, Uihlein had to pinch himself to believe that they were playing just 20 miles away from the North Korean border at a time when no one knew quite what to expect next from Kim Jong-un.