Stephen Ames
Trinidad and Tobago's Golfer of the Century- by Eddy Odingi

The name Stephen Ames will long be remembered among various clubhouses in the Caribbean, or the world for that matter. It's up on the board at Marcus Points Country Club, where Ames won his first professional tournament ... the Pensacola Open in 1991 on the Ben Hogan Tour; in France where he won the Lyon Open in 1993 on the Volvo European Tour; in England for the 1996 Benson & Hedges, and before the end of his career, it might be known in Hawaii, all over the USA and even Australia, depending on how the winds blow. Stephen Ames is no ordinary character.

In his Hoerman Cup debut at the age of 16 in 1980, he smashed the course record at Sandy Lane, Barbados, with a six-under-par total of 66. It was by no means his last. There are other course records bearing his name in the USA and Europe.  Last year he finished 30th among the top professional golfers in Europe and 82nd in the world, and while to some this may seem insignificant, to those who understand golf, it was a fantastic achievement coming from a player of a third world country. Do you think he is satisfied? No way! Not the Stephen Ames I know. His next move will be to get among the top raters so that he can represent the rest of the world against the USA in the President's Cup. Ames will either rise to number one in the world or die trying.

 Stephen Ames was born to play golf. And its only by tracking his history can one really appreciate that his life was all destined... everything working towards one purpose. He first appeared on the scene as a 12 year old youngster from South, playing with the local professionals at Moka around 1976, where he was christened the nick-name "Abdool" by Roy Benny. Always willing to learn, his game matured quickly and by age 16, was the hottest thing around. Yet, and this may have been an important ingredient in the development of his character, things were not all hunky-dory at that stage. There was this problem of his education which he was ignoring, and despite being the holder of a course record at Sandy Lane, in his debut year, was being taught hard lessons of discipline by his father Michael. Michael was refusing to send Stephen, then 17, to Tobago for the final leg of Hoerman Cup trials, in an effort to have him concentrate more on his studies. It took an article by a rookie journalist, pointing out that one, Stephen would have to go to Tobago to ensure a place on the team, and secondly, that his services would be badly needed for Trinidad and Tobago to defeat Bahamas, who were the top team and defending Hoerman Cup champions at the time.

That story helped to establish Stephen Ames as the number one player in Trinidad and Tobago, and also started this writer in the profession of journalism. But that was only a start. Seven years later, in Stephen's first year as a professional, while playing the Jamaican Open, Ames hit the 18th green on the second day level par, after a good round on the opening day. The ball rolled over the green to the fringe at the back, slightly uphill and he chose to use a pitching wedge to try and stop the ball on the slicky downslope rather than putting off the toe of the putter and hoping for the ball to die. The ball rolled off the other side and Ames chipped back and two-putted for a double-bogey six for 74, which dropped him to around seventh for the tournament. Ames walked off the green and sat on a bench, back of the 18th with his head bowed between his legs for more than an hour. When this writer, who had also gone to play the tournament, walked over to console him, he said "This will never happen to me again," and promptly took his bag of practice balls to the driving range and hit 200 balls.

Any one of us local professionals would have been happy with his 74 and position in the tournament. Of course, we would have been disappointed with the double bogey, but a Red Stripe or two at the bar, and a small cry on somebody's shoulder would have taken care of that. But not Ames, what was good enough for us was way below his standard, and he was not satisfied with getting anything but the best from himself. He finished 11th, but he had gone to Jamaica with much higher expectations.

In a way, this self-whipping attitude proved his weakness, costing him many top 10 finishes, both on the Nike Tour and the European Circuit, where he would be well placed for three days, then fade away with one bad score. But it is also his strength and his desire to do well that has taken him beyond golfing scribes, when they visited Tobago, or Trinidad for annual tournaments. Ames has been able to run past names like Brian Barnes, Andrew Murray, Peter Baker, David Gilford, Barry Lane and others, who were looked on as golfing gods by locals, before his ascent.

A mis-understanding on re-entering the United States during the Nike Tour in 1992, cost him his US visa, and saw him making an impromptu exit from the Nike Tour and trying for the European circuit, in France. He qualified and had four reasonably successful years in Europe, winning twice and last year, placing fifth in the British Open at the famous St. Andrew's course in Scotland, having the honour of placing higher than world number one, Tiger Woods, and other names like Nick Faldo, Greg Norman and Bernhard Langer.

In between he got married to Jodi, a Canadian air hostess he had met while playing the Nike Tour, and also had a son Justin, born February 1997. One never to give up, he kept trying to qualify for the US Tour, and last year, after another reasonable performance in Europe with three top 10 finishes and quite a few in the top 20, tied third in the USPGA qualifying tournament in Orlando last December. Life was tough and expensive in Europe, particularly when he had to play tournaments outside England. He then had to travel to places like Spain, Germany and France, and even if the tournaments followed each other, he would first have to fly back to England before heading out again, which of course, seemed maddening.

Life for Ames should be much easier in the USA. Travelling will become much simpler and of course, the stakes are much higher. Ames also has a choice at two apples. He had qualified for both the European and US tours. One expects him to concentrate heavily on the US circuit, while playing a few selective tournaments in England.

Despite all his achievements Ames has never been able to cop the sportsman of the year award. Not so much that he had not been performing, but more to the fact he has been up against stiff competition and also that the judges do not understand golf. One year there was Brian Lara, then the last two years Ato Bolden. One comparison however. While Ato Bolden, who won this country two Olympic bronze medals in 1996, was voted sportsman of the year, Tiger Woods, who won three amateur tournaments in the USA, and was about to turn professional, was named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year over Michael Johnson, gold medallist in the 200 metres ahead of Ato and gold medallist in the 400 metres in world record time, at the Atlanta Olympics. Ames may never be Trinidad and Tobago's Sportsman of the Year, but he is certainly their Golfer of the Century!

NB. Sadly, Eddy Odingi died of kidney failure in June 2000, at the age of 59.

Reprinted here with the kind permission of Eddy Odingi from the February 1998 edition of the Golf Open Magazine.