KEY POINTS:
As he has done most of his life, James Gill is planning, organising and working hard to reach lofty goals. The soon to be 22-year-old, the current New Zealand, Turkish and Italian amateur strokeplay champion and this country's second-ranked amateur player behind Danny Lee wants to complete his
Master of Finance dissertation at St Andrews University in Scotland by June 22.
Then it's back to golf full-time.
Gill started at St Andrews last September after tournaments in the US and Europe which culminated with the titles in Italy and Turkey. Much of the past seven months has been dedicated to his academic work "The Underpricing of Initial Public Offerings". He hopes to earn a Distinction. While his classmates seek jobs in The City or on Wall Street, Gill wants to play for New Zealand in his second Eisenhower Trophy and qualify for the European Tour in September and October.
He's helped St Andrews to second in the Scottish Universities Winter League and to the semifinals of the British Universities championships in 10 days but the cold and lack of daylight mean golf opportunities have been limited.
Gill gained valuable experience in Texas where he played with PGA Tour member Craig Kanada and practised and talked to, among others, two of the Tour's bigger stars Jeff Maggert and K J Choi.
He admits his competitive outings lately have been neither numerous nor intensive, a ploy to freshen him up for what he hopes will be a watershed year.
"I think it's been great for my golf to not play that much. I've been able to work on my swing and on my mental game. I played a tournament at St Andrews the other day - the R & A Bursars - and I couldn't believe how mentally fresh I felt."
His next big assignment is this week at the Bonallack Trophy at Valderama, in Andalucia, Spain, where he and Lee are the New Zealand players in the Asia-Pacific team to play Europe. He is frustrated that he won't be at Paraparaumu to defend his national strokeplay title but accepts date clashes are inevitable.
After university, Gill plans to play the top American amateur tournaments as he did last year, to get him in prime shape for the European Tour qualifier and the Eisenhower Trophy if he's selected.
James Gill is proof that, with planning, time management and energy, academia and elite sport can be mixed successfully.
As he says: "The more letters after my name, the better job I can get if golf doesn't work out."
Success as a professional golfer is unpredictable. But Gill's prospects are brighter than most.
