After a career in rules and tournament administration spanning more than four decades, few are better known in European golf than Mike Stewart.
Respected by colleagues and players alike spanning several generations, the Scot is retiring at the end of December following almost 40 years of service with the European Tour group.
Since joining the European Tour, now known as the DP World Tour, in 1986, Stewart has overseen close to 600 tournaments and refereed at the Major Championships and multiple Ryder Cups.
Across that time, he has served as a referee and then as a tournament director – most notably at the Dubai Desert Classic and Scottish Open – and was most recently the Director of Qualifying School.
That was a role he held since 2001 through to his outgoing year, with last month’s Final Stage of Q-School in Spain marking the 266th and final event of that reign.
He also represented the Tour on the R&A’s Equipment Standards Committee for 29 years, finally stepping down at the end of 2023.
Having joined the Tour as one of its very first members of staff, he has seen first-hand the growth of the organisation which also oversees the HotelPlanner Tour and Legends Tour, where he helped with the early editions of the Senior Open.
From Arnold Palmer to Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and many others, Stewart has worked with the greats of the game, adjudicating on rulings in a manner of calmness despite situations often being highly pressurised with many onlookers from around the world.
He also worked alongside and learned from fellow former rules officials John Paramor and Andy McFee, both of whom too enjoyed distinguished careers.
Such was his standing not only at the Tour but among other organisations, Stewart was given the honour of being the walking official for Woods’ group in his final appearance working at The Open Championship at St Andrews in 2022.
Modest about his achievements, he departs as the longest-serving member of the Tour staff.
We sat down with Mike to reflect on his longevity at the Tour, some of his fondest memories and the interactions he has shared with some of the game’s biggest names.
How did you first get involved in golf officiating?
I started with the PGA of Scotland in 1984. I got a job there working under Sandy Jones, who went on to become the chief executive of the PGA for many, many years. I had that role for two years. I was then lucky enough to secure a position with the European Tour. It was an opportunity that arose and I thought I might as well have a go, and it was really just my good fortune that Ken Schofield [the then European Tour’s Executive Director] decided to offer me a job in our Tour Operations department as a referee.
What did it mean to get the role at the Tour?
I've played golf for most of my life. I've never been a professional or played at an elite level but I just had a passion for the game. If you've got any sporting inclination at all, the thought of being involved in sport is quite appealing. I didn't aspire to get into golf. It was just a case of there's an opportunity, let's try that and then my role with the Scottish PGA turned into a role with the European Tour. At that time, I think I was about the 20th employee of the company. If you look at how big we are now, it's quite extraordinary how much we've grown.
Who did you work alongside when you joined the Tour?
First of all, in the early days, the three key people I was working with and under were Tony Gray, John Paramor and Andy McFee. All were fantastic tournament directors, all very highly thought of in the world of golf. I was lucky enough to learn a lot from them. I was also mentored as a referee by the late, great Keith Williams. He took many other referees who came on board like me under his wing. In particular, learning how to set-up golf courses. A lot of his guidelines are things that we still use on Tour today. So, he was incredibly helpful and generous with his time and support back then.
What are your memories of your first event?
My first event was the Spanish Open at La Moraleja in May 1986. Andy McFee was the tournament director, and I went out there as a referee. Like anybody who suddenly finds himself heading off to a big tournament in another country, it was a whole new experience. Going out to Spain and working with the Spanish Golf Federation and the tournament promoter, Amen Corner was a very steep learning curve for someone more used to running one day pro-ams in Scotland. That week, I think it was on Tuesday, I can remember exactly where I first met Seve Ballesteros under the steps of the La Moraleja club house, having been introduced by Andy. Those are little things that stick in your mind, and you never forget them. That week was a great experience. I can remember that week but what I did for the rest of that season is just a blur!
How did your role at Qualifying School first come about?
Well, the end of that season (1986) was my first encounter with the Qualifying School, which was played at La Manga at the time. I can remember being down in Spain working on the event. It was run by Andy McFee, the then Qualifying School director. Then in ’88, I was meant to be at La Manga helping Andy and he became ill just before the tournament. So, I stepped into his shoes and took over the running of the Q-School Final for the first time that year.
How did your role come to evolve at the Tour?
Becoming a tournament director was just something you gradually moved into as you gained experience and opportunities arose. So, I started to do a few events as a tournament director, while also refereeing at the same time and that just evolved over a few years to the point, as we took on more staff, where I pretty much became a full-time tournament director. It was also around the early 1990s that we as a group of tour referees started to get invited by other organisations to officiate at the Major Championships. First of all, at The Open and then subsequently Augusta, U.S. Open and the US PGA Championship. That opened up another door for us, and it was great to be involved in many of those tournaments over the years as well. I went to countless Open Championships. I think it was about 27 I've worked at with my final one being the 150th at St Andrews in 2023. What a fitting place and time to end my Open run. I loved doing those events, especially meeting and collaborating with some of the best officials from around the world.
A key part of your work are the dealings with some of the world’s best-known players. What was the first such encounter that sticks with you?
Meeting Seve for the first time was pretty memorable. At the time he was the great big superstar of European golf. I think everybody was a bit in awe of him as I probably was at La Moraleja. That was my first meeting and as I got to know him over the years he was always really nice to me. He had this incredible way of using the rules to his advantage. He could be very persuasive and could often talk referees into seeing things from his perspective. You’d say, ‘oh well, he's got a point there and maybe he should get a drop after all’. I think we all succumbed to Seve’s powers of persuasion at some point.
Any standout encounters with Seve?
While I was getting quietly prepared for the presentation in Dubai in 1993, my colleague was giving Seve a ruling on the last hole. Anyway, Seve decides he doesn’t like the answer, so the referee said ‘OK, I'll give you a second opinion’. Well, I'm currently getting ready for the prize presentation, getting my notes ready, what I'm going to say, who's going to be where, etcetera, etcetera. Then I’m suddenly called out to go to give this second opinion and my heartrate goes into overdrive. And Seve tried everything under the sun to convince me that he should get relief from a ball that was embedded in sand in one of the sandy waste areas left of the 18th. Everything he requested, I declined. As the sand was wet, he asked about casual water. No, Seve, you don't get that. He asked about unusual crowd damage. No, you don't get that here. And then he said, well, surely it just must be ground under repair. No, you don't get that either. In the end, he had to play the ball as it lay, and he just lost out after realistically needing an eagle to stand a chance of winning. At the presentation afterwards, he wasn't angry or anything. He just came over and said, ‘by the way, Mike, I think you were wrong there. I should have had a free drop!’. But that was just the nature of the man and how situations can arise like that when you least expect them.
Is it a source of great pride for you that you have worked with so many of the game’s greats?
I was lucky to come across golf’s ‘big three’ of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer at the tail end of their careers. I did the first two or three Senior Opens at Turnberry, helping to get that event off the ground and Arnold and Gary played in them. Indeed, Gary won the second edition in 1988. I then met Jack for the first time playing in the Austria Open at Gut Altentann in 1990 on a course he designed. It was great to be involved with that generation, some of whom are true legends of the game. I was fortunate to witness an incredible era for European golf which began with the likes of Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo, Seve, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, José María Olazábal. To be around them and work with them was just absolutely brilliant. It's probably even more amazing now to look back on this golden generation of European golfers because at the time it just seemed normal. They were quickly followed by Monty who became a star, just by his sheer consistency and winning so many consecutive Harry Vardon trophies - that was phenomenal. More recently, of course, we've got the newer stars in the game. I’ve seen Rory McIlroy come through. I first met Rory playing at the First Stage of Qualifying School at The Oxfordshire in 2007. He qualified comfortably but didn't have to go and play at Second Stage because he'd won enough money following a third place finish at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship as an invite to secure his card for the following year. Yes, even players like Rory have played Qualifying School! But to see all those generations of great players and work with them has been unforgettable.
Which event are you most proud of?
Well, I think it's 35 countries I've worked in for the Tour. The one tournament that stands out obviously is the Dubai Desert Classic for various reasons. It's worth knowing that I was the very first person from the European Tour ever to go to Dubai in 1988. I think it was November, and we were looking to run the event there the following season and I went out on a recce to see if it was suitable to host an event. Clearly it was, and that started my connection and collaboration with the team out there, which went on for many, many years. Apart from one year in 1991 when the event was cancelled due to the Gulf War, I was involved in every single edition. It was after 34 editions that I decided to step down, and it was the perfect place for me to end my career as a tournament director on the Tour because I've been so closely linked to that event for so long. I'd seen it grow considerably. Clearly there have been a huge number of people involved in getting it to where it is now as one of the finest events on the Tour, on the Rolex Series. The event has continued to evolve from day one. It was always called the ‘jewel in the crown’ of our early season on Tour from the early days because it was a great place to go to. Most of the top players have been there at some stage. Simply, a terrific event played at a great time of the year on a great golf course at an iconic venue. I mean, everything about it has been fantastic and I've loved being involved in the journey to get it where it is now. I’m fairly sure it's going to go on and become even bigger and better in the future, but I’m proud of the small part I've played in getting it to where it is today.
Part of what makes Qualifying School great is the platform it gives to players – how do you reflect on that as an event over the years?
It was originally the only way of really getting onto the Tour because there weren't many other options. Any player who wanted to establish themselves back in the 70s and 80s had to go to Qualifying School. The Challenge Tour, now known as the HotelPlanner Tour, did not exist - that came later. Your main avenue was to go to Qualifying School and make a hop onto the DP World Tour. The emergence of the HotelPlanner Tour in 1989 changed that, because performance over the course of a season became more important than performance over one week at Q-School.
There are now even more avenues to get onto the Tour. We never had co-sanctioned events back in the day but those, such as with the Sunshine Tour, have become quite significant. Those pathways give a huge opportunity for the southern hemisphere players to play their way onto our Tour without coming to Q-School or playing on the HotelPlanner Tour, which itself provides a route to get on to the DP World Tour. I also see Q-School as a place for guys who've struggled for a year or two to go and try to regain their Tour card. It's a big opportunity for them to secure their status for the following year as much as it’s about the new young blood coming through.
I have a picture somewhere and it appears on one of the yearbooks of the Q-School graduates from 1989 and if you look back at that picture, there's so many well-known faces who went on to have great careers in golf in some respect. You had Vijay Singh, Jesper Parnevik, Paul Broadhurst, Jean Van De Velde, Carlos Franco but then others like Andy Stubbs who went on to run our Legends Tour for a while. You had Paul Carrigill too who became a referee on the DP World Tour. There were plenty of people like that that were playing Q-School at the time and made a name for themselves in other ways, like Pete Cowen, the world-renowned coach. In my first year [as Q-School director] Nick Dougherty finished third at Final Stage at San Roque. I think it was his first Q-School having turned professional that year. He started to have a great playing career but then things went in a different direction for him, and he’s become an outstanding broadcaster. It is remarkable how many of those players have then gone on to be great players for a long time or moved off into the different areas of the professional game and still had great careers.
Not everything is plain sailing as a tournament director, so what’s been the biggest logistical challenge?
Well, it was coincidentally at my final Desert Classic in 2023. It was an absolute nightmare because the weather was horrific during the week. Heavy overnight rain on Wednesday night and Thursday meant severe flooding and we lost over eight hours of play on the first two days and ended up running into Monday to complete the golf tournament. Now, that's the first time that had happened in Dubai in my 34 years of running it, so that was fairly significant. It was so bad that the golf club was closed on Thursday morning and no-one was allowed in and it was virtually impossible to get there anyway. When play eventually started it was ‘behind closed doors’ due to spectator safety concerns. In these extreme situations you are constantly working on a strategy and contingency plans to deal with all possible eventualities. It's not just about having the golf course playable, but can players actually get to the golf course to play? Are the structures safe? Can we let people into the structures? Do we reduce the event to 54 holes? Those are all the sort of conversations we had. The golf is obviously the key thing, but there's other stuff that goes on as well. Although at one point it seemed like a pretty horrific conclusion to my tournament director career, it ended up being a great success because we got 72 holes played and Rory triumphed after a thrilling final round involving Patrick Reed. I have a picture of myself with Rory after the presentation. I’m pretty sure it's the first time in all my tournaments over the years I've had a picture taken with the winner of a golf tournament. It was my last one and I'm glad I have it.
The other one, which was equally as bad in many ways, was at the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart in 2011 where on the Saturday morning we arrived at the course to find a landslide across the first fairway and a further smaller one on the 12th hole. It was quite an effort to try and get that event back on track again as well, so I suppose those are the two that come immediately to mind. But our Tour Operations team have all faced considerable weather issues over the years and had very difficult decisions to make about playing or not playing. Week in week out, the team does a fantastic job in some circumstances which are often very challenging. It’s a team that I’ve been very proud to be part of.
We’ve not really touched upon the Ryder Cup. What is a standout memory for you?
Well, my first one was in 1989 at The Belfry refereeing there. My recollection is that he atmosphere between the players was pretty intense. I have to say there is nothing else in golf like it. Having worked pretty much all the major golf events around the world, it’s above and beyond anything I've ever been involved with. It's just an incredible experience to be involved in something like the Ryder Cup, especially being inside the ropes with the matches. That year, Faldo made a hole-in-one at the 14th, and I was the referee with him in that match and there’s now a plaque at the side of the tee. When I last saw him at The Belfry, I said there’s something missing off that plaque. It doesn't tell you who the referee of the group was!
And lastly, how do you reflect on your time working for the Tour?
I'm incredibly proud of it. As I said earlier, there were 20 of us when I started. Now, we are well over 300. So, it gives you an indication of the growth of the whole organisation which is quite incredible and I feel privileged to have been involved as part of Ken Schofield’s team, building the foundations for what we have today. Nowadays, everything that we do in the business is so much more professional and that's been great to see. I think I'm leaving it in a much better place than when I started. But maybe it’s not as much fun. We had a lot of fun in those good old days!
Mike Stewart was speaking to the DP World Tour's Digital Editor Mathieu Wood
