Coronavirus: Kent pro Steve Tiley ditches golf practice to help fight the pandemic
- Published
Tiley was the leading Englishman after round one of The Open at St Andrews in 2010
Professional golfer Steven Tiley is using the sporting lay-off not to work on his game but instead on a factory floor - manufacturing hand sanitiser for use by the NHS in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead of strolling the fairways of Europe's Challenge Tour, the 37 year old - who made headlines at St Andrews during the 2010 Open Championship, external - is doing late shifts operating machinery filling and capping bottles while gaining an important perspective on life.
This might have been a big season for Tiley after the Kent player won his first title on the European Tour's second tier last year. But rather than honing his game, he is discovering what work is like in the real world.
Tiley is employed by his dad, John, who has converted his business into one that produces and supplies sanitiser.
"It is hard graft, yeah," Tiley told BBC Sport. "The first couple of days I got a headache. We all wear protective masks and I just thought it was from the fumes.
"I was asking my dad is it safe?
"But as it wore on, it was actually the fact that I'd never done seven hours in a row in a workplace before. I think that's why I got the headache more than anything else."
It is a different kind of hard work to that which is required to turn golfing talent into a professional career.
"We do have long sessions on the range," Tiley stressed. "We work hard and sometimes in hot climates and I always tell my wife I'm working hard, so I've got to be careful here!
"There are parallels because on the range it can be monotonous at times, hitting ball after ball after ball.
"That machine is just like that, you're doing one bottle after another. But I'm on that machine for an hour, whereas if I'm practicing for an hour someone might come on the range and say hello and you can be distracted.
"You can easily just walk off and say let's go and do something different," he added. "On that machine no one is bothering you and you just crack on."
Tiley has been working four days a week at his dad's Nutracrest factory
Tiley jumped at the chance to work for his father. He is not one of those elite professional golfers who enjoys complete financial security.
This would have been his 12th year on Tour. His maiden win came last year at the La Vaudreuil Golf Challenge where he claimed a cheque for approximately £29,000 to top up career earnings of around £388,000.
The extra income he is currently earning is important to him and his primary school teacher wife.
"Luckily I have saved a little bit of money and had a couple of OK seasons with a win last year and the UK Par-3 Championship the year before. But we haven't played much all winter, we stopped our season last November."
Tiley added: "My dad pays me a little bit of pocket money but that's enough to keep the heating on and pay the bills.
"It's just a very tough time. I can't imagine what it is like for other people who are worse off than me."
The last time Tiley played golf was 17 March for nine holes at Royal Cinque Ports in Deal, where he is attached
While other athletes are on social media demonstrating fitness and practice regimes, he is home schooling his two children aged five and seven before heading off to the factory for shifts from 3-10pm four days a week.
"I like the aspect that you can sometimes go there do your job and walk out," Tiley said.
"A lot of pro golfers, me especially, we take our work home with us. We are constantly thinking about golf."
There is concern for how the European Tour will be affected by the shutdown and the Challenge Tour may prove even more vulnerable to economic downturn.
"I have no idea whether we will play again this year or not," he said.
"I know prize funds are probably going to be reduced even more and I don't think we are going back to a tour that we knew before.
"It's not going to be that we'll all be going back and playing the BMW PGA for £7m or go back on the Challenge Tour and it's going to be all great.
"The European Tour as a business is suffering like every other business around the world."
In the meantime Tiley continues to work for the family firm.
"The novelty has been wearing off," Tiley admitted. "But I'm not going to complain.
"There are times when I'm in the cleaning room and I'm just looking out the window and if golf was back on I'd certainly be wanting to play.
"I will definitely not take it for granted again. This awful pandemic has made us realise a lot of people take a lot for granted.
"I have a new perspective on the fact that we are very, very privileged to play golf for a living."
And with that Tiley ended the conversation. It was time to deliver a box of his products to a local school - a perfect illustration of the way his life has been so dramatically altered.