The Open 2011: Suitors flock to Tom Lewis as professional life beckons

Tom Lewis is set to turn professional, with lucrative deals to follow, after his Open display. Photograph: David Davies/PA

The dance is a familiar one and it took place six months ago in the clubhouse at the Emirates golf club in Dubai. The family and advisers of a fine young amateur golfer, the Englishman Tom Lewis in this instance, and the Mr 10%-ers auditioning for the right to represent his interests in the professional world.

Five of the most powerful agents in European golf traipsed in for their 20-minute shot at the prize, and five traipsed out. But it appears there was a clear winner – with Lewis himself indicating he will sign with the International Management Group when he turns professional. As part of the agreement with IMG, there will be an advisory role for Daniel Field, the local club professional who has been looking after Lewis during his amateur career, according to reports.

IMG looks after interests of some of the leading European players, including Matteo Manassero, who joined the paid ranks last year. The 18-year-old Italian has made his mark as a professional, already winning twice on the European Tour and vaulting to a place inside the world's top 30.

Lewis, whose amateur record does not quite stand comparison with Manassero, cannot be expected to make the transition with such a aplomb. Nor can he be expected to live up to his own expectations of matching the six major championship victories of Nick Faldo, who learned to play golf at the same club in Welwyn Garden City.

But he should do well, both on and off the course. Lewis has already said he will turn pro later this year after playing in the Walker Cup, the amateur equivalent of the Ryder Cup, as did Rory McIlroy in 2007, and like the Northern Irishman he will have three months – and half a dozen European Tour events – to win his coveted playing card for 2012.

McIlroy earned his card with a top-five finish in the Dunhill Links at St Andrews, one of the most lucrative events in European golf. The 20-year-old Lewis will hope to do the same. If he does, the financial rewards will be great. As an amateur he is not allowed to enter into commercial agreements, or indeed formally sign with an agent, but there will be no shortage of corporate suitors.

At Royal St George's this week he has been playing with Ping golf clubs, and wearing clothing by the German company, Hugo Boss. Both are expected to sponsor him once he turns pro and given his high profile this past week there will be other companies seeking to attach their name to his.

Suffice to say, Lewis will be wealthy before he hits a ball in the pro world, though just how much he stands to make can only be guessed at. "A comfortable six-figures – more if he makes his European Tour card straight away,'' said one of the game's leading deal-makers. "If he doesn't, he will have to go to tour school or try his luck on the Challenge tour, where life is a bit tougher."

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Old master clears out the clutter to keep Tom Lewis in Open hunt | Paul Hayward

Tom Lewis receives encouragement from the veteran Tom Watson during the second round of the Open. Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Action Images

An Open moves with bruising speed but a still picture best described the Tom-Tom show. On the 16th green, Tom Lewis stood motionless over a putt while Tom Watson stood 15 feet away studying his young namesake with intense paternal concern. Sun lit the scene, the sky shimmered blue and all the ages of golf were united.

Striding off the green, Lewis extended his hand to a random boy of around 14 and pressed a gift into his palm. The lucky lad opened his fingers to find Lewis's golf ball. Delight rendered him speechless. From communing with the 61-year-old Watson, winner of five Open Championships, Lewis was connecting with someone closer to his own age on a day when few were left in any doubt about his potential to thrive in this most sadistic of games.

Eerie is the only way to characterise the throwing together of Old and Young Tom for 36 holes at Royal St George's. The young amateur takes his first name from the mellow-eyed legend. His brother, who was here, owes his moniker to Jack Nicklaus. If their father Bryan thought name-plagiarism was a quick route to fame he could claim vindication as the two Toms pursued their parallel paths across Kent.

Watson struck his second hole-in-one in major championships, with a four-iron at the 178-yard 6th, and Lewis shot a four- over-par 74 following his first-round 65: the lowest first-day score by an amateur in the 151-year history of the Open. In summery conditions he bogeyed the 4th, 6th, 12th, 17th and 18th and landed his only birdie on 13. This was nearly the best moment on the walk, he said, but there was one better: "Walking down the fairway with Tom on 7, with him giving me his tips on how he's won and the courses he's enjoyed is definitely the highlight of my career so far."

Those five bogies distort the tale of Lewis's second round. This was a display of grace under pressure, of courage in the face of spectacular overnight duress. In bed, his phone had beeped incessantly until he switched it to silent. In the morning he woke to 80 texts and "a lot more Facebook apps" – the new measure, one supposes, of cultural recognition.

Scanning his wardrobe, Lewis rejected sobriety in favour of a polo shirt that featured white, blue and turquoise sashes in the style of a 1970s football team. Blending in and hoping not to be noticed were not his aims. There was still no sign of his dad, who says he is too nervous to watch, so it fell to Watson to offer a kind of parental support and the galleries to help him through the many edgy moments that were bound to afflict the round.

"The crowd out there kept me going. If it was an amateur event where no one is watching I probably would have slipped away more," Lewis said. The swarms who followed him could sense the precariousness of his position and offered all they could to keep him on the path of romance. To head into Saturday one under after 36 holes remains a badge of honour for a youngster from Welwyn Garden City who claimed an Open place in final qualifying with rounds of 63 and 65 at Rye.

"If you asked me that two days ago, I'd have taken it, but at the moment it doesn't feel so good," he said. "I didn't putt very well. I didn't get the pace of the greens. I felt they were quicker and when I did hit it hard it went past quite a long way and when it came up short it was way short. I had to limit the damage and I felt there was loads of it out there. It would be nice to win the silver medal [for the leading amateur] and try to finish in the top 15."

The main damage was inflicted on the last two greens. Lewis bogeyed the 17th then fired his second shot at the last off the back of the putting surface, where it cracked into a wooden post and landed on a gravel path. The indignity was lifted by a fine scuffed chip shot to within seven feet of the flag but his putt for par slipped past. A smack of his putter head with the ball and a long rub of the face spoke of his annoyance at not finishing the round with a show of authority.

Senior Tom led the group up the 18th, still basking in his ace at the 6th, which reprised his hole in one at the 1980 US Open at Baltusrol, and showed Lewis, whose father idolised the old master, the role played by individual brilliance in the making of great careers. Inspiration is delivered best not through whimsy or fireside tales but ecstatic practical demonstration.

"He's good – he's a fine player, he really is," Watson, who was two over after 36 holes, said of Lewis. "He's got strength, he's got a wonderful putting touch, pitching touch. He flights the ball very well. He has a very good complement of shots in his bag already as a 20-year-old, and that's what you look for. Tom Lewis played a wonderful game yesterday. Today he missed a few shots, got the ball going off line a little bit a few times.

"I think the most important advice is, don't get too complicated in your life. You can get it very complicated by adding a lot of people and a lot of things in your mind. You don't need the clutter."

A warning to his new young friend, there, to keep the laser sharpness in those eyes.

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