KEY POINTS:
How's this for golfing nirvana: you attend St Andrew's University in Scotland and each morning you wake up and know golf's most famous stretch of turf is just five minutes walk away.
And on top of that, you've got playing privileges there for the next year. That'll do,
thank you very much.
That's what is in store this year for James Gill, one of the country's best amateur players.
Gill, 21, will attend St Andrew's University across the road from the home of golf from October as he works towards a one-year post graduate diploma in finance, having last year completed his Bachelor of Management Studies, majoring in accounting and finance at Waikato University.
He won a golfing scholarship to St Andrew's, and some special perks, such as a £118 ($318) membership to the seven courses which form the St Andrews' Trust, and include the celebrated Old Course.
Gill is the first New Zealander to get a Royal and Ancient bursary scholarship for golf. How did it come about?
"I was looking for somewhere to go overseas. I stumbled across St Andrew's and saw they offered scholarships for golf and thought that'd be good," he said.
Emails were exchanged and now Gill's packing his bags, but he's clear on his priorities; it's golf until he settles into St Andrew's then ...
"The academic pretty much comes first, but the golf programme is still pretty serious. I've had a week-to-week plan, and it's all moulded round improving yourself mentally, physically, getting better at nutrition, course management, everything round golf. There are devoted practice sessions every day and training camps in different locations."
Among a clutch of up-and-comers, Waikato's Gill and Rotorua's Danny Lee are arguably the pick of the amateur crop. Gill won the national strokeplay title on his home Hamilton course with an 8-under 280, breaking a five-year New Zealand drought.
On May 12 he's off to Queensland for a leadup tournament to the Four Nations event at Barwon Heads just outside Melbourne, where he will team up with Lee and some of New Zealand's best prospects, Auckland's Leighton James, Troy Ropiha from New Plymouth, Andrew Searle of Christchurch and Waikato's Mark Boe.
Then there's about three months of tournaments on both United States coasts before Gill heads to Europe where several events beckon before settling into academic life in Scotland.
Gill is notably level-headed about where his golf talent might take him. He's not one for the starry-eyed ambition, but has a more realistic view of what might beckon.
He pointed out few players are major influences on the world stage before they are 30. Last year's US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy turns 30 in June, a month after 2003 British Open winner Ben Curtis, but they are exceptions. Tiger Woods is 31, and the ultimate exception.
"Yes, I want to win a major tournament, but I see it more as a gradual progression.
"I think of things that could actually happen. You work your way up, learn a few more tricks along the way and get more mentally strong, and eventually you'll get there - hopefully."
Gill is aiming to turn pro at the end of next year, a year which understandably has him "pretty excited".
