Joe
Yes I am mainly talking about the elite players in the UK, but I also feel the opportunities for anyone wanting to play golf for fun at university in the UK are poor. My experience at the University of Birmingham which regularly are top in the golf leagues and linked with the PGA offer absolutely no support to the golfers. I believe the situation has slightly improved but not much since I was there due a couple of people who saw what I saw and had the opportunity to try to help which I was denied due to my degree course commitments.
During my time no reduced fees, organised matches against local clubs or fun knock abouts at weekends with fellow students were on offer. The team made up of the captain and his friends only played a couple of matches against local clubs. Everyone else was left on their own, even the students of the PGA degree course. I fear this is 'the norm' for universities in the UK especially England. I believe Scotland's historical links with golf make it a slightly higher priority there, but not much better. Unless a local club is willing to offer reduced rates which none local to my university did you have to pay full adult fees to join a course which was over £1000 a year for the only course I was able to get transport to as I didn't have a car. A slightly cheaper course which was further away meant I had to have a car which with the cost of running a car in the UK made it work out even more expensive. The only options I was left with in the 1st year was the odd trip to the driving range and the occasional 9 holes at the local municipal when someone offered me a lift. The course costs £10 for a round.....the cost sums up its quality.
The university team then managed to negotiate via the university a deal with the local club for a reduced fee for term time membership for the team players only (during my second year the team captain was an improvement on the first years but not much better). Most universities have a similar arrangement but as I mentioned before often with very poor quality golf courses. My example of Loughborough, one of the best sporting universities in the UK with a very poor course is the standard outside of Oxbridge universites and St Andrews.
I have seen first hand from visiting a friend who was on the golf team at Purdue University the facilities that are available to team players at top US universities. They makes the UK system laughable. Any good golfer in the UK who wants to play golf but also really wants to get a university education goes to America if they can get a scholarship. The university system over here has not produced a top professional golfer that I know about. The quality of the system puts a lot of people off going to university as they decided they wanted to concentrate on their golf and try to turn pro. I know of a few people who took this route and I doubt whether these guys will ever make it, but had the option of playing golf with the support and facilities on offer in the US at a UK university was available I am sure they would have taken the chance to help their golf and get a sold education behind them to fall back on. I believe it would have helped their golf game and enabled them to further they chances of making the grade.
Most of the current top British golfers went to university in the US
Luke Donald
Graeme McDowell
Oliver Wilson
Paul Casey
Martin Laird
Colin Montgomerie(!)
To name a few.
Only the players with immense talent who turn pro at 18 make the grade, many I feel would have been helped by the buffer university golf gives them to mature and improve their game before making the switch. Talented players such as Justin Rose and more recently Oliver Fisher have nearly lost their tour cards after turning pro at a young age, before they were ready.
I fully respect that these courses do not mean golf at US universities is great for everyone, but even the concept of a university wanting to offer facilities of this sort of quality is a fantastic thing in my mind which is unfortunately not likely to happen in the UK anytime soon.