For any touring professional, getting the chance to come back and play in your home open is a special week.
Maybe it’s the crowds all willing you to do well, maybe it’s because you probably know the golf course that little bit better, maybe it’s because you typically end up in a more marquee grouping, or maybe it’s because you might even be able to sleep in your own bed which I was lucky enough to do on a few occasions, but there’s just a different level of adrenaline coursing through your veins.
The incentive to be the top-performing Irishman was huge, particularly when you consider that you’d never be far from the top of the leaderboard if you were beating the likes of Pádraig Harrington, Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke.
So, it’s easy to see why some of the young up-and-coming pros are only too delighted to avail of tournament invites, but that doesn’t always mean it’s the best course of action. For someone like Dermot McElroy who’s found a rich vein of form on the Challenge Tour and is pushing his way up the rankings and could earn a DP World Tour card for next year, he might be better served to put his entire focus into that because it’s all about playing your way up the rankings.
Conor Purcell is in a slightly different situation because he’s got a win under his belt and is inside the top 20 on the Challenge Tour rankings, but even then, the higher he finishes up those rankings, the better his status for next year will be, so he should really be trying to make sure that he finishes in the top 10.
Conor also has several years’ experience on the Challenge Tour and is better equipped to pick and choose the venues that suit him best.
Royal County Down is a hit and miss venue too, because it’s such a demanding course, and the weather can work against you.
But then again, it’s hard to say no to a $6 million event when you’re playing for $270k every other week, and you could also find yourself on the right side of the draw and have a good week.
But the reality for most of our touring professionals is that there is no quick fix. If you want to get to the next level, you have to consistently perform on the current level. I’m not talking about contending every week – most pro tours have fields of 125 and upwards, and on any given week, 10 or 20 of those are going to play very well, but you need to become comfortable in those surroundings to give yourself the best chance of taking that next step.
And then you have to repeat the process at the next level.
We have plenty of players who have got the talent to make it to the DP World Tour and beyond, but having the ability alone just isn’t enough. For every Ludvig Åberg who transitions seamlessly into the elite grades, there are countless others who have to learn their trade, learn how to micromanage time, travel, all of the less glamorous but very real aspects of life on the road.
Only then can they start to produce their best golf on a consistent basis. It’s no secret that we’ve struggled to bring players through at the rate that the likes of France and Denmark are doing, and the current system is either inadequate or ill-managed.
Handing players €30,000 and sending them off on their merry ways simply isn’t enough. The support structure needs to be improved, and only then can we have players performing highly enough that they need not be forced to choose between taking a dream place in their home open and taking the less glamorous option of holding onto what they have.
But us golfers, we are all dreamers, and maybe that big breakthrough is only one event away.