So here we are 2022, I wonder what is in store for me this year? For so many years, as headed into January thinking “please god let this year be better than last year, I mean it can’t be worse than last can it?” and how wrong I’ve been.
When I turned 50 in 2019 and headed back out on Tour, I was excited at the chance to compete again. Excited to try get right, what I got so wrong in my European Tour years. By the end of the season, I’d made it into the top 20 of the Order of Merit and qualified for the Senior British Open and the KitchenAid USPGA Championships the following year. I was really happy about where my game was trending and I felt really competitive…I was buzzing!
Then, 2020 saw the arrival of Covid and literally, as soon as the golf courses re-opened in May, with literally my first swing of the year, I tore a tendon in my left shoulder. After several MRI’s, I was told I’d be out for 12 to 18 months and I thought well that’s about my luck. As I was finally getting a little confidence in my abilities again, bang! Throughout my career I’ve been hit by some incredibly bad luck and genuinely thought that may be a career as a professional golfer is just not meant to be. I guess the only positive to extract from my circumstances was the fact that Covid prevented all Senior Tour golf from taking place (so it didn’t appear that I’d miss out on too many tournaments in 2020).
My exemptions for the Major Championships (that I’d qualified for in 2019) were postponed through 2021 but due to my physical issues and the fact that I wasn’t fit to play by mid 2021, I had to withdraw from both events. The injury kept me out of action for pretty much all the year and typically, as I finally got fit to play towards the end of the season, I had hoped to play in Italy, but guess what… I caught Covid, so that was the end of that!
So here we are in early February and I’ve 8 weeks to go to prepare for my 1st event of the year, last year’s postponed MCB Tour Championship in Mauritius. I’ve been in the gym for 2 weeks, I’m following a strict diet and I played 18 holes at Sunningdale Heath GC last week (which I thoroughly enjoyed).
With new Callaway irons in the bag, a new fitness regime, a clear mind and another two months to prepare, I’m feeling cautiously positive about the up and coming season. I won’t lie, I don’t want to get my hopes up too high for them to be shattered again but my fingers are crossed.
I intend to document the coming European Tour Legends Season here on my website with imagery, stories and regular updates on how I feel, where my game is and what it’s like to live on Tour. I hope that my up and coming season’s content will provide you with a different view of “Life on Tour” and maybe I’ll meet a few of you during the course of the Season. Until then, swing well my friends.