AARON PIKE: “I THOUGHT I WAS DONE”
Having overcome a career threatening injury, Aaron Pike plans on adding more silverware to his collection, starting with this month’s Australian PGA Championship after taking positives from losing $20 to good mate Jason Day.
Aaron Pike overcame career-threatening injuries to finally claim his first professional victory at the Victorian PGA Championship. Now, he plans to add more silverware to his collection, writes Jimmy Emanuel.
Aaron Pike remembers a slightly surreal feeling as he went head-to-head with Justin Rose around Huntingdale in 2006 as a fresh faced amateur, but also remembers being very confident in his game and aware that some good golf was just around the corner.
He ultimately finished fourth in that Australian Masters. But Pike’s words after an untidy bogey at the final hole about whether he would turn pro having nearly just won a European Tour event, suggested big things were in store for the Western Australia-born Queenslander via the Northern Territory.
“Maybe if I had won, it would have put some thoughts into my mind, but I’m not good enough to win so I don’t think I’m good enough to turn professional, because if you can’t win then what’s the point of being out there?” Pike told The
Australian at the time. Pike still places the same importance on playing to win but his decade of waiting to do so is far less remarkable than Pike winning at all. After missing almost all of 2017 with hip and back injuries he admits he pondered making a career change.
“Realistically 12 months ago, I genuinely thought I might not even be able to play competitively again. Let alone compete in one and win,” Pike told Golf Australia Magazine exclusively after his recent Victorian PGA victory.
“I had some nerve problems in my back, to the point where I was actually admitted into hospital on a couple of occasions because they were spasming so badly that I couldn’t control my body and they had to sort of calm me down, give me
I WAS ACTUALLY ADMITTED INTO HOSPITAL ON A COUPLE OF OCCASIONS BECAUSE THEY WERE SPASMING SO BADLY THAT I COULDN’T CONTROL MY BODY …
– AARON PIKE
some medical relief to get me under control and then sort of send me on my way and go from there.
“I’m not going to lie, there was certainly moments where I was like I’m going to have to find something else to do because I just can’t possibly do the practice to stay competitive. I thought I was done.”
One of the other jobs the 33-year-old considered during his time away from the PGA Tour of Australasia was caddying. Pike tested the waters on the bag of good friend Michael Sim and sounded out other players on major Tours around the world to see if his services were of interest. The former Queensland Amateur champion learned invaluable lessons to put towards his own game from the experience when making his comeback earlier this year.
“I genuinely loved caddying for Michael,” Pike said. “He’s obviously a really, really good player, and to be honest, what I learnt caddying for him in those seven, eight events I did, I have no doubt that helped me down at the Victorian PGA.”
Another of the positive influences on Pike’s play in recent times has come from the success on the world stage of former schoolmates Jason Day and Luke Reardon (Day’s caddie). Pike attended Hills International College near Beaudesert in Queensland as a 16-year-old, after choosing golf over cricket, despite having already played first grade in Darwin.
“There was some political problems in cricket where I was in Darwin and a few bits and pieces, I think I upset a few people and golf seemed more appealing,” Pike said. “I was more in my element where I didn’t have to run, I could just hit the golf ball and I just thought ‘you know what I’m going to play golf’. So Mum and Dad said ‘ok, lets send you o to Hills’, and that’s obviously where I met the boys, and I did a year at Hills and the game sort of improved out of sight.”
Although they live on opposite sides of the world, Pike and Day remain in contact via text and are still close, with Pike closer to Reardon, who was caddying for him before his injury troubles. Pike’s multiple trips to the former World No.1’s base in America and vice versa, with the holidays, and games played between long-time friends, have had a positive eect on his golf.
“I’ve been over there (America) a couple of times this year and fortunate enough to spend a bit of time with Jason when he’s home … he came back here and had a week holiday last year before the Aussie Open, he actually stayed at my place for a week,” Pike said of his relationship with Day.
“There’s a lot of similarities I suppose between Jason and I. Obviously there’s no secret his Mum’s been struggling with her health, my Dad also, he’s got stage four cancer, there’s just a lot of things that we relate to very well, there’s a lot of similarities that we kind of touch on with each other.
“I actually played with Jason for 20 bucks and he took my money.
“I think he had seven- and I had five-under and he turned to me and said ‘mate, you’re playing really well’. It was just a couple of things he said to me and I was like ok if someone like that can turn to you and say you’re playing pretty well and give you a few positive bits and pieces of feedback, then you’ve got to be able to take that on board and go back home and put it into practice.”
And while Pike took numerous points away from his most recent time playing and practicing with Day, he doesn’t like his chances of getting his caddie back.
“Luke was caddying for me basically every event that I had and then I couldn’t play all of 2017 and I jokingly say ‘it’s just an interim job’ (working for Day) until I was back playing full-time. But I think I can probably, definitely drop that now, I don’t think he is coming back to caddie for me.”
Day and Pike’s conversations have also extended to another of their similarities, with both players having experienced back injuries. Pike has taken on board Day’s methods for overcoming his issues, but he primarily credits a physiotherapist with a dierent approach, who he fortuitously came to work with via long-time coach Marty Gould, whose mother lives next door to the physio.
Far from cured, Pike’s new approach and exercises designed to help extend his range of motion and limit pain have come with some enforced changes to his golf swing caused by his back and hip troubles. The changes under Gould’s watch make his motion more ecient and have Pike excited about his golf journey again.
Now fully exempt on his home Tour, Pike is able to plan his 2019 season and look towards teeing it up at Qualifying School for some of the bigger circuits next year.
But for now his mind is firmly on the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Pines, a course he is familiar with and has played well in the past.
“Realistically of the events coming home, it’s the biggest tournament we’ve got,” he said. “If I was to have the chance to win an Australian Open I’m never going to sneeze at that, but it doesn’t have the co-sanctioned status, it doesn’t have any of the exemptions that the Aussie PGA does, in terms of getting on to a European Tour.
“So realistically next year the Victorian Open, the Perth Super 6, the Aussie PGA, they’re the big events in Australia for us as players. And unfortunately that’s just the way it is.”
He added: “I’m excited about getting back to Royal Pines and playing.
“It’s always fun watching the southerners come up and try to putt on our greens as well, they’re not too fond of our greens, but they can deal with it,” Pike said with his tongue firmly in cheek.
Indeed Pike’s humour and popularity are some of his greatest traits, ones he believes he would be “pretty darn miserable” without. And this enjoyment of life is clear when he ponders if 2018 could get any better after his beloved West Coast Eagles won a flag within a month of him winning his own trophy.
“Ask me that after I win an Australian PGA and then I’ll probably say yeah it can,” Pike joked.
If Pike were to win at Royal Pines, it would certainly prove 12 years on from his close call at the Australian Masters that he is more than good enough. Lifting the Kirkwood Cup would hold the highest place in his list of career achievements, although a win in the family-connected MMC Northern Territory PGA or a Melbourne Cup as an owner would threaten to knock it o top spot in the future.
“I would have to put the golf wins ahead of a winning horse, obviously its more money to win a Melbourne Cup but just because I own a horse doesn’t mean I did it,” he said. “I would probably have to say just in front would be the Australian PGA ... To win a national title in your own country, it’s just, I don’t think anything gets better than that.”