Henry focusing on positives as the golfing scene brightens up

EVERY cloud has a silver lining. Let’s face it, 2020 has hardly been a vintage year but, as she gets set for her final Ladies European Tour event of a disrupted campaign, Kylie Henry continues to look on the bright side.

When the emergency stop cord was pulled on the various golf circuits earlier in the year due to the coronavirus and everything came shuddering to a chaotic halt, there was plenty of nail- nibbling anxiety.

With her touring professional husband, Scott, also left twiddling his thumbs after the men’s Challenge Tour was mothballed, the outlook looked as gloomy as a series of deep lows moving in from the west.

But what were we saying about clouds again? “Initially, when everything was locked down, it was very scary,” reflected Henry, as she prepares for this week’s season- ending Spanish Open. “It was a huge change to our lives. I hadn’t spent that amount of time at home for almost 15 years and Scott was the same.

“But once we got over the disappointment of the tours being cancelled, we actually had a great time. We settled into living more of a normal life as husband and wife.”

Instead of packing their suitcases, gathering their clubs and saying to each other, “did you switch the iron off?” before boarding their respective flights to some far- flung golfing land, the Henrys savoured this strange domestic bliss.

“We’d not spent as much time together for ages,” added the 34- year- old from Glasgow, who won twice on the tour back in 2014. “At the time the courses here were closed so there wasn’t much we could do. We were delivering shopping to my parents who were shielding as they were looking after my 93- year- old gran.

That professional tours around the globe managed to get going again has been an admirable act. Of course, the Ladies European Tour has not had its troubles to seek in recent seasons.

A couple of years ago, with sponsorship dwindling and tournaments falling by the wayside, downbeat tales of players having to find additional employment to supplement their income, as there simply weren’t enough playing opportunities to make a living, highlighted the desperate straits into which the tour had been plunged.

A partnership struck with the LPGA Tour last year, however, gave the European circuit a boost and the 2020 schedule was the strongest for years, until the pandemic.

“For me personally, the years in 2017 and 2018, when the entire schedule was only 12 or 13 events, felt much tougher than this year,” added Henry. “It felt like you were unemployed then. This year was looking amazing until the coronavirus hit. Given that the tour was shut down for so long, it’s been a real bonus to play 11 events.”