The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Perez mastering his major disappointment
France’s Victor Perez was in the form of his life when the pandemic brought the sporting programme to a grinding halt.
Now the Dundee-based world number 40 is trying hard to see a silver lining to having his Masters debut and a potential first Ryder Cup appearance put on hold.
Perez followed his maiden European Tour title in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last September with two runners-up finishes and a tie for fourth in the WGCHSBC Champions in his next six events.
That took the 27-year-old into the world’s top 50 and secured his place in events such as the Masters and Players Championship at Sawgrass, where he carded a first round of 69 last week before golf and the wider sporting schedule went into lockdown.
“Not being a PGA Tour member and having the connections I would have had if the tournament was in Europe, I was a little on the side as far as knowing what was going on,” said Perez.
“It seems like tournaments are being cancelled one after the other which is probably the right thing to do.
“Health is far more important than any tournament but it comes at a difficult time because if maybe this had happened in December some of the big tournaments would not have been affected as much.”
Perez, who is based in Dundee where his girlfriend Abigail is a dentistry student, has at least had the chance to play Augusta National after making the trip to Georgia with his manager in the week before the Players Championship.
And he is hoping a possible change of date to October could work in his favour as he tries to become the first Masters rookie to slip on the famous Green Jacket since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.
“Obviously I’m disappointed with the postponement like everyone else,” Perez added. “There were probably a few guys that took years to qualify and then the event doesn’t happen, but I’m planning on playing the tournament for the next 20 years or whatever.
“The tournament might be on a date that’s completely different than what everybody else is used to and I think it will make the course somewhat different to what everyone knows. Being a firsttimer there could be an advantage I can get from it.
“Being my first major I was trying to keep it really small, try to keep it as golfrelated as possible like how I’ve been behaving ever since I turned pro, because I know the stress level is going to be as high as it’s ever been.”
Stress levels will also be through the roof if and when the Ryder Cup goes ahead, with Perez currently occupying an automatic qualifying place for the European team due to face the United States in September.
Perez is relishing the challenge of helping Europe attempt to retain the trophy.
“As a European it’s something we take a lot of pride in and something that I’m really looking forward to,” he added.