Florian is the most driven performer on the European Tour
ALL roads currently lead to The Masters. But for Florian Fritsch, the road is heading to Morocco.
Fritsch will begin his 2017 European Tour season in the North African country the week after Augusta, and four months after the Tour’s first event.
There was no Gulf Swing or trip down to Australia or South Africa for one simple reason. The German does not fly.
Rather than worry about flight times, Florian plots how he can drive from one event to another, where possible.
It requires a lot of logistical planning and plenty of patience to tackle long car journeys and 25,000 miles a year on the road, but the 31-year-old has found a method that works for him.
It was apt that when we spoke last week, the golfer was in the middle of a two-day drive from Heidelberg in Germany to Faro on Portugal’s Algarve, a journey of around 1500 miles.
“I am always asked how can I be a pro golfer without flying.” he said. “I’ve proved it’s possible. Now, people have accepted this. It’s gone from humour and irritation to respect and acknowledgement.
“My problem with flying started in 2005 on a flight over the Alps from Frankfurt to Turin where I experienced turbulence like never before.
“I started thinking about everything that goes with being in a plane and that feeling grew over time. I was not comfortable.
“In 2010, I was heading to Kenya for a Challenge Tour event. I was in Zurich about to catch a plane, when I suddenly thought: ‘I can’t deal with 13 hours of flying’.
“I was going to give up tour golf and become a teaching pro. I got the train back to Germany, and later that day, I met Inga, the woman who would become my wife.
“If I had got on the plane, I’m pretty certain we would never have met.
“In 2011, I got my European Tour card at Q-School and the doctor prescribed me medication for flying. But it didn’t help. There was too much adrenaline in my body for it to work.
“I decided that was it. There would be no more flying to tournaments.
“My last attempt at flying was about three years ago on a short flight from Frankfurt to Dusseldorf. It did not work and I have not flown since.
“I know there are other golfers who don’t like flying but are afraid to come out because of their image or losing sponsorship deals.
“I have talked myself into my current situation. I don’t see the harsh side or the bad consequences.
“It’s quite liberating. I see guys who have to plan a whole day around flying. They need to check out of the hotel, play, get to the airport, wait with maybe a delay, fly and then have to get home.
“When I’m finished, I get in my car and start the journey home. I’m in control.”
It is an unusual approach, but it worked last year. Fritsch gained enough money from his 12 starts to finish in 101st place and keep his Tour card, helped by three top- 10s, including a tie for seventh at the Alfred Dunhill Links at St Andrews.
As he begins his warm- weather preparations for Morocco, he will see 262 players above him on the Race to Dubai, but he is not letting that bother him.
“My disadvantage can be my biggest advantage,” he reckoned. “For some players, the European Tour schedule is the whole year. If there’s a tournament, they feel compelled to play.
“But I have time to recuperate, analyse my game and work on new skills. When can you do that if you play all the time?
“Knowing that I have a chance to get better every off-season makes me think I will do OK and can continue like this.
“It’s a game that I enjoy playing. I don’t have any high goals like winning a Major or being on the Ryder Cup team.
“I don’t thrive on that expectation and because I don’t have it, it takes the pressure off me.”
The Masters might seem impossible for Fritsch, but he has thought of a solution if he were ever to receive an invite to golf’s mostexclusive Major.
“If I did qualify, I’d have won one or two tournaments or had a really great season,” he explained. “Financially, I would then be in a position to take time off before and after.
“I do know there is a ship from Portsmouth to NewYork and that it would take me about a week to get to Augusta.
“That would certainly be an option. Obviously, I’d talk to my family, but maybe they would tag along!”