The storm clouds hover above & someone’s bubble is just about to burst
THIS is the time of the year for pain.
Guys are drinking in the last-chance saloon as they scrap to retain their full playing rights for the 2019 season.
Tour chiefs really do have a twisted sense of humour to use Valderrama as the final staging post. Renowned as one of the toughest tests in European golf, guys will have to dig deep this week in the Andalucia Masters.
With 110 golfers keeping their status for next year, David Horsey is the man on the bubble as it stands. I was that soldier in 2006, when we played the Mallorca Classic around Pula Golf Club to decide our fate.
Thankfully I finished 13th to get the job done but that doesn’t tell half the story.
It’s a week that can really drag you to the edge emotionally. You feel a level of anxiety like no other time in your career.
Salvation is the main target yet the chance is there to also earn a landmark win. As Tiger says, that takes care of everything.
How you approach this week really depends on where you are at in your career.
For the older guys, they are fully aware of the financial tsunami it can be to lose your full rights. It can start a spiral that can be career-ending within a couple of years.
The gravy train that is the European Tour is one you don’t want to fall off.
On the other side of it, Eddie Pepperell is a great example of how quickly your career can turn around – from broken golfer to shining star in under two years. Granted, it takes a huge body of work to be an overnight success but no doubt somebody will perform heroics this week. They always do. The last few weeks have been a steady build up of pressure. Big money events have come and gone. There were plenty of opportunities to get it all done before now.
Some guys teeing it up this week never thought this
As Tiger Woods says: winning takes care of everything
would happen to them. Others are here every year – they live their life on the bubble.
Why do players end up here? Two reasons.
One, they are not good enough and maybe even being on Tour is an over-achievement.
Secondly, some golfers get in their own way and fail to believe in themselves.
Also, the reality is that the pro game is a ferris wheel. People get on and off. If you have lulls in your career and don’t have the cushion of a winner’s exemption, this fate looms large.
Nothing last forever in professional sport and the Grim Reaper is waiting.
The secret is to dodge him for as long as possible.