THE LIFE OF BRIAN
From Cork to Shenzen in China, O’Donovan’s PGA Tour dream is still very much alive.
IT’S a long way from Bandon to Shenzen, but even though he’s moved from a town of just 7,000 inhabitants to a metropolis of more than 12 million, Brian O’Donovan still lives and breathes his first love – golf.
The 30-year old Corkman made a little Irish golfing history last week when he birdied the 18th at Mission Hills Haikou – 500 miles from his teaching job at Mission Hills Shenzen – to finish tied for 12th and win his card for the 2018 PGA Tour China Series.
It means he’ll have to ask his employer for time off to play in as many of the 14 events scheduled for this year as he can.
A top-five finish on the money list would earn him a Web.com Tour card, but for now, O’Donovan is not setting his sights on an imminent move towards a PGA Tour dream but simply hoping to improve – and get married.
With plans in train to wed his Chinese fiancée in November, the extra cash will come in handy as he continues his epic Chinese adventure.
“I’m delighted,” he said shortly after qualifying on Hainan Island on Sunday. “It’s a nice wee bonus to have a full card now so I can play the full 14 events.
“Whether I will get the chance to play all 14 or not, we will have to see when I speak to my boss. But I think I will be okay.”
Thoughts of playing on tour went on the back burner when he qualified as a PGA professional and moved to China four years ago, taking up a post as a lead instructor with the Shenzen Academy for Mission Hills.
“Something like that has always been in the back of my mind but never a priority,” he said of tour life. “You hope to get a tour card and see where it goes. So now that I have one, I will just take it from here and not set targets that are too high, just yet.”
Winner of the Irish Senior Cup with Bandon in 2010, he played several times in the “South” and the Irish Close, having also teed it up for Munster in the Interpros at
Boys and Senior level.
“It wasn’t a gleaming resumé, but it was okay,” he said. “So I trained with Stephen Hayes at Douglas and then decided to move here and haven’t looked back since.”
There was no PGA Tour China Series last year as the Chinese golf authorities opted to build up their own China
Golf Tour.
But with the PGA Tour China Series now back for the 2018 season, O’Donovan sees it as another positive step for a country with fewer than 400,000 golfers among a population of 1.37 billion.
With a growth rate of close to eight percent, it’s estimated that there could be several million Chinese golfers by 2020 and that can only be a good thing for O’Donovan and golf worldwide.
“Golf in China is still growing but it is still quite exclusive and difficult to get access to golf courses,” Brian said.
“But we have the Olympic bronze medallist, Feng Shanshan, ranked world number one in ladies professional golf and Li Haotong doing very well, winning in Dubai recently. So it is certainly growing, and the standard is improving.”
In January 2017, there were reports that China had closed more golf courses in what appeared to be a fresh crackdown on golf.
But officials confirmed that while 187 courses were closed for environmental reasons, another 496 were approved to keep operating.
“The government has relaxed its attitude towards golf too, and golf’s inclusion in the Olympics has certainly played its part,” Brian added. “The reaction against golf had more to do with a crackdown on corruption, but things are good now.
“Green fees in Mission Hills can be close to €300 per round, so it is not cheap, but it is not a lot for the average golfer here, who tends to be very well off.
“It’s not feasible for the average Joe Soap, but it is starting to get a little easier for people to play.”
Homesickness is a problem for any ex-pat, but O’Donovan admits that learning Chinese is his biggest challenge.
“I have gotten a fairly good grasp of the language now, but I suppose it’s getting used to a new culture that’s the most difficult.
“They do things very differently, but after four-and-a-half years here, it is not a million miles away from life at home once you adapt. I am engaged to a Chinese girl now, and we are getting married in November. I am just looking forward to the year ahead now.”
O’Donovan’s claim to fame before Sunday was shooting a 13-under-par 59 in the Mission Hills Day/Night Golf Tournament on the Annika Course at Dongguan, Mission Hills on the 27 June 2015, less than two years after his arrival in China.
“It was nearly the perfect round of golf,” he said. “Almost every shot I hit came off just like I planned and I felt I could hit any shot I wanted and it would go where I wanted it to.”