The honest truth about being a pro
Tulfarris’ Simon Thornton says that being true to yourself is the key to making it in the game. By Brian Keogh
HONESTY is a key in the game of golf but for Tulfarris Hotel & Golf Resort’s touring professional Simon Thornton it’s the secret to success when you play for pay.
He’s not talking about resisting the urge to use the leather wedge in the rough but that ability to look coldly at your game and admit that you still have a long way to go if you want to make it in on tour.
Thornton (41) knows a thing or two about making improvements, having gone from a humble seven-handicapper with no elite amateur experience to the European Tour in the space of ten years, eventually breaking into the winner’s circle in St Omer in 2013.
Born in Yorkshire but now an Irish passport holder after moving to Newcastle in County Down over 20 years ago, his story is a lesson for all the budding Irish professionals who will tee it up at Tulfarris on the PGA Europro Tour later this month hoping to take the top prize and a giant step towards the tour.
“When I first went over to work as an assistant in the pro shop at Royal County Down 20 years ago, could barely hit it out of my own shadow,” he admitted.
“But it was a role that helped me mature very quickly, both as a player and a person.
“As a player, it was a course that taught me to hit the ball straight. But the fact that you were given a lot of responsibility in terms of the shop at Royal County Down, that translated to the golf course.
“I had to take the responsibility when I was playing too. I had to look after my physical and mental game, and manage myself too.”
Thornton’s hard work and perseverance paid off as he progressed firstly through the Irish PGA regional circuit, before moving onto the Euro-Pro Tour and then graduating to the Challenge Tour in 2011.
He posted two top ten finishes en route to 51st place in the rankings, but later earned a European Tour card for the first time after successfully negotiating his way through the Second and Final Stages of the Qualifying School.
He lost his card in 2012 and was playing on the Challenge Tour again at the start of 2013 before victory in Saint-Omer gave him an exemption for the Race to Dubai until the end of 2014.
“You just have to go and do it,” he added. “When I won a Europro Tour event I didn’t think I had made it. My goal was just to get better every week, every year and see where it took me.
“The key is being true to yourself. You have to be able to stand up and say, ‘yes I am putting the right amount of effort in’, or ‘no, I’m not’. Nobody else is going to help you out. If you are practising three hours a day and think you’ve done enough, you haven’t. You can go to the gym all the hours you want, eat all the right stuff and talk to all the psychologists. But if you are not hitting the golf balls and doing the right work on the course, you are not going to make it.
“So ask yourself, ‘am I really doing the right things? Am I really putting in the effort?’
“The likes of Paul Dunne are the ones who are putting in the work. But are the others? That’s the question you have to ask.”
Poor form and injury eventually put paid to his tour career, but having undergone surgery for a foot problem last term, he’s showing form again and in July, he was the only PGA Irish Region professional to make the cut in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Ballyliffin, finishing tied 59th alongside the likes of Matthew Southgate, Soren Kjeldsen and Thomas Bjorn to take home €16,175.
As for his role at Tulfarris, he has the same attitude. He’s ready to give it 100pc and sees the resort as highly ambitious.
“For me, it was all about the golf course and where they want to take the resort,” said Thornton, who was impressed by the quality of the venue and the PREM Group’s plans to improve the course.
“There isn’t a weak hole on the course and the atmosphere is great because you feel relaxed straight away – and with the Greenway being re-routed past the club and a lot of improvements being made to the clubhouse, the hotel and the golf course, it’s a very exciting place to be involved.”
As for his advice for budding tour players, he said: “I had a lot of catching up to do when I started and I knew I could only get better. That was always my goal – get better.
“So if you are doing the right things and putting in 100pc effort, hitting dozens of bags of balls every day for four, five or six years, you might get a break. But you make your own breaks. And you have to be true to yourself and look at yourself honestly.
“Deep down, a lot of those guys who play on the Europro Tour, they will do a little practice or go to the gym and then go for dinner.
“At Tour School they are on the practice ground until nine o’clock at night.
“Finishing at 5pm is not a full day’s work. They know this is a stepping stone. They know they are not the finished article.”
Thornton didn’t make any money until he finally made it to the European Tour and he insists that if a player really wants to make it, he will.
“Either you play your way out or you are found out and you realise you are not good enough.
“As long as you are true to yourself and can say you really did give it a proper go, that’s the key.”