Waiting game as Drysdale goes close

THE European Tour is riddled with tales of players who waited years for a maiden victory to come.

David Drysdale has always maintained that he would feel unfulfilled if he never managed to plunder a tour title. After the third second-place finish of his long career at the top table in the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa on Sunday, the Scot continues to flirt with an overdue breakthrough.

The 43-year-old has now played 471 European Tour events and, in addition to that trio of runners-up finishes, also has half-adozen thirds.

“You’d love it to happen,” said his coach, Jamie Gough, who has been working with Drysdale for eight years.

Gough has coached 16 European Tour winners and adding to that tally with Drysdale would be particularly satisfying. “If I could help him get across the line would certainly be the highlight of my career,” added the South African

After a scramble to safeguard his tour card last season, Drysdale, who began the 2019 campaign with a fifthplace finish in the Hong Kong Open recently, came in two shots behind eventual winner, David Lipsky, at the weekend and heads home for the Christmas break sitting third on the Race to Dubai rankings.

He will resume hostilities in Abu Dhabi in January and Gough is hoping the early momentum carries on into the new year.

“Even though he was struggling to keep his card last season, David still had his second best stroke average in all his years on tour but he just posted a lot of mid-table results,” noted Gough. it