Joe Dean and his wife/caddie, Emily Lyle, watch the winning putt drop.
Luke Walker, Getty Images
SUTTON COLDFIELD, ENGLAND | At the end of a week of tributes to the late singer Dolly Parton, Joe Dean paid perhaps the unlikeliest homage of them all with victory in the Husqvarna British Masters on the Brabazon Course at The Belfry.
Something of a gallery favourite on the DP World Tour, the 32-year-old Englishman has an unofficial fan club who sing their hero’s name to the tune of Parton’s 1973 hit “Jolene,” usually while wearing T-shirts with the Queen of Country’s face adorning them.
They were not, alas, present when Dean completed his first victory on the DP World Tour for the simple reason that the breakthrough seemed entirely unlikely at the start of the day.
The cause? A hot and dry British summer had ended in brutal fashion at The Belfry with numerous rain and thunderstorm delays throughout the week, and as a consequence the leaders had 32 holes remaining at the start of Sunday.
Dean had made the cut with ease, but had teed off 90 minutes ahead of the final group on Saturday evening, there was no redraw for the final round, and he was eight shots off the pace as the players returned to the course at 7 a.m. on Sunday.
When he closed his third round with two par-5 birdies there still appeared little prospect of him being a contender, but he maintained the pace with a further seven birdies in the first 14 holes of the final round.
“All those painful hours and all the work I have put in has finally led to something.”
Joe Dean
“It was one of those rare days when everything felt right and the putts were dropping,” he said afterwards. “It almost felt like I couldn’t do anything wrong.”
An eighth birdie of the round at No. 17 tied the lead of his compatriot Marco Penge and a superb approach to 18 left Dean 10 feet for a closing par-breaker.
He didn’t know it, but seconds before he struck the putt a Penge bogey at 11 gifted him a one-shot lead.
He promptly doubled that advantage by draining the putt for a 9-under 63 and a clubhouse target of 14-under-par 274 that no-one could match.
Past tournament champions Niklas Nørgaard (Denmark) and Daniel Hillier (New Zealand) both tried, but came up three strokes short in a tie for second with Spain’s Nacho Elvira and another Dane, Jacob Skov Olesen.
In chasing Dean’s target Penge fell back into a share of sixth with Germany’s Thomas Rosenmueller and Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin.
The champion is in his third season on the DP World Tour and he spent the year before winning his card at Q-School working as a supermarket-delivery driver while playing one- and two-day tournaments on the minor tours.
“All those painful hours and all the work I have put in has finally led to something,” he said. “It’s a completely different lifestyle out here, but I still see my old mates driving around and keep up to date with how they’re doing.”
Earlier this summer he married his long-term partner, Emily Lyle, who is also his current caddie. They wed the week after he played his third Open Championship having won the on-site Last-Chance Qualifier at Royal Birkdale.
“I can’t thank her enough for what she has to put up with from me,” he said. “It was bad enough off the course, but now she’s coping on and off the course. I hope I made her proud.”
The week also marked the start of Europe’s 2027 Ryder Cup qualification and it was an apt location to break the tape.
Not only was European Ryder Cup legend Nick Faldo the tournament host, but The Belfry was, of course, a four-time venue for the match and its walls are embellished with photographs and mementoes of many a European triumph.
In another nod to the big occasion, the American and European flags flew high above the putting green and acted as an appropriate backdrop for every approach to the final green.
It is, however, unlikely that many players in last week’s field will contend for, never mind make, Europe’s team at Adare Manor in Ireland next September.
Penge is a live prospect and Matt Wallace will also have hopes. Both those Englishmen had career-best seasons when chasing qualification, in 2025 and 2018 respectively, and yet still came up short.
Put simply, qualifying to play for Europe with a schedule that is predominantly based on the DP World Tour remains a theoretical possibility, but ever more difficult in practice.
Matt Cooper
