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Victor Perez took everyone by surprise to win the Dunhill in 2019, and he did the same again in reaching the semifinal of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. But whatever success comes his way from now is unlikely to prompt any more raised eyebrows. He clearly has what it takes to compete with the best, while it is not too difficult to imagine Pádraig Harrington rubbing his hands at the prospect of having him in his Ryder Cup side for Whistling Straits.
On Saturday, Perez admitted to having struck lucky in coming up against two competitors with whom he felt comfortable. Bob MacIntyre he knew from Challenge Tour days; Sergio García, meantime, had taken him under his wing when he started playing on the PGA Tour.
On Sunday, it was not so much Billy Horschel as the wind which had the beating of him. Having missed a 7-footer at the 10th hole to go 1 down, he hit “off the planet left,” to borrow from the commentators, to finish in water at the 11th before taking another dip at the 12th.
Now 3 down after 14, there was a potential comeback shot if ever there was one as he hit his second to gimme distance at the 15th. Horschel, though, was not to be shaken and got up and down from sand for the birdie which saw him winning by 3 and 2.
If Perez was thinking of what might have been, others will have been asking themselves where on earth it all started for this quietly engaging talent. The answer, here, is that it was in the most unlikely of circumstances.
In mid August of 2019, when he was not as well-placed as he needed to be towards the end of his rookie season on the European Tour, he was understandably desperate for a couple of last-minute invitations.
Perez is besotted with the golfing culture of Dundee, Scotland, with its string of championship links on the road to Carnoustie and courses such as Ladybank, Drumoig and St Andrews to the south of the River Tay.
The Dunhill Links was an obvious choice in that Perez was – and still is for that matter – based in Dundee, Scotland, where his partner, Abigail, practises as a dentist. His manager, Joe Shuchat, rang this person and that in search of an invite before asking JP Fitzgerald, the player’s new caddie, if he knew of anyone who could help. JP – also Rory McIlroy’s old caddie – said he just happened to be friendly with one Johan Rupert. (The latter is the chairman of Richemont, the owners of the Dunhill organisation.)
Virtually the next day, an invitation arrived and, a week later, Perez was holding the trophy aloft. That performance paved the way for an automatic spot in the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai where, at the same time as Abigail was sitting her final exams, he was tested against golf’s elite. In much the same believe-it-or-not vein as his Dunhill result, Perez ended up in a share of fourth place, with only McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Louis Oosthuizen ahead of him.
It is not too many years ago that any player who had done as Perez in suddenly coming into money – more than €1 million in the space of four tournaments – might have suggested to his partner that it would be safe for her to give up on her career and follow him on his golfing travels.
Perez was not unaware of the old ways – and very quickly made plain that those ways were light years removed from what he wanted for Abigail.
Just as it had always been his dream to be a top golfer, so she had always longed to have her own dental practice. “We’ve got a huge respect for what the other does,” he explained. “It’s important to me that Abigail’s happy; the last thing I would want is for her to live her life through mine.”
Perez’s enthusiasm for living in Dundee is not all about Abigail. He is no less besotted with the golfing culture of the city with its string of championship links on the road to Carnoustie and courses such as Ladybank, Drumoig and St Andrews to the south of the River Tay. He loves everything about St Andrews, from the town itself and its museum to a golf academy which boasts one of the finest chipping areas in the country. Where better to practice for a morning like he had against Horschel when the pesky wind was interrupted by the odd disbelieving yelp from the players? He turned out to be even more thrown by the conditions than his opponent.
Meanwhile, the story of how Perez came by his manager and then JP Fitzgerald, is interesting in itself.
One of Shuchat’s friends had asked if this founder of the Mindful Sports Group, would be interested in giving a promising golfer, namely Perez, a helping hand. Shuchat, who once was a useful amateur himself, warmed to the idea – and felt his first move should be to find the Frenchman an experienced caddie.
When he noticed that Fitzgerald was free, he brought caddie and player together for a couple of days of golf and chat.
The two hit it off, and it was in their first week together – at the Scandinavian Masters – that JP gave his new charge a lesson in how things needed to be.
On what was only their second hole, he handed Perez his driver, only for Perez to query whether it might land him in trouble.
Fitzgerald confirmed that it was the right club and Perez went ahead. However, with the caddie noticing how the player had eased up on the shot, he promptly advised if their arrangement was going to work, he would need to trust him.
Perez did not need to be told twice.
Top: Victor Perez of France plays his shot on the fifth hole in his match against Robert MacIntyre of Scotland during the fourth round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play.
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