MUNICH, GERMANY | Overcoming obstacles was always the European Tour way and, although it is now called the DP World Tour, it remains a truth.
If the circuit were a travel experience it would not be a family holiday or an all-inclusive resort, it would be backpacking around the world or taking the train across Europe – an adventure in which the journey is as important as the destination.
Elite sportsmen and women like to talk of marginal gains, of improving every element of their game by just 1 percent and discovering that the combined benefits are significant. The business of playing golf around the world not only makes ticking off those specifics more difficult in the first place, there also lingers the contrasting threat that all those percentages accumulate as costs rather than benefits.
This is not a criticism of the tour because many of the complications are born of necessity, many others are a consequence of its cosmopolitan nature, and negotiating them not only helped fuel the renaissance of European golf in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, it continues to drive improvement today.
The reality is that the DP World Tour has considerably fewer settled tournaments and host courses than the PGA Tour. The ever-changing schedule features a wider range of course types, grasses, green speeds, turf, air (heavy/thin), climate, conditioning, language, currencies, culture and cuisine.
“It might sometimes put you in an uncomfortable environment,” argued Richie Ramsay, the 2006 U.S. Amateur champion, at last week’s BMW International Open at Golfclub München Eichenried, “but it is wonderful for growth as a person and as a golfer.”
It was a relevant topic of conversation because the contrast between the Munich event and the Italian Open one week earlier demonstrated the two ends of the spectrum.
The latter is a nomadic event currently on a run of visiting Italian courses that are new to more or less everyone in the field. This year’s venue, the Argentario Golf & Wellness Retreat, was undoubtedly beautiful to look at and offered myriad ways to soothe furrowed brows, but it also prompted many of them in the first place.
John Parry, the Englishman currently on track to make a remarkable two-year leap from the Challenge Tour to the PGA Tour via his top 10 position in the rankings, explained that such weeks are a little harder to conserve energy.
“Always needing to find out where everything is adds up,” Parry said. “In itself it’s not a problem, it’s more a case that when you’re at a course you visit every year you realise how none of that energy is called upon. There are definitely some players who have the skill set of coping and others who don’t.”
He added with a chuckle: “You also get culture clashes. On holiday it’s quite fun that Italians don’t eat till late in the evening. After a long round last week, though, it did kind of do my head in a little bit. I was getting hungry!”
“I love travel. I like getting between tournaments. I like flying. I like airports. I even like hotels.”
Søren Kjeldsen
Last week’s defending champion Ewen Ferguson ran with that theme. “We spend a lot of time being advised on nutrition,” he said. “Yet in China or India it can be really tough to find the right food. Sometimes you’ll be asked why you haven’t played well one week and it might be as simple as a stomach bug or even that jet lag hit you hard.”
Englishman Richard Mansell is aware of what makes him tick. “I like to get away from the golf and switch off between rounds. That’s not so easy if we’re all together in a remote hotel with no restaurants nearby.”
Ferguson and Mansell both highlighted turf as a significant factor that is often overlooked. The former explained that, “it impacts significantly on spin rates and trajectories so they have to be carefully monitored ahead of every start.”
Mansell added: “I struggle a little bit in Africa and chat to African guys who struggle over here. It’s subtle but it matters. I’m always impressed by any golfer who remains consistent with so much changing week to week.”
In other circumstances, Elvis Smylie, winner of the BMW Australian PGA Championship in the first week of the season, might have literally been backpacking around the world. It is, after all, what many 23-year-old Australians do between university and a first job.
Instead his rookie year has been providing the life lessons as he’s visited five different continents. “It’s been character building,” Smylie said. “So many new experiences, new countries, new questions of my game. I even had a burst ear-drum in Austria and had to take a 12-hour train journey from Salzburg to London that was a little humbling.”
It was often said that the veteran Dane Søren Kjeldsen lacked many obvious skills to retain a card from 1998 through to 2024 (he’s a rookie himself this year, on the Champions Tour). The man himself thought the secret was simple. “I love travel,” he said in Bahrain last year. “I like getting between tournaments. I like flying. I like airports. I even like hotels.”
He’s a rarity to be so keen on what, to most, are nagging details but it is telling that tour insiders report that there is one week a year in which complaints dry up. Somewhat surprisingly, it is the week that hosts the Indian Open.
“We suspect it’s because of the commute,” said one of those insiders. “When you see the poverty outside the shuttle bus, it’s very difficult to moan about the food in the player’s lounge.”
The Frenchman Matthieu Pavon has the words “grow up” tattooed on his chest in Sanskrit. It was inspired by memories of him feeling sorry for himself in his rookie season ahead of his arrival in India.
“I saw some of the poorest things in my life,” he told me last year. “I saw kids almost naked in the streets having fun close to some water on the side of the road, having no shoes and stuff like this. And I was like, ‘I really have to grow up. I have to stop behaving like a teenager, stop complaining about everything.’”
In similar fashion, Ferguson said: “It can be tough but ultimately we knew what we were getting into so you just get on with it and do your best.”
The course in Tuscany two weeks ago was quirky in design. For example, of the 18th hole in the final round, the Canadian Aaron Cockerill said with a laugh: “It’s definitely the first time I’ve hit a 7-iron from the tee on a par-5.”
Former-DP World Tour player and now caddie Jason Palmer said of new host venues: “I enjoy rocking up with nothing to go on and everyone is debating how to tackle the course. You can contrast that with this week in Germany where we have years of knowledge and data. Too much of the first would be tiring, too much of the latter a bit boring. The mix makes for a great combination.”
Which brings us back to Munich. BMW, which sponsors three events on this year’s DP World Tour schedule including the flagship BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, is popular with the players because their team aims to cover everything off-the-course for the players so that they can concentrate on their golf. “They genuinely get it,” said Mansell. “Simple things like good food, easy planning, shuttles to and from the airport and hotel. It’s all so smooth.”
Yes, it doesn’t have to be toil, toil, toil. Even backpackers like a bit of luxury every now and again.
E-MAIL MATT
Top: Air travel and the DP World Tour go hand in hand.
WARREN LITTLE, GETTY IMAGES