The Claret Jug defintely won’t be lifted in St Andrews , Scotland, until Sunday, but English golfer Matt Ford has already secured the particular victory of a life time: qualifying for the Open Championship.
The 44-year-old has struck tens of thousands of shots in over 280 tournaments, but when he drives from the starting tee of the Older Course Thursday, it can mark his 1st swing at a main, in a professional career spanning almost 20 years.
Kia turned professional within 2003, but his efforts to reach The Open began being an amateur. They integrated a qualifying playoff defeat to upcoming Experts champion Trevor Immelman, and he has since caused it to be to final being qualified numerous times.
“I tried to work it out the other day actually, the number of times I’ve tried, ” Ford told CNN, settling on an estimate of twenty-four attempts without achievement until now.
The son of a professional footballer, Ford grew up within the English town of Swindon wanting to adhere to in his father’s actions. Having only found a club the first time aged 10, this wasn’t until he had finished school from 18 he put himself into pursuing golf full-time.
“I loved football but it was also so frustrating, whereas golf is just down to yourself, ” Ford said.
“Although the game of golf is certainly anything but control, you’ll still can control much more in an individual sport. ”
Turning expert at age 25, Ford made a strong begin, competing at the 2005 BMW PGA Tournament (formerly the Uk PGA Championship) within Wentworth.
Competing on an European Tour event gave the Englishman a huge confidence boost, but by 2013 he or she was close to walking away from the sport. Regardless of a handful of further appearances on the European Trip (now the DP Planet Tour ), Ford has spent the vast majority of his profession on its feeder series, the Challenge Tour.
Challenge Tour issues
Five runner-up finishes have been highlights, but constant long hauls around the world to courses far less luxurious compared to European and PGA Tours have taken their toll mentally plus, above all, financially.
Only the top ten finishers of the Challenge Tour’s 156 participant field “realistically” make enough prize money to subsidize the expense of playing the event, with Ford estimating more than half the remaining players reduce over $1, 500 a week.
By Ford’s own reckoning he’s dropped money more often compared to he’s won it, and with wife Suzie and two young kids to support, the pressure of quite literally ‘playing to live’ has been challenging.
“The quantity of times I’ve thought about giving up this video game and as a lot of people say, ‘get a proper job’, it’s been tough, ” he said.
“It’s emotional because of the way my loved ones has supported me personally. I haven’t necessarily made as much cash as I’d like to get this comfortable. ”
A large breakthrough followed in late 2014 when Ford got his credit card at the European Visit Qualifying School, starting the door for your pet to compete in almost 60 European Tour events across the following two years.
He dropped his card ahead of the 2017 season, but kept plugging away until he discovered himself competing on the final Open being qualified event at Prince’s Golf Club in Kent, England, in Come july 1st.
The blitzing start to the second round put Ford in a commanding position at 5-under proceeding into the final 10 holes of being qualified, before four photos dropped across the following four holes appeared set to pen a familiar chapter in his Open qualifying story.
“You start wondering, ‘Have I blown it? What have I done? You fool, ‘” he recalled.
Yet when Suzie and the two children showed up for the last six holes after school, they will watched Ford soar to a spectacular complete. He shot a good eagle en route to getting those four lost strokes to finish 5-under and qualify as event winner, 2 shots clear of 2nd place.
‘The biggest ever’
Along with realizing his own childhood dream of playing the Open — the historic 150th edition on the legendary Outdated Course no less — Ford is equally thrilled to share the experience with his family.
“Sorry teachers, ” his kids have secured a direct result their own with days off to watch their own Dad compete in Scotland. And eager to meet Tiger Woods , Ford has already made good on his promise, tweeting a picture of their daughter with the three-time Open champion on Wednesday.
“They are just as happy and as excited as I am, ” he said. “The tournaments they’ve wandered around with me, they are able to watch every single shot and generally there haven’t been many folks around.
“It’s just going to make it crazy at St Andrews with that many people… it’s gonna be such a big event, people are saying it could gonna be one of the greatest ever. ”
The experience, the paycheck, and the opportunities it may spring pertaining to future DP Globe Tour events; Kia cites plenty of great be excited about the particular week. Yet once the lifelong aim was just to make it to the first tee, what is the end goal now he’s going to be there?
“Am We thinking of winning the particular tournament? No, not necessarily, ” Ford mentioned. “But there’s no good reason that I can’t have a great week and who knows what can happen. This is golfing and if I can get on a run, you just don’t know.
“I’m not really setting myself too many particular goals apart from keep a smile on my face and luxuriate in the week. Easily do that, hopefully Items shoot some good scores. ”
Whatever the result, this certainly won’t be for a lack of effort.
Kia is scheduled in order to tee off intended for his first circular at 11: fifteen a. m. BST (6: 15 the. m. ET) Thursday night.