February ‘05

The Star 

Author - Cathal Dervan

Life is all about change for golfer Damien McGrane these days. He is no longer the only club professional playing on the European Tour. He is no longer a Meathman in exile in the sunny South East. He is no longer the juggler of Irish golf.

The keys to the shop in Wexford Golf Club have been handed over to fellow Kells native and protégé Liam Bowler. The family are back home on Royal land. He’s gone back to work wth coach Simon Byrne and mind guru Liam Staunton. He has a new sponsor in Belfast club manufacturer MD Golf.

And Damien McGrane is now totally focussed on one thing and one thing only – a maiden victory on the European Tour.

The new direction is obviously working. Going into this week’s Malaysian Open the 33 year old was the leading Irish player, in 20^th position, on the Order of Merit with over €50,000 already in the bank. He is also a man who knows exactly where he is going.

“I now realise that there is not that big a gap between myself and winning a tournament,” claimed McGrane. “Obviously I have to identify where the gap is and how I close it and get a win out there. That’s why I am looking forward in 2005 after making all the changes in 2004.

 “I had to move on, I had to take my commitments a lot more seriously on the Tour. Last season I was conscious about not fulfilling my commitments to the golf club. It seemed to be going okay but it got to a point where I said I am not doing the club justice and the fairest thing I can do is move aside.

 “It just wasn’t going to be possible to get to where I want to be in golf with that commitment. We only pass this way once and I would to turn around and reflect in 20 years that I should have done things differently. That’s why I have taken the plunge now.

“There are no excuses now. Geraldine and I have relocated the family to Kells and whereas in the past I was going away to find form now I hope to have form with me on the flight going to tournaments.

“That means my preparation can be a bit more relaxed rather than being hurried and all action.”

The leaving of Wexford, after eight years as the man who put golf on the map in the sunny South East, wasn’t easy for McGrane. He went there as a rookie pro from the town of Kells many miles away in Co. Meath and left, just before Christmas, as a European Tour pro, one of just eight Irishmen out with the big boys.

“Wexford was so good for me for so long and there are days still when I miss it,” he explained over a recent coffee in his hometown club of Headfort.

“It was my first job. I had very little when I went down there but they gave me every opportunity at Wexford Golf Club and I enjoyed it all. The shop did well for me and I improved every year in my time there as I went from the Irish PGA tour to the MasterCard tour in the UK then onto the Challenge Tour and finally onto the European Tour itself.

“I got tremendous support down there. I’d sign my credit card in the newsagents and the woman would ask me if I was the golfer. People who never had any reason to take an interest in golf would follow me on the tour because they’d see me living amongst them, down the main street shopping for the groceries the same as themselves. 

“They didn’t know me from Adam at the start but they took pride in seeing me on the Tour and I take great pride in putting golf up there alongside hurling and Gaelic football in Wexford.” 

The changes have made a difference already for McGrane. A top 10 at the New Zealand Open landed a cheque for over €20,000. More than that it convinced the Meath man that all the changes will pay dividends.

He’s not even thinking about crossing the prize money line that guarantees a card for another year. He is thinking only of taking the next step, the step to a win on tour.  

“The danger on the tour is that you start to look for the finish line,” he claimed. “The danger is that if I visualise the finish line at €160,000 this year then, to be honest, I will probably struggle to win €160,000.

“The best players in the world have the mindset of millions and millions. They never ever consider keeping their card but when you are starting off you set your goals possibly a little bit too close.

“I got to €160k after the Nissan Irish Open last year and I was listening to talk that I had my card in the bag but there were maybe eight or 10 tournaments left after that and maybe €10 to €20million in prize money.

“So do you give up with €20 million left on the cards or do you keep going? I was lucky enough that I kept going and you have to be very careful that you’re not sucked into the comfort zone.

“You have to keep trying to stay ahead, always ahead. Even if you are number one stay number one, even if I am down at number 100 I am trying to stay there and go forward. If you say you are safe at 100 then you’re saying ok, I give up. I don’t want that mindset.”

McGrane is no longer a rookie on tour – and it suits him.

“When you get out on the tour first there are so many distractions that playing golf nearly has to fit in whereas golf should be the number one,” he admitted.

“There shouldn’t be any reason for driving into a car park but to go, put on your shoes, get the golf balls into the bag and head for the first tee. The danger is that you have chat with this guy and that guy and you have to have your breakfast and meet your manager, there are so many things that can distract you.

“If you’re new on the tour you nearly enjoy the distractions but at this stage I have got way past all that and I just turn up, play my golf and go home.

“You have to adapt and quickly. If you don’t fit in quite fast you are dead in the water, if you’re still excited about the flashing lights you’re gone. You have to be able to see way past all those things.

“Just look at Vijay on the TV. Week in, week out he is just the same guy walking up the fairways whether he is first or last, whether he is missing the cut or making the cut, whether it is a major or a regular US tour event. He just cruises along and does the same job every week and I bet he doesn’t get distracted yet everybody in the whole world wants to talk to him.”

McGrane mentions the likes of Vijay and Padraig Harrington more than once in conversation. He clearly loves the attitude and the focus of the man from Fiji and the man from Stackstown in what is one of the cruellest businesses in the world.

“I’d say it is unforgiving business because there are plenty of people out there who are willing to listen to a sob story and they will keep nodding their heads and tell you how unlucky you are but unfortunately that’s as far as it goes,” he continued.

“We are in charge of our own destiny. I don’t have a good backline behind me to hold me up if I am after letting a ball past me so I have to do it all myself. The rewards are good if you can stay focussed and stay motivated.

“We do so much travelling then go straight onto the practise ground then straight onto the course but you have to stay quite motivated and you have to try to be energised by it. I have to look forward to playing every week whereas the best players in the world must be sick of it yet they motivate themselves to go out there and win.

“What’s big for the member of any golf club is going out and playing golf on a Sunday and his major is the captain’s prize. If you play for Ireland your major is playing in the European team championships.

“If you are a club pro maybe the Irish Open is your major. My majors now are the real thing. I look at Padraig who can stimulate and motivate himself for the biggest events in Europe because he knows there is so much at stake.

“It is harder and harder to get yourself motivated because the more and more you have the more and more you don’t need to motivate yourself because you are in a comfort zone yet the top players do it.

“Vijay does it week in and week out. Like how does he still have the same desire for the game?”

So how does a man from Kells called McGrane get to that level, how does he even aspire to that level?

“They are the best in the world as well though, there is no doubt about it,” answered McGrane. “They are the best in the world and I am trying to be the best I can be.

 “If I can be the best I can be, and obviously I am not too bad, if I can push myself along then at the end of the day I want to see how far can I actually push myself, how far can I actually go. That’s why I am trying to and that’s what I have done. I have taken steps and I have cleared the way. There are no distractions and I can get on with it

“There is no such thing as a limit. Look at Padraig, he is the best example of the lot. Just when you think he has conquered Europe now he wants to go out and win a major and we all believe he is going to win a major.

“I believe that if I can make better decisions this year, manage those decisions better at the crucial time and if I can push forward as Padraig can do, if I can get into that position five times this year then I think I can win twice. That’s the way I have to look at it.”