"Damien McGrane is ready to lose his title as the
marathon man of Irish golf".
Cathal Dervan
So busy was his schedule that only
three players played more tournaments
than McGrane in 2005 as he clocked up 31 starts from just over 40 events
available to the top players in Europe.
Now he’s concentrating all his efforts on a breakthrough win on the European
Tour in Ryder Cup year. As the Kells native maintains his challenge for the
Dubai Desert Classic at the opulent Emirates Course in the Middle East, the
countdown to the K Club has begun. "In order to play Ryder Cup you have to
win on the European Tour so a guy like me has to win once and maybe even
twice between now and September," admitted McGrane, currently the highest
ranking Irishman in 40th on the European Order of Merit with €67,489 from
six outings before today. "I am still looking for my first win on Tour. If I
can win once, I can win twice and if I do that then I’ll be in contention
for a Ryder Cup spot.
"Paul McGinley showed the way when he won in Valderrama in October and shot
himself right into contention. "Ultimately I want to be a Ryder Cup player
but I need to win and then all of a sudden I could be right in there. This
would be a fantastic achievement for me.
"I am focused on a win more than anything else this season. I will be trying
hard to get myself into the right positions to achieve a win.
"This time last year my goal was to get myself into position and then go for
it but I did not manage to secure any wins. In 2006 I hope to create even
more opportunities to secure my first win on Tour." Damien McGrane has never
been your average golfer. A keen handballer as a kid in his native Kells, he
took up golf in his teens at the local Headfort club and, until the end of
2004, doubled life as the club pro in Wexford with life on tour. A year ago
he threw all the eggs — and his balls — into one basket, moved his family
back to Meath and went for the tour bald headed Along the way he improved
his Order of Merit position from 101 in 2004 to 59 while almost doubling
his earnings as well. But that first Tour win remains elusive. "It was a
tough season for me and a long season but I needed to give it that sort of
commitment," revealed McGrane. "I wanted to see how many events I could
manage. It was all new to me. I didn’t want to start out by playing the
average number of events and then try to add more.
:For 2006 I plan to better manage my schedule and perhaps even play a few
lees events.
Those lessons have been learnt. The amount of golf McGrane played led to
lethargy at the end of the year, even when he made it into the lucrative
final event of the season won by Paul McGinley at Valderrama. He has made a
brighter start to this year, however, equalling his lowest ever round on the
Tour with a 63 in the UBS Hong Kong Open. That helped secured his fifth
career top 10, ending in a three-way share of seventh spot on seven under
par. "By the end of the year my golf was tired" added the Meath man. "I was
almost guaranteed a place at Valderrama with six tournaments to go, then I
struggled to make it because my golf just seemed to go stale. This was
possibly the result of such a long, exhaustive season. "It was a good season
but I need to make some changes this year.
"My hit ratio was fairly average really. The end result appeared to be
pretty high only because I played so much golf. "I seemed to be golfing
forever but for 2006 I intend to be more relaxed."
"People will look at the stats and say that I had a good year money wise,
but a lot of that was because I played so much golf.
"The amount of money I won was good, but relative to the chances I had, my
own expectations and what I was hoping to do, I was disappointed with my own
performance. "That has nothing got to do with the money. I felt my own
performance was scrappy.
"I don’t classify that as a mistake because when you go out to play you try
to play your best. This year I hope to improve as a player, swing the club
better and produce better results."
Gavan Becton
Sports Editor
(c) Irish Daily Star Sunday