'Incredible' - Marc Warren on being latest Scot to join DP World Tour's '500 Club'
World Cup winner set to reach milestone in event he triumphed in back in 2020
He won a World Cup for Scotland alongside Colin Montgomerie and also has four individual DP World Tour triumphs to his name, including a sweet success on home soil. Now Marc Warren’s longevity as a tour professional is set to be cemented as well when he becomes just the eighth Scot to clock up 500 appearances on the circuit when he tees off on Thursday in the Austrian Open.
“Jeezo!,” he proclaimed, speaking to The Scotsman from Golfclub Kitzbühel-Schwarzsee-Reith in Kitzbühel, where home star Sepp Straka is the star attraction in the $2.75 million event. “It’s gone quick yet, at other times, it’s gone really slow (laughing). Yeah, incredible. It’s not really something that I’d kept a track of, to be honest. Then, probably about a year ago, I realised I was pretty close. I’d have loved it to have been sooner, but it’s nice that my 500th appearance is happening this week in an event I’m playing in as a past winner (in 2020).”
The 45-year-old joins compatriots Sandy Lyle, Colin Montgomerie, Sam Torrance, Gordon Brand jnr, Paul Lawrie, Stephen Gallacher and, most recently, David Drysdale in reaching the milestone. The last person to get there was Padraig Harrington at last year’s Qatar Masters, just after Ross Fisher, who will be one of Warren’s playing partners in the opening two rounds, also achieving the feat just before the Irishman. Others to join the ‘500 Club’ in recent seasons include Nicolas Colsaerts and Jamie Donaldson.
“My first event was as an amateur in 2001,” recalled Warren, an East Kilbride member at the time, of playing in the Gleneagles Scottish PGA Championship, won by Paul Casey. “That was just after the Walker Cup (at Sea Island in Georgia, where he was part of a rare GB&I team to win on US soil). I remember coming back and getting word that I’d been offered the chance to play at Gleneagles.
“I was going to stay on and play in the US Amateur and decided to play at Gleneagles as getting my first tour start in Scotland was pretty exciting after the Walker Cup. I ended up never getting the chance to play in a US Amateur and, looking back, I might have made a different decision, though it was pretty hard to turn down a first tour start in Scotland.
“I missed the cut that week, but it was still a great experience. I remember how excited I was getting up there and I still remember Stevie O’Hara getting burnt to a crisp that week as he was making his debut and seeing him almost limping across the range (laughing).”
Warren landed his maiden tour win in the Scandinavian Masters in 2006 before enjoying a week to remember the following year as he added the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles. A third triumph followed in the Made in Denmark in 2014 before claiming his most recent success six years ago in Austria.
It could be claimed, though, that his finest hour came alongside Montgomerie as the duo earned a place in the record books as the only Scottish team to be crowned as World Cup winners at Mission Hills in China, where they’d also finished runners up to German duo Bernhard Langer and Marcel Siem the previous year.
Family affair for Marc Warren in Austria
“I’ve enjoyed some incredible experiences over the years,” admitted Warren, who is enjoying a family affair this week with wife Laura and their two kids, Archie and Sophie. “From the wins obviously that were all memorable to other good events and some good finishes in majors and World Golf Championships. Being close to the Scottish Open a few times, which, obviously being Scottish, is our fifth major. You know, it still hurts not getting over the line in that one.
“Also being out second last in the third round of The Open at St Andrews in 2015 was a great experience as I played with Paul Lawrie that day and David Kenny, one of my best mates since I was a kid, was caddying for him at the time. Lots of memories and experiences. Yeah, it’s been incredible.”
As was his first start as a full card holder on the main tour after topping the Challenge Tour Order of Merit in 2005, helped by two wins on the second-tier circuit that season. “The winner of the Challenge Tour back then qualified for the HSBC, which was a World Golf Championship,” he recalled. “It was a small field and I was hitting balls on the range next to Tiger Woods. You were straight in amongst it, which was an incredible experience.
“As was winning in the first year in Sweden before then teeing it up with Monty in the World Cup and almost winning that at my first attempt. Then winning at Gleneagles in my second year and also winning the World Cup with Monty, you are like ‘wow’. It’s only after being out here for a few years that you actually look back and appreciate how great that was. What a start to a career.”
‘It’s an honour to be on the list’
He finished a career-high 25th in the Race to Dubai in 2015 and, helped by his Austrian Open win, made the top 50 as recently as 2020. At the moment, though, after a tough spell that included being struck by a serious neck injury, Warren is playing mainly on the HotelPlanner Tour, the rebranded name for the Challenge Tour.
Fully fit again and feeling mentally good as well, Warren hopes to be back playing on the DP World Tour as a card holder again before turning his attention to seniors’ golf. In the meantime, though, he’s going to enjoy becoming the 51st ‘500 Club’ member alongside some of the legendary figures in Scottish golf. “Mentally, I still feel young, but it’s nice that longevity has allowed me to join that list and it’s an honour to be on there beside those names,” he admitted.
Warren with presented with a salver to mark his milestone after the opening round. “I’m enjoying the week,” he admitted, with son Archie looking as though he is keen to follow in his dad’s footsteps. “He's certainly grafting hard enough, handicaps come tumbling down the last year or so yeah,” observed Warren. “Hopefully he's one of the ones in the future to join the ‘500 Club’.”
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