“You almost don’t realise how lucky you are until you are on the outside looking in.” Marc Warren’s final words in a chat on the driving range at The Belfry as the Scot finalised his preparations for this week’s Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo summed up his current situation perfectly as he bids to claw his way back from a “horrendous” neck injury and then feeling out in the wilderness to regain a seat at the DP World Tour table. The East Kilbride man was a World Cup winner with Colin Montgomerie back in 2007 and, on the back of underling his talent as a Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year, also recorded four individual DP World Tour title triumphs, including the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles the same year he felt on top of the world at Mission Hills in China. Warren finished a career-best 25th in the Race to Dubai in 2015 before returning to winning ways in the 2020 Austrian Open - one of the first events to be held on the DP World Tour after the Covid pandemic outbreak - but, unbeknown to most, he’s endured a tough time of it over the past couple of years. Two seasons ago, he was on course to hang on to his main tour card before being struck by a serious neck issue and, needing injections and pain-killers to keep playing, he kept playing but ended up losing his full playing privileges by five spots as he finished 121st in the Race to Dubai Rankings. Describing it as “brutal”, Warren then secured just six starts on the DP World Tour last year, when he played mainly on the second-tier HotelPlanner Tour, and, though that is still the same scenario for him this season, the 44-year-old is gradually seeing a spring return to his step. Playing through an invitation, he closed with a best-of-the-day 67 at Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire to finish joint-19th behind compatriot Grant Forrest in the Nexo Championship before also making the cut in last week’s Danish Golf Championship, getting into it as a former winner. “Yeah,” said Warren, smiling, in reply to being asked by The Scotsman on the driving range at The Belfry if he felt he believed he still belongs on the DP World Tour, where he is close to clocking up 500 appearances. “Go back two years to finishing fourth in Denmark and pretty much having enough points to be secured then getting the neck injury and not realising how bad it was at the time. Otherwise, I would have stopped playing. “To keep playing, I was on codeine and all sorts of drugs just to get through and needed an hour’s physio in the morning and an hour at night. The guys in the physio truck were incredible with me just to get me playing as I tried to get enough points to get over the line. I ended up needing two injections to finish off my last five or six events to try and make a couple of cuts to get the points I required.” Not helped by being forced to withdraw after the opening round of the BMW PGA Championship, Warren ultimately fell short and, at the same time, was faced with the possibility of needing surgery on his neck. “That was due to the calcium build up around the middle of the vertebrae and my spine, which was causing issues with the nerves in my neck,” he continued. “At the time, you have no idea how bad it actually is, having never had any neck issues before. I’ve not had the operation. I have tried to do more physical stuff with it to try and strengthen it. They literally have to cut you open, go into the vertebrae and clean out around the nerves, which doesn’t sound that great. “The surgeon I spoke to said that he has a very similar thing and said he hadn’t had the surgery but he said that if he was a sports person, he would because there is a chance that it can come back as bad as it was - and, believe me, it was horrible. “I didn’t have a full night’s sleep a lot of the time, waking up four or five times a night, while sitting on a plane was uncomfortable. Yeah, it was horrendous and to then miss out by just a few spots made it even worse for me. After some 20-plus years out here, you are hoping to get a bit more support to play out here. But everyone is looking for that support, so it’s not an easy situation, whether it’s the tour or the players.” Having been delighted to get his opportunity in the Nexo Championship then making the most of it and, despite a disappointing first-round 77 in this week’s $3.5 million event, Warren is hoping that better times lie ahead. “Yeah, physically I feel in a lot better place now and mentally a lot better place as well,” he said. “I am way more motivated this year to try and get back whereas last year was just brutal. Just a long, tough year. “I am still doing band work every second day to try and keep my neck moving. This morning, I was in the gym at just after 6am working on it, trying to make sure my neck is warmed up before I do anything, which is a task in itself. “But the other side of that is I feel as if I am warmed up and ready to go every time I arrive at the range now. I’ve always been pretty lucky flexibility-wise, so I have kind of taken that for granted a wee bit. But, after the scare I’ve had, I definitely don’t now.” Hopefully it won’t be too long before one of Scotland’s most talented golfers within the last 20 years is back where he belongs on a full-time basis.
