Rising from the Challenge

That’s the bad news. The good news is that, courtesy of his fifth place finish in last week’s Dunhill Links Championship, Marc Warren is almost certainly back on the European Tour next season when, no doubt, he will be able to afford a caddie.

“I don’t like playing in Challenge Tour events,” he admits with a shudder. “It’s hard to go back after you’ve won tournaments at a higher level. And carrying my own bag I found it hard to concentrate on the job. It didn’t feel like I was even at a tournament. And I just didn’t want to be there.

“I had three years on the Challenge Tour before I got my card and that was enough for me. The only upside was that such a feeling only added to my determination to get back on the main tour.”

Warren’s “relegation” from the European Tour came at the end of a 2010 season in which he missed as many as 16 halfway cuts, recorded only one top-ten finish, saw his stroke average soar above 72.5 and, not surprisingly, was left languishing at a disastrous 124th on the Order of Merit, nine places from all-exempt safety.

“I’ve tried to look on losing my card as an opportunity to learn,” says the 30-year old from East Kilbride. “But there were a few factors involved in me actually doing as badly as I did. I changed my coach midway through 2010, right in the middle of a run of massive events. That led me to going out and working on my action rather than on scoring. When I should have been thinking about getting the ball in the hole, I was worried about where the club was during my swing. Looking back though, that was just part of what I had to go through to get better. I didn’t like the way I was swinging the club at that time and working with Pete Cowen was just too good an opportunity to turn down.

“Anyway, by the time I started hitting the ball decently, it was too late to save my card. I knew going in there was a lot of work to be done. So that was no surprise. I put a lot of work in last year and the first half of this year. But I could feel it getting better. When I’ve seen Pete recently he has been pleased with where I am with my swing. Last week, all we worked on were three-quarter shots in case the wind got up. That told me he thought my swing didn’t need too much work.”

Cowen was right too. Over the course of 72 holes at St. Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie, Warren dropped only three shots, a remarkable feat even in last week’s strangely benign weather. It was, for a man hardly known for his consistency even when performing at his best, confirmation that the ¤126,334 cheque he picked up is only the start of a long-term improvement in his game.

“Ever since Marc came on tour his golf has been hot and cold,” points out fellow Scot Stephen Gallacher. “But his hot is red-hot. So there’s no denying he is an exceptional talent. He has a beautiful swing. And what he did last week was no surprise to me. When he gets into position he always does well. I’m delighted to see him get his card back. I’d expect him to kick on next year, especially if he keeps working as hard as he has over the last few months.”

The Dunhill was, in fact, Warren’s 21st European Tour appearance in 2011, not bad for a man without a card. But that was part of the plan. At the start of the season, Warren had a decision to make. He could either rely on his reputation and stature to get him invitations on to the main tour, or he could focus solely on the second-tier Challenge circuit and get his card back via that less-lucrative route. It didn’t take him long to make up his mind.

“I decided to play as many European Tour events as I could, just because of the mental aspect,” he explains. “I wanted to remain a European Tour player and go about my business as if I could do well at that level. Going back to the Challenge Tour full-time would have been a blow to my ego and self-esteem. Besides, I looked at the number of events I was likely to get into and decided that 15 or so would be enough for me to get my card back – provided I played well in those weeks of course.

“In other words, I backed myself to get the job done. It was an on-going thing though. As recently as a couple of months ago I was down to see Pete and he raised the subject of whether I should keep going on the main tour or jump to the Challenge Tour. My feeling then was that my game was getting close to where I wanted it to be, so why should I drop down a division? All I needed was one really good week and I’d have my card back. Which is just what has happened.”

One good week, of course, was what Warren used to rely on, when his game was like the current form of his beloved Rangers – in and out.

“I look back now at the swing I had before I started seeing Pete and it explains a lot,” he says. “It was far too long and far too loose. I could never be consistent because there was just too much timing involved. Plus, in my first two years on tour I was first and second in the putting stats. But I was all over the place. When I won in Sweden I did so after three missed cuts in a row. When I won at Gleneagles I had just missed four cuts in a row. And when I arrived in China for the World Cup with Monty I was playing terrible.

“I’m hopefully going to be a different player from now on, though. I like to think I’ll be a lot more consistent, miss a lot fewer cuts and be in the top-10 or top-20 a lot more often. I won’t be relying on hitting ‘home runs’ once or twice a year. When they don’t come – as they didn’t for me in 2010 – you’re in trouble.”

More good news: he’s making all the right noises. And if last week is anything to go by, he’s hitting the right shots. Now, card in hand, he can concentrate solely on what every professional golfer should: playing well, competing hard and winning. One suspects that Marc Warren will be doing a bit of all three in 2012.