Monday 16 January 2017 21:35, UK
Graeme Storm edged out Rory McIlroy in a thrilling play-off to win the BMW SA Open title just 84 days after he thought he had lost his card, and Nick Dougherty has been reflecting on his huge achievement.
Losing your card is about the most drastic event that can happen to you in golf, and Graeme was only 100 euros short of avoiding that after he bogeyed the final hole in Portugal back in October.
It must have been heartbreaking for him to lose out like that. We’re not talking about a man with a few million in the bank. Graeme is a regular guy who has gone about his business and made a living playing on the European Tour.
To suddenly face the prospect of having your livelihood taken away, that’s a huge thing to deal with. But just a few days later, he went from despair to euphoria when Patrick Reed withdrew from the Turkish Airlines Open on the advice of his own government due to safety fears.
In deciding to opt out of the trip to Antalya, Reed could not play the required number of events to retain his Tour membership, and that handed Storm a magical lifeline. The relief for Graeme would have been just unbelievable, and the whole situation would have also been a massive wake-up call for him.
To be gifted a second chance, it doesn’t get any better than that. To go from rock bottom to feeling on top of the world is a fantastic feeling, and now he’s enhanced the fairytale story by winning his second tournament, almost 10 years after his first. I can’t think of many better stories than this one!
Being given that second chance is one thing, but to take advantage of his reprieve in the way that Graeme has is another thing entirely. He’ll feel like he’s one of the luckiest men alive, and he’s probably right! The story could so easily have gone the other way, with Graeme going to the Qualifying School and being unable to get his card back.
Graeme didn’t have to lift a finger to retain his card for the 2017 season, but he still had to go out and play the sort of golf that was lacking last year – and that’s exactly what he’s done.
It’s not like he’s an all-new Graeme Storm, he didn’t suddenly find magic powers, but he was determined to seize an opportunity he thought he was unlikely to get last October. He’s been on Tour for a long time and has battled through some tough years, and some of his enthusiasm could have justifiably been affected adversely.
But he’s now got his tail up and has gone back to playing the game the way he knows how, and he got off to an encouraging start with a tie for fourth at Leopard Creek.
He missed the cut in Hong Kong, but he enjoyed his break over Christmas and the New Year and came out fighting in South Africa. Graeme hit the front with a brilliant 63 on Friday and stayed three clear of the field with another bogey-free round on day three.
All of a sudden, he found himself going head-to-head with Rory McIlroy, and you have to admire the way he conducted himself and his strategy in the final round. He didn’t attempt to match Rory or Jordan Smith for power and aggression, he just did his own thing and focused on hitting fairways and greens.
Graeme’s positive body language didn’t change at all, he played to his own strengths, and that was good enough to beat arguably the best player in the world right now.
He would have worked hard on his game to try to avoid a repeat of last year’s situation, and the best way to do that is to play well in the early tournaments. His swing looked in great shape, and he’s come out firing rather than ease his way into the season.
While he was coming to terms with what he had achieved at Glendower, he was asked what was harder; trying to keep your Tour card, or trying to beat Rory McIlroy. And he said it was much less stressful trying to beat Rory!
That’s an understandable attitude, because he realised he was playing in a tournament that he didn’t think he would have the chance to play in a couple of months ago.
Graeme’s performance at the Alfred Dunhill would have given him a lot of confidence and trust in his game, and that was abundantly evident in South Africa, and he was also clearly in a better place mentally.
He was also fortunate that the 18th hole at Glendower played in his hands, and that was the hole he and Rory played three times in the play-off. It looked to me like Graeme felt he could par that hole all day long, and he made four there four times in one day!
He was happy to find the fairway with a three-wood or a hybrid, bump it up to the wide part of the green and trust his putting stroke to get down in two from 40 or 50 feet. Rory was more aggressive and attacked the hole with a driver from the tee, hoping to leave himself with a smooth wedge from a point where he could go at the difficult back-left pin.
I felt he was either going to make a birdie with a good drive and a wedge to a few feet, or he was going to get into trouble with an errant drive and struggle to save par. And the longer the play-off went on, the more I thought it was an advantage for Graeme.
And that’s pretty much how it worked out. Graeme stuck rigidly to his strategy, and that was enough to hold off Rory and lift the trophy.
