Marc Warren has now set himself the goal by year’s end of the assurance of completing the ‘Warren Slam’ and that is to compete in golf’s four Majors.
Warren brilliantly negotiated the third leg of his ‘Slam’ by finishing tied 12th in Sunday’s concluding PGA Championship at Rochester.
Unfortunately, the Glaswegian just missed out by a shot in automatically qualifying for this week’s PGA Tour Wyndham Championship in North Carolina after his 15-foot birdie putt at the last pulled up right on the edge of the hole.
Warren had been afforded a late minute invitation to compete in his first ever PGA Championship on the back of finishing runner-up in May’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
Marc Warren has now played three Majors and wants to complete the ‘Warren Slam’ by contesting the Masters. (Photo – www.golffile.ie)
His effort at Oak Hill has seen Warren jump 13 places to 99th on the World he World Rankings while he is 18th on the Race to Dubai and also just three places shy of automatic entry into next year’s US Open at Pinehurst.
However it’s a first Masters invitation Warren now targets and he will attain that goal by ending the year inside the top-50 on the rankings.
“My great finish at the PGA has really given me the taste for the US Majors with the Masters next,” he said.
“I have played the Open, the US Open and the PGA now so the Masters is the only one missing for the Warren Slam.
“My result at Oak Hill has moved me inside the top-100 so I will look to continue that with a strong finish to the year.
“There’s also Ryder Cup points starting at the Wales Open but then if you start to look to deeply into things like that, you would drive yourself crazy.
“So the main focus is just keep chipping away at the rankings and hopefully that Masters invitation will arrive in the post around New Year.”
Warren will have this week off before teeing up in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles and a venue where he’s won before.
“While I’m still looking to win this year the good thing has been my consistency,” he said.
“I have been getting top 10s, top 20s and results like that.
“Of course, I have been close to winning a couple of times including the BMW PGA but as long as I keep doing things like that then the doors should open.”
And while Warren went within an inch of a first-ever start in a regular PGA Tour event he has not ruled out one day playing full-time on the PGA Tour.
“Europe is where I started my career and ideally I want to get into the top 50 in the world so that would be the first big step,” he said.
“Guys like Frankie (Francesco) Molinari has a great schedule as he has a great mixture of with all the WGC events and playing also in the Majors.
“So it would be great to play over in the States. It is just great to play in front of big crowds like we had at the PGA.
“There were 25,000 people here just for the first practice day on Monday.
“But then if it does happen I will need to get more pages in my passport.”
