Scotland’s David Drysdale’s joined the Tour’s elite ‘500 Club’ confessing until he captures a maiden Tour victory his European Tour career will not be fulfilled.
Drysdale, 45, reached a milestone 500th Tour event in teeing-up at 8.10am this morning (THURS) on day one of the Hero (English) Open at the Forrest of Arden course in England.
The Borders golfer, who made his Tour debut in the 1999 Scottish PGA Championship at Gleneagles, becomes the 44th player and now the seventh Scot in the 48-year history of the Tour to have played 500 or more main Tour events.
Sam Torrance easily leads the Scottish way with 706 events to his credit while Drysdale is now just 13 events behind the double Major winning Sandy Lyle.
“I am very proud. It has been 20 years of travelling the world and playing golf,” said Drysdale.
“It is not something you set out to achieve when you start playing professionally to play 500 events on the European Tour, but it is a fantastic achievement and I hope for many more.”
In his 499 events, Drysdale has made the cut in 284 and finished runner-up on four occasions, including losing a play-off earlier this year at the Qatar Masters.
Drysdale has been third of five occasions and overall has had 25 top-10s to earn £stg 5.15m in total prize money.
All up, and including the secondary Challenge Tour events, Drysdale has teed-up in 578 events and while he’s tasted a double dose of success on the Challenge Tour, the golfer known as ‘Double D’ remains determined to win on Europe’s main stage.
He went so close earlier this year in the last event before lockdown losing a four-hole play-off in Qatar to Spain’s Jorge Campillo.
But until he gets across a European Tour finishing line in first place the affable Scot says his career ambition would not be ‘fulfilled’.
Drysdale said: “I don’t want to have a record of playing 500 events and not having had a win. If I was to pack-up tomorrow that would be the one regret or the one niggle in that I would have not won a European Tour event.
“It’s just amazing how a couple of young lads can come out on Tour and win their first title in some six starts like in this season already.
“I’ve been at it for 20-years and still haven’t won. So, to win is the goal I am still chasing and I am proof of the fact it’s not easy.
“So, I definitely would not feel my pro career has been fulfilled if I were not to win on the European Tour.
“I did have a couple of wins on the Challenge Tour that were massive including in 2004 and the Challenge Tour Grand Final in Bordeaux when I had to win the play-off.
“I started outside the top-15 but played really well and managed to get into a play-off. I remember going to the 18th tee for the first play-off hole thinking I needed to win the tournament to win my Tour card so the pressure was pretty big.
“You would not get any more pressure than that and there were the shots I hit down the stretch earlier this year in Qatar, and you won’t get any more pressure than that.
“I’ve had five months to get over what happened in Qatar and what I need to do is just get myself in that position again and hopefully asap”.
David Drysdale and his wife of 16-years and caddy for 18-years;
And in achieving this milestone, Drysdale has singled out his Vicky, his wife of 16-years and caddy for 18-years.
Drysdale said: “Thankfully, I have a very special person at my side and that is Vicky, my wife, my caddie, manager, and inspiration, and mentor and everything else.
“Vicks is more excited about me making it to 500 than I am!
“She has travelled with me for most weeks for the majority of my time on Tour so we have always been a pretty good team, but our relationship has grown even closer since she started caddying for me.
“It came about as something of a fluke because there was one week in South Africa, at the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek at the end of 2016, where my regular caddie couldn’t make it because of family issues, so Vicks started because I didn’t have anyone. It’s one of our favourite places in the world and we finished 11th that week.
“I tried another couple of guys on the bag but I started to realise that I was relying on my caddie way too much, which made me quite lazy. I found that I lost a bit of focus, so Vicky and I decided to give it a go as full-time husband and wife as well as player and caddie.
“It has been a lot of fun for most of the time and now we are very comfortable on the golf course together.
“She had been carrying the bag since 2002 and before we were married (2004) but given the stage we are at in our lives, and the stage I am at in my career, it has worked out perfectly for us.
“Put it this way: If you are a Tour professional for over ten years and you find one person that you can share everything with and not want to kill each other at the end of the week, then you have found the perfect match, and I certainly have that with Vicks.”
And as Drysdale heads into his 500th Tour event still looking for that first win, he knows that his wife/caddy will be on hand by his side to press the button when needed.
He said: “Vicky is not scared to kick me up the backside when I need it. If I’m down in the dumps or I’m getting frustrated or annoyed, she knows how to push the button to get me motivated and upbeat, and going again.”
Drysdale is among a big field of 10 Scots teeing-up at Hanbury Manor including recent Austrian Open winner, Marc Warren.
LIST OF SCOTTISH MEMBERS OF THE TOUR’S 500 CLUB
Sam Torrance – 706
Colin Montgomerie – 621
Paul Lawrie – 618
Gordon Brand Jnr – 596
Stephen Gallacher – 566
Sandy Lyle – 513
David Drysdale – 500
