Unless Damien McGrane captures this week’s Portugal Masters then the Vilamoura event will be the 44-year old’s final European Tour tournament.
McGrane joins Anders Hansen, and a year older than the Irishman and with the Dane to end a 20-year European Tour career also this week on the Algarve.
However McGrane only began competing full-time on the European Tour at age 31 though he did make a first appearance in 1995 and this week plays his 397 Tour event.
The Kells golfer has earned more than Euro 5m in prize money and in a career capped by his only Tour victory in the 2008 Volvo China Open where he also earned his highest prize purse of Euro 232.121.
Damien McGrane shoots a career equalying best of 63 on day one of Joburg Open. (Photo – Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
McGrane’s enjoyed another eight top-three results and some 25 other top-10s.
While McGrane has never enjoyed the headlines that the likes of Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington or Graeme McDowell have attracted, he’s gone about plying his trade in a most professional manner.
And after finishing the leading Irish-born golfer on day one of the Portugal Masters McGrane looked back on his season and his career.
“I’ve enjoyed my year and while I haven’t played well, I’ve enjoyed the golf, all
The highlight of Damien McGrane’s career and capturing the 2008 Volvo China Open.
“So to be honest I should just get
“I’ve had a great run and the European Tour has been
“My mind has been made up for some time but I still want to retain my own self-respect and I want to go out and still compete as best I can but then I don’t want to let myself down either.
“But then it’s a different game today then when I started on the Tour 13 years ago with the players getting younger and more powerful, and I am getting older and shorter while my belly is getting bigger, and it’s not going to change (laughing).
An arresting moment for Ireland’s Damien McGrane during this year’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open Pro-Am. (Photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)
“I have made up my mind and next week is going to be no different as I will be starting off from the lowest of the low position, and every week I play I realise I am slipping further and further out of touch.
“And it’s good to see that the game is in great hands with so many brilliant hands but then in order for these younger guys to get a foothold on the big Tour guys like me have to step out of the way and let them have their chance. That’s how I got my start by somebody losing their card for me to get my start.
“I will turn 45 in April next year and I am absolutely happy with what I’ve got.
“I’ve got no real plans what I will do but I will go home and watch the Discovery Channel for a few months and then maybe some day I will have a vision and then make a decision but not rush into anything.
“And I won’t come back as a caddy either as I can lift my own golf bag rather than someone else’s.
Damien McGrane gives Tiger Woods a pat on the back after Woods wins the 2008 Dubai Desert Classic.
That decision could involve McGrane returning to his role before he joined the Tour and that is again becoming a club pro.
“That’s where I came from and that’s where I was happiest and I would have no problems at all going back into that role but then the European Tour got in the way,” he said smiling.
Some of the highlights of his career aside from winning the China Open was playing back-to-back rounds alongside then World No. 1 Tiger Woods in the Dubai Desert Classic.
McGrane found himself in limelight teeing up alongside Woods for the third round of the 2008 Dubai Desert Classic after both players completed the opening two rounds with a seven under par tally.
McGrane had yet to win a maiden European Tour event and went out in round three to shock Woods posting a level par 72 to Woods who signed for a 73.
Damien McGrane teeing off during Round One at the KLM Dutch Open, from the Kennemer Golf & Country Club, Zandvoort, Netherlands. Picture: David Lloyd / www.golffile.ie
The pair then found themselves together for the final round and with Woods displaying all his class to shoot a blistering 65 for a 14-under par total and win in Dubai for a second time in three years whereas McGrane slumped under the weight of a 79 to eventually finish T44th on level par.
It was an experience that naturally McGrane remembers to this day and would less than three months later lead to the affable Irishman capturing the Volvo China Open.
“I remember the Thursday and Friday were very windy and the course was playing very tough but we all battled our way around,” said McGrane.
“I also remember playing with Tiger on the Saturday. We’d a good chat all the way around and he was very, very easy to play golf with.
“He then played great on Sunday shooting a 65 and managed to steal the tournament from Martin Kaymer.
“It wasn’t distracting playing alongside Tiger. In fact, he easy to play with. The whole thing wa
Damien McGrane relaxes on the “Book of Kells”, Kells Co.Meath, 25th February 2012(Photo Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
s a very positive experience and I took all the positives from it. I played okay on Sunday and had a double-bogey on nine and a treble-bogey on 18, I spun two balls back into the water so, all of a sudden, I made a bags of it.
“But I was nearly a passenger watching what he was up to and how he closed out the tournament.
“Overall, it was a very positive experience for me and I remember going to India the following week and I think I finished second there.
“As we know, about six weeks later, I won in China so I was able to use the whole thing I used as a positive.”
The European Tour will miss McGrane but then he did confess he will play the odd event.
Damien McGrane with his children, Gemma and Ethen, after shooting 6 under par on Day 1 of the 3 Irish Open at the Killarney Golf & Fishing Club, 29th July 2010..(Picture Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
“The gap is just getting bigger and bigger between players my level and others coming onto to the Tour like young Paul Dunne so now it’s his turn,” he said
“As I said I consider myself very lucky as some guys out here are very, very stressed that suffer from anxiety and on the golf course they are bitter and twisted while I’ve been lucky as I have not lost a single hair playing this game.
“I’ve only gone grey and when you consider where I came from it’s amazing what a long career I’ve had on the European Tour.”
Well done, Damien. You have been an ornament to the game. You have always been obliging and on a personal level I thank you so much for time you have afforded me and the friendship that I have enjoyed with you.
Very best wishes for your next challenge.
