Despite only taking up golf in his late teens, Simon Thornton was working as an assistant pro at Royal County Down by the time he was 21, having first worked as a starter and course ranger. It’s not quite come full circle, but it’s pretty close as he’s back living in his native Newcastle and is set to tee it up in elite company on the course where he spent countless hours grinding, grafting, and growing into the man who would go on to become a European Tour winner.
Victory at the PGA Playoffs in Cyprus back in early March changed everything, as he earned invitations to several Challenge Tour events, the Betfred British Masters at the Belfry, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, and the undoubted highlight, the Amgen Irish Open at Royal County Down.
Thornton was in the field in 2015 when Rory McIlroy as tournament host brought the Irish Open to County Down for the first time since 1939, but though he’d notched his maiden European Tour title just two years earlier, a debilitating foot injury meant he was playing through the pain barrier, but even still, it was a career highlight.
“I’ve said it before, barring the win in 2013, the 2015 Irish Open was the most special week of my career,” he fondly recalls. “No matter what happened, to play an Irish Open on what was my home course – I still live in Newcastle, all my friends are there – it was amazing. My children were about three and four at the time, and though they can’t remember anything about it, we’ve only got one golf picture in the house and that’s Rory and myself with Ryan and Katie.
“This time round, they’re old enough to come and see what all the fuss is about. My little boy is 12 now and he’s obsessed with golf, playing off scratch, so he’s just so excited about that week.
“Family was the main reason why I stopped playing full time on Tour, so to get this chance again is just fantastic. And it came out of the blue really. I hadn’t done much practice going to the PGA Playoffs, so I just went to enjoy the week and to end up winning was a bonus.
“I don’t know, maybe it’s written in the stars to have this as a sort of send-off, but I just can’t wait for that week to come around.”
That victory in Cyprus also meant he qualified for the Great Britain and Ireland team who face the United States in the PGA Cup in Oregon. Thornton made his debut appearance at Foxhills in 2022 where the U.S. successfully defended in a close-fought encounter and having been late to the game and gone from relative novice to professional in rapid time, it was the first time he’d gotten to experience team competition. And he loved it!
The only problem was that the event clashed with the Irish Open, so a decision had to be made. In the end though, the decision was relatively straightforward.
“Deep down, I knew that I couldn’t give up the opportunity to play in the Irish Open at my home course, and with Wentworth the week after, it wouldn’t be ideal to be coming back on the Monday or Tuesday jet-lagged,” he said. “It was nobody’s fault that they clashed as the date for the Irish Open changed, but once I had the decision to make, I pretty much knew what I was going to choose.
“Taking the potential financial gains completely out of the picture, I mean, Newcastle? At home? The Irish Open? It was a pretty easy decision to make.
“But the PGA Cup that I played at Foxhills? I loved that week, and I thought that I’d have done anything to get back on the team again because I really did enjoy it that much. I’d never played any team golf before, and it was so special. But DP World Tour and PGA Tour invites don’t come around that often.”
Had the Irish Open been held at any other course, the decision would’ve been immeasurably harder, but even then, the lure of Europe’s top tier would’ve been extremely hard to resist. Particularly when his touring career was cut short through little fault of his own.
Morton’s nueroma is a thickening of the nerve between the third and fourth toes, and Thornton had been dealing with the pain caused by it for some time, before being formally diagnosed and as it gradually worsened, the pain increased.
“It was agony,” he recalls. “I remember playing the Irish PGA Championship and taking my shoes and socks off to walk down the fairway and putting them back on to hit my shots. I wanted to avoid surgery unless it was a last resort because you need your feet for everyday life, not just for golf, but it got to the stage where that was all I had left. It still hurts, and if I’m walking on hard surfaces, it’s like I’ve got a pebble in my shoe all the time, but I can manage it now whereas I couldn’t before.
“I don’t get any pain now when I’m actually hitting shots – I can push off both feet and swing freely – but what I had for two years or more, I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”
Surgery forced him to the sidelines, and as much as the competitive edge still burned inside, he had a young family at home, his children were rapidly growing and developing personality, and he had a wife coping on her own for much of the year. So, he made the toughest decision that any professional ever has to make and decided to take up a role at Tulfarris.
But the fire never goes fully out, and at 47, he’s now got three opportunities to test his mettle against the Tour’s elite pros once again.
“Sometimes I do look back and think ‘what if?’, but now I get the chance again to do what I always wanted to do professionally,” he said. “But at the same time, I wanted to be at home as well, wanted to be with my wife and kids. My kids were growing up and my wife was doing it by herself, so there were loads and loads of positives to outweigh that negative. As much as golf is a selfish sport, I got married and I had children, and you can’t give up those responsibilities.”
The BMW PGA is, of course, the flagship event on the DP World Tour, and the Irish Open and British Masters carry strong Race to Dubai ranking points, so a strong performance or two could see him regain Tour status should he wish to take it up. There are a lot of bridges to cross in the meantime, but with his children now older and their independent streaks growing by the day, this time the decision may come a little easier.
“I’m happy now with where I am and what I’m doing in life, but to have that chance again if it came about, I think I’d like to do it. It would still be a massive decision, but in a way it would be easier. It won’t be long before all I get is a text message saying, ‘can you give me 20 quid and go away’. Right now, they still want to do things with my wife and I, but it won’t be long before they don’t. So as much as the decision would be a difficult one, deep down, I love playing golf, I love competing at whatever level, and if it gets to that, I’d have a hell of a lot of practice to do to get my game back up to that, but dig down and play golf. That’s me.
“Obviously there are a lot of kids on tour now who hit it a long way, but the game still hasn’t changed since I was on tour. It’s still whoever shoots the lowest number wins. It doesn’t matter how you get there. I don’t hit it a long way anymore but if you can hit it straight, chip and putt well – you look at the likes of Soren Kjeldsen, he’s played the same game for maybe 20 years and is still competing. It’s having the belief and the ability in your own game. Some courses will suit you, some won’t, but if you go out and give it your best every time you play like Kjeldsen and Richard Bland and these guys, why not?
“The only person stopping you from being able to play professional golf on the DP World Tour at 47 is yourself, you know. It’s the decisions that you make. So, if that chance came about? Let’s go for it!”
In three years, he’ll be eligible to join the Legends Tour, and that’s an opportunity he’s relishing and though he was initially dismissive of returning to DP World Tour Q-School at the end of 2024 and trying to play his way back onto the circuit the hard way, he admits that his mind could be changed over the three weeks.
“Probably not,” he explained, “but it would depend on how I go, how comfortable I am. Over these three starts, if I have a week where I play pretty close to my best, we’ll see where that leaves us, whether it’s top 10, top 20, top 60, wherever it may be. Then I’ll know whether I can still mix it with these guys and if I can, then who knows, but that’s a decision to make after Wentworth.”
Either way, he’s sure to attract a huge following at Royal County Down. Rory McIlroy might be the biggest draw in the game and a local boy to boot, but he’s not as local as Thornton.
The Prodigal Son is returning.
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