If somebody had told John Murphy when he was playing full time on the DP World Tour that within two years he would be teeing it up in Egypt at an Alps Tour event he would have been well within his rights to tell you where to go.
But Murphy’s career since then has seen him stumble into some pretty dark places mentally and after visiting the pyramids pre-tournament, he knows it’s time he started climbing towards the top of the golfing one again, starting with the Ein Bay Open.
“Really looking forward to getting back competing, had a nice long stint off which I needed and I used pretty well and looking forward to putting it to the test,” said Murphy who turned professional in 2021 and finished in the top-10 at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship before making two PGA Tour appearances in 2022 but is now ranked just inside the top-2000 in the world.
“If you told me when I was on the European Tour that I would be playing an Alps Tour event in two years I would have said no way, never. After reaching the height of the European Tour I would have had the attitude of I would never want to go and play an Alps Tour event.
“I am surprised by how excited I am to go and play on the Alps Tour and compete. It’s the adrenaline rush of being able to get out there and test things under pressure and put myself under the gun. When I speak about walking away the game that’s the reason I would struggle to do that. I am an adrenaline junkie I love to stand on the first tee and feeling those nerves.”
Murphy earned his full playing rights for the 2023 DP World Tour season but instead of kicking on in his fledgling career, he found himself scurrying down a rabbit hole as the search for absolute perfection drove him demented.
The Kinsale man missed his first twelve cuts that season, prompting him to take a brief sabbatical from the game, but the problems have persisted.
Since 2022, the 26-year-old has missed 41 cuts as he fell off the DP World Tour and Challenge Tour. Now though, he has arrived in Egypt with a renewed mental attitude and feels like he is working smarter not harder as he tries to stay away from hours upon hours on the driving range.
“I think I’ve worked smart this time rather than hard. I fell into a rabbit hole with my swing, constantly looking for things on the range and trying different things instead of having a clear idea on what I wanted to work on and having a proper process in place.
“I did a better job this off season at condensing my practice and being smarter with what I was doing and taking the attitude that less is more. It’s been very beneficial for me.
“I’m trying to tailor everything away from getting results. I would much prefer to be in a good frame of mind and happy with where my game is playing on the Alps Tour than playing on a European Tour event and being anxious about where my game is.
“It’s about getting away from results as much as possible and eliminating the words “I need to finish here” as much as I can. If I can free myself up and enjoy the game as much as I can there is no limit to what I can achieve and I know that, it’s about allowing myself to do that.”
For Murphy, it’s been two years in the golfing wilderness and at times he has questioned whether he would ever emerge from the mental jungle that is professional golf.
Mini breaks from the game have been taken and Murphy has often contemplated packing the clubs away altogether and focusing on other things in life, but he is determined to make a career for himself and fulfil the potential he showed as an amateur where he starred for Great Britain and Ireland in the 2021 Walker Cup.
Murphy has made the cut just five times since 2023, including at last year’s Irish Challenge where he missed out on a place in the Amgen Irish Open on the final day.
That week he was hitting drivers off the deck from the tee box in order to combat a technical problem he was having and it was these “quick fixes” that were leaving him frazzled going to golf tournaments.
The days of quick fixes and trying to find a swing on site at tournaments are hopefully gone for Murphy who admits that he does feel better technically and mentally heading into 2025.
“I am technically in a much more comfortable place. I went through a phase of decking my driver off the tee because I had no trust in my technical ability and there were things that were ongoing from hitting too many balls and getting into bad habits and trying new things and having no idea where my golf swing was going.
“It feels the last couple of months I have come on leaps and bounds in my swing and that’s not from bashing balls for hours and hours on the range it’s been from working smart and diligently. I am at tournaments now where I can get up on the first tee and swing comfortably.
“There was plenty of times where I felt like things were going in the right direction and then I would go out and shoot 78 in the first round. I would get to the practice round and if I hit a few bad tee shots I would think ‘what’s the point in being here?’
“I certainly considered stopping playing and doing other things but when I think about it like that I know that this is what I want to do long term and it was more demoralising that I didn’t feel like I was in a position to do that long term.”
Murphy has come away from playing for prize funds of up to $6 million on the DP World Tour to the Alps Tour where this week at Sokhna GC he will be trying to lay claim to as much of the €40,000 fund available.
But the Cork man has arrived with the right attitude and has been pleasantly surprised by the course condition and tournament set up and after a couple of seasons where he feared the first tee nerves, he is hungry to compete and is relishing the challenge of rebuilding his career.
“The technical and mental side has a knock on effect, if I am swinging it well I will be in a good place mentally and if I am in a good place mentally I will have more freedom over the ball.
“I know that every professional golfer will struggle at some point and will go through a phase where they don’t really feel like going to tournaments to compete but I am at a point now where I want to be here and I want to compete. I’m really hungry to compete.”
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