“I don’t want to think about it!” is Liam Grehan’s response when asked what the future would have held had he not retained his Sunshine Tour card at Q-School. But those fears were allayed with a superb performance under intense pressure, and he hopes that can give him the boost he needs heading into his second campaign as a full-time tour player.
Grehan has already shown glimpses of what he is capable of with a career-low 63 at last month’s season-opening Mediclinic Invitational and with his short game now razor sharp he feels a more aggressive approach with his long game could be the smart play as he bids to climb the rankings.
“I think a lot of this year will be about playing more aggressively,” says the Mullingar native who is looking forward to a run of events in Zimbabwe and Zambia. “My short game is a lot better, so I am more comfortable with aiming at more flags and not being afraid to miss the green. Last year I was a merchant at hitting greens but shooting level-par, one- or two-under, and missing the cut by one, so hopefully that bit more trust will stand to me this season.
“I played great at Q-School, shooting 21-under, so to be able to do that when the pressure was on, I gained a lot of confidence from it, and it was nice to start back at the first event of the new season with a low one.
“I felt like I was doing the right stuff for a lot of last season but just wasn’t getting the results, so hopefully I can get things going in the right direction. There was too much looking at the cut line last year!”
Grehan made a bright start to his maiden full season on the Sunshine Tour with an early top 10 in Zambia despite some ridiculously sandy greens where free drops were given on the putting surfaces. But after flying home to attend a funeral and changing his irons, momentum quickly swung against him and eight missed cuts in a row left him scrambling to keep his card.
In a similar situation to Niall Kearney on the DP World Tour in 2021, he would have been successful had he been able to make more starts, but with the season-ending events being co-sanctioned with the HotelPlanner Tour, Grehan was unable to amass the required points to stay afloat and was eventually edged out of the top-100 in the rankings.
“I flew home for family reasons then I changed my irons, and it took me a while to get used to them and I ended up missing eight cuts in a row after a solid start to the season. I played better around November, but there were only three or four events left before the co-sanctioned ones which are harder to get into. I was struggling then and didn’t make it through most of the pre-qualifiers. I’m used to the new irons now and playing a lot better, so it was all a learning experience.
“It’s tricky down here, I only had one regular event since last November and I qualified into a couple of the events co-sanctioned with the HotelPlanner Tour but would miss the cut by one or two and didn’t get any points and others pushed me out. I finished 104th with the top 100 keeping their cards. I actually played nicely, but just didn’t have the tournaments to play in because I had to pre-qualify into them and if you miss those you have nothing.
“You don’t want to have to go back to Q-School and it was looking like I was keeping my card until the last event where some lads pushed me out. I did some nice work back in Ireland before Q-School and just kept it going.
“The benefit of good finishes is huge. I had one top-10 finish and there’s huge value in being more aggressive. Making the cut, coming 20th and covering your costs is grand, but it doesn’t propel you. I played too defensively last year so that was my big takeaway.”
While it is performances and results that ultimately count, last year was a huge learning experience for Grehan and fellow Irishman Rowan Lester, who had to adapt to a new tour, new courses and a completely different culture in South Africa and Grehan feels that took its toll on him.
“It was a learning curve getting used to the new courses, the altitude we often play at, and the culture is just completely different to Ireland. We will go to Zimbabwe and Zambia over the next while, but we were there last year and navigating those countries was a new experience. This year I know what to expect so I can be more prepared.
“A few times you drive through towns that are very scary. They are like what you imagine the favelas in Brazil to be, and they are very dangerous. One time we booked accommodation near one and it looked great online, but when we arrived, we thought we would have been murdered had we stayed there. It was like one of the murder capitals of the world. That was one of the mad moments driving on the way to the course.
Pádraig Harrington often says when you are preparing for a tournament you should prepare to be fresh on Sunday, not Thursday, and that’s a mantra Grehan will be taking into this campaign despite his huge appetite for practice.
“I overdid it a little last year in preparing for events. Rowan and I are among the biggest ball-bashers out here, so we work harder than most and it didn’t quite pay off. I can make sure I’m fresh on Thursday, but I have to be smarter with practice to make sure I’m still fresh for Sunday.
“Rowan didn’t come out for the first event of the season, but he’ll be out for the next one. We get on well with a couple of English lads and South Africans, so that helps with sharing houses, costs, and cars. We are in Airbnb’s most of the time, so you can get a nicer place for a better price which is one less thing to worry about.
“You have a lot of downtime between rounds so it’s nice to have some company. And a bit of Irish humour goes a long way.”
Leave a comment