The reality of turning a stellar amateur career into making a living

Marco Penge had a stellar amateur career, representing England at 13 and winning the Scottish Amateur at 15. Since turning pro, the now 22-year-old finished 3rd in the EuroPro Tour Order of Merit last year, including his first professional victory at the Irish Masters, to graduate to the Challenge Tour, though he is yet to make the step up due to the Covid-19 outbreak. In this blog, Penge discusses his career to date, how far he thinks he is from the European Tour, and why the Masters is the one on his radar…

I’ve never had a Plan B, I still don’t. I was stuck between football and golf when I was younger. I have never really put too much pressure on myself. I like to be really positive and I don’t like to hear any negative comments. I think having that positivity in myself takes the pressure off. I love playing golf and I want to do it as a living and enjoy it. For me I just appreciate how lucky I am in life, so there is no point in putting pressure on myself. I just want to be happy 24/7 and have good people around me, like my family and friends.

Playing for England was a real highlight of my amateur career. Playing for your country is always going to be a highlight, because it’s something every young aspiring golfer wants to do. I played for GB&I at the Jacques Leglise four years on the trot, which I don’t think anyone has ever done before. My greatest achievement was winning the Scottish Amateur stroke play when I was only 15, especially as quite a lot of the players in that field are on tour now.

2019 was a truly incredible year for me, especially achieving my first professional win. It was a great feeling, to win a EuroPro event, especially considering I had been in that position six or seven times before – I worked out I was in the last two groups eight times out of 13 events in 2019, so I was really consistent and in contention each week. To get that win was a relief.

That tournament really felt like it was going to be my moment. In the final round I didn’t have the best of starts. I can’t remember how many shots I led by, I think it was three, but all of a sudden it was one. It was a tough day. It was windy, rainy and anything could have happened. One of my pals was coming up the leaderboard and getting a lot closer. I remember thinking, ‘Wow this is getting quite tight now, I need to put my foot down.’ I made a few birdies in the middle of the round and I thought if I keep doing what I’m doing here I should be able to win this comfortably.

I remember getting to the 15th hole, looking at the scoreboard, and I had a two-shot lead. I thought I would have had more of a lead than that. All of a sudden I was feeling the nerves again and a few negative thoughts were starting to creep in. Overall I did really well to manage my feelings and get over the line.

I was over the moon. I remember being a bit tearful walking down the 18th hole, once I realised I had hit the green. I knew that I only needed two putts to win.

Right now my game doesn’t feel too far away from the European Tour. I had a great year in 2019, but when I reflected I felt a bit disappointed with certain aspects of my game that hadn’t improved.

I have tried to make a lot of changes from January to now, to get ready for the Challenge Tour. I have been able to worry less about the outcome and focus on certain positions I am trying to achieve in my golf swing, so when the Challenge Tour does restart I will be a better player than I am now and I’ll see a lot of improvements.

The standard of the European Tour is underrated, but I’m not far off that. You can’t just be a good golfer at that level, you need to be something special.

I was a bit worried I wouldn’t have that much time to complete the things I wanted to change, so the lockdown came at quite a good time. I have been able to get the things done that I wanted to get done, so I will be ready for when it does all kick off again.

In terms of practising I made a net at home just before the lockdown. My girlfriend, [LET Access player] Sophie [Lamb], also has a sponsor who owns a practice facility. We would go there once a week, just the two of us, but since the lockdown restrictions have been eased I have played a few rounds of nine holes just to keep myself ticking over.

As for the future, my main ambition for the future is to play at the Masters. I would love to play at Augusta in five years’ time, while certain people in my family are still here. I am very close to Sophie’s grandad, so I’d love to play in the Masters while he is still here. These are the things that I know will make the people that are close to me very happy. Making those people happy is what makes me happy the most, so that would be great.

Marco and Sophie recently organised and took part in a cycling fundraiser for NHS charities. “We saw a mum with three kids on the news living in a one-bedroom flat with windows that barely opened, and it made us realise how lucky we are,” Marco told NCG. “We wanted to raise money for the families that are struggling.” You can help them reach their £5,000 target on their GoFundMe page.

• Marco was talking to Barry Plummer

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