Glancing through the entries for Regional Qualifying is always a fascinating business. At Alwoodley we had a three-time European Tour winner in Pablo Martin, Harrogate’s John Parry who won the Vivendi Cup in 2010 and then there was Stiggy Hodgson, a Walker Cup team-mate of Tommy Fleetwood in 2009.
Two years later he was back on the team as the likes of Andy Sullivan, Tom Lewis, Jack Senior and co took down an American team that included none other than Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, Harris English, Russell Henley and Patrick Rodgers. In truth you could just list the whole of the visitors’ team.
And yet Nigel Edwards’ side won 14-12 at Royal Aberdeen.
The world of pro golf is a very different beast though with the ability to carry the ball 300-plus yards off the tee quite a big ingredient to enjoying some success. Hodgson, who measures 5’’6, isn’t someone who sends it out there and these days can be found playing his golf on the EuroPro Tour.
“I can play on the Challenge Tour but I’m choosing not to, to be honest. The style of golf on the EuroPro is better for me. It shouldn’t be that way but it is,” the 27-year-old dad-to-be explained.
“Seventy per cent of the courses you play on the Challenge Tour it is just tee it up, smash it, find it, wedge it and try and hole the putt. That’s not my game. You can hit it where you want as there’s hardly any rough.
“You are better off being 320 and in the rough than 280 down the middle which, I think, is wrong. You would play maybe one or two courses on the Challenge Tour where accuracy is at a premium off the tee, on the EuroPro that is maybe 75 per cent of the courses.”
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Thankfully Alwoodley, while measuring 6,900 yards, was brown and bouncy and Hodgson was at his astounding best getting round in a new course-record 64, seven shots under par.
Having caddied in the qualifying we all came off thinking anything in the 60s would be a brilliant knock and then everyone stood there shaking their collective heads at Hodgson’s effort.
“I haven’t done Open qualifying for years, this is the first time since 2011 when I just missed out in Final Qualifying at Littlestone.
“A friend who caddied for me and my wife said I should try it this year. I had a practice round on Sunday, I had to miss the England game which I was gutted about, but that was my only previous round.
“You only get one round so you have to go for it. I like to take a chance. At the 2nd guys were hitting 6-irons off the tee but I hit driver and got it to 15 feet and horseshoed out for eagle – I’m probably as straight with the driver as I am with my 4-iron.
“I was six under after 10 holes and then had back-to-back two bogeys at 12 and 13 and finished with nine birdies. In my mind I knew what I was doing, I am normally pretty straight and my distance control is pretty good and this course sets up well for that.”
Interview continues on the next page…
As an amateur Hodgson always seemed to be in the news with victories seemingly here, there and everywhere but the road since has been a little less straightforward.
“Golf wasn’t always what I was going to do. I had done well as an amateur and played on two Walker Cup teams but then you turn pro and join a management company and they try and interfere with what works for you.
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If you ask me to do something then I’ll do it, if you tell me to do something I won’t. You’re told you are flying to Korea and then Japan and then Morocco, I nearly stopped playing golf as it was all getting on top of me.
“But then my wife pulled me aside and told me to get my head out of my arse and crack on. She’s not a golfer but she talks a lot of sense. Now I love it, I love competing and that’s a big thing for me. I’m enjoying life more. I used to take golf with me off the course but I still compete hard. It sounds simple but I just went back to basics.”
Hodgson was coached by Hugh Marr, who works with man-of-the-moment Thorbjorn Olesen, but a move back north has seen him team up with James Whitaker in Yorkshire.
“I worked with Hugh for a long time, I love him and I owe him a lot. He was a really good friend as well as my coach and I wouldn’t have been able to achieve half as much as I did without him. But I’ve moved back now and I see James and it’s working great.”
Few of us get to really see the downside of these enormous gains that the modern driver and ball bring us. For Hodgson he’s a (relatively) small hitter in a big-hitting world but on the right course at the right time of year he can obviously be unbeatable.
“Twenty years ago the most important club in the bag was the putter, now it’s the driver without question. A lot of the skill has been taken out of golf and I see this in tournaments a lot of weeks.
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“Shot-making doesn’t really exist any more, you’ll see guys with different heads, different shafts and TrackMans trying to find something a bit longer each week.
“Whereas if you asked most of these gorillas to hit a soft 4-iron or a chippy 6-iron from 120 yards they would laugh at you.”
And as for Final Qualifying on July 3?
“Just give me somewhere not too long and tight.”
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