I was quite young when I was introduced to golf. My dad was a professional himself and the Head Pro at Portmarnock for 26 years, so ever since I was a kid, he was trying to put a golf club in my hand. Growing up at Portmarnock, we had so many Irish Opens that I was just earwigging with the pros all the time, so I was fortunate to see all the greats come through the door.

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I was always interested in playing golf, then at the age of 13, I got more serious about wanting to do well in the game. Which was tough, because in secondary school, you’re weighing up what you want to do with your life. Sport had always just played such a huge role in my life; I dabbled in everything growing up. Tennis was huge; both my brothers are tennis coaches, so I was lucky that I had a bit of a choice of what to play, and that kind of sporty family just gets the best out of you as everyone’s pushing each other on. Then, having dad so involved in the game when I was growing up just made me want to try to beat him.

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In my amateur ranks, I saw a steady progression most years. I went through all the Golf Ireland programmes, different teams, all the age groups and dabbled with a bit of college golf in the States. I ended up playing in the Walker Cup in 2019 and then turned pro, right in time for COVID! That was tricky for everyone, and I think the most difficult thing for my career was I didn’t have a set place to play, and I was jumping from Tour to Tour, trying to play whenever I could get a chance.

Conor Purcell – Harry Grimshaw

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2024 was my standout year. It was a funny year in the sense that, consistently, I wasn’t as good as I was the previous year, but my better golf was much better. I think the Challenge Tour, now HotelPlanner Tour, really rewarded high finishes. So it was a huge goal of mine to try to get my first win. Then to actually do it at Galgorm was just amazing with all my family and friends to see it happen and celebrate with me. I went through a bit of a tricky patch after the first win because you have that expectation that you should be up near the top of the leaderboard every single week. Obviously, that’s not the reality of golf. But I managed to get myself together and notch up that second win in China, and finish high up on the Road to Mallorca rankings.

Conor Purcell – Getty Images

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It’s funny, though, because I probably had some of my worst moments as a pro last year, as well as some of my best. A tale of two halves. I had a stretch of events where I had never missed that many cuts in a row either. That’s just golf, it’s never the same year to year, week to week, it’s all different, it’s all part of it. You just need to learn how to deal with all the different things that come along with it.

 

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A couple of the Irish guys reached out when I secured my DP World Tour card. It’s always nice to be recognised for having done well, but it’s almost a surreal feeling when you’ve grown up watching all the Irish lads play, then suddenly you’re just playing practice rounds side-by-side with them. That makes it nice to have people to look up to who’ve done so well in the game and know that it can be done.

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It’s really good for me personally to be out here on Tour, but as much as I’m selfish about it, I’d love to have loads of the Irish lads out here with me. It’s hopefully going to be a long career for me, and you want to have good times when you’re out on the road as well. So, I’m looking to get the best out of myself, and I really hope a couple of the lads can join me in the next couple of years, and we can all have a good run at it.

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You never know, the Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in 2027 would be a dream. It’s obviously down the road, but I don’t really pitch my goals too far ahead. I’m really trying to get to a place where I’m just focusing on every week as it comes and see what that brings.

Main Image: Harry Grimshaw

READ MORE JOURNEYS:

With Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen: ‘Turning professional is stressful. You never know where you are playing next.’

With Tom McKibbin: ‘Being compared to Rory, is something I have obviously heard for a while now’

With Christofer Rahm: ‘Especially growing up in Spain, people used to think I was related to Rahm’

With Ángel Hidalgo: “I’ve taken down Jon Rahm, now I can take on anyone”

With Ewen Ferguson: ‘I’ve won twice on tour, and there is still no better feeling than winning’

With Garrick Porteous: ‘Winning in Al Ain gives reassurance that you’re doing the right things’

The post Journeys with Conor Purcell: ‘I probably had some of my worst moments as a pro last year’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

I grew up about 20 minutes north of Copenhagen. Both of my parents played golf, so I come from a golfing family. I was introduced to the game from a very young age; my parents got me plastic golf clubs before I could even walk, and I was still crawling around smacking the ball!

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I grew up playing a bit of badminton, football and golf. Then, when I was about 13, I got into the Danish national team and the development squad. That’s when golf became more serious for me, so I quit those other two sports and started spending more time on golf.

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I was looking at a couple of other schools in the States, but it felt like Oklahoma State University (OSU) had so much history there, and they had a great, great programme. OSU isn’t for everyone; it’s very cut-throat, and if you’re not playing well, you’re not going to get picked for the tournaments. I guess that makes it similar to professional golf: it doesn’t matter how you do it, the only thing that matters is what you shoot. So that taught me a lot.

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I was on the team for four years with Rayhan Thomas; he’s a great guy and we spent a lot of good times together. I was pumped to see him get his first pro win in India last year and am looking forward to hopefully seeing him soon. I was lucky enough to overlap one year at OSU with Viktor Hovland and Matt Wolff when they were in their final year. Viktor stayed in Stillwater when he turned pro for a couple of years, so I spent a lot of time with him, which was really inspiring, being able to pick his brain and play with him.

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Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen – Big Green Egg German Challenge – Getty Images / Octavio Passos

I turned professional in 2023, and it was quite stressful playing off invites—you never quite know when or where you’re going to play next. Then 2024 was just a great year on the Challenge Tour. I won three times in India, Abu Dhabi and Germany, next thing you know I’m on the DP World Tour, which is crazy! I was lucky enough to play in some great events towards the end of 2024 and even managed to secure a better card than I originally had for the 2025 season.

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It all goes back to the support I had from the Danish Golf Union as a kid. But it’s not just me—look at how well Danish golf is doing now. We have the Højgaard brothers, Niklas Nørgaard, Thorbjørn Olesen, even Hamish Brown. We aren’t the biggest country in population, let alone actual golfers. So to be able to produce so many world-class golfers shows we are definitely doing something right in developing players. All credit to them!

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The main goal for this year is to see if I can win a tournament on the DP World Tour. Then, also, I’d love to see if I can grab one of those PGA Tour cards. There is obviously a lot of golf to be played this year, so hopefully, I can get off to a hot start early on.

Main Image: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

READ MORE JOURNEYS:

With Tom McKibbin: ‘Being compared to Rory, is something I have obviously heard for a while now’

With Christofer Rahm: ‘Especially growing up in Spain, people used to think I was related to Rahm’

With Ángel Hidalgo: “I’ve taken down Jon Rahm, now I can take on anyone”

With Ewen Ferguson: ‘I’ve won twice on tour, and there is still no better feeling than winning’

With Garrick Porteous: ‘Winning in Al Ain gives reassurance that you’re doing the right things’

The post Journeys with Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen: ‘Turning professional is stressful. You never know where you are playing next.’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

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I started playing at Holywood Golf Club, purely because Rory (McIlroy) was from there. There were just loads of people to play with, loads of juniors and loads of people my age to play with. Then when Rory was starting to win his Majors the buzz about the place was pretty cool.

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As an amateur, I managed to play in a few decent professional and amateur tournaments and saw what the standard was like. I realised the cuts were under par and you had to play well, so I definitely just got better, faster and quite naturally.

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I was meant to go to the University of Florida in the States just when Covid hit, but it was very hard to juggle the school work being back at home and then having to do the exams in the States. Plus, everything being pushed back a year and having to do double the work I just decided to go a different way. Looking back at it now, I think I’ve made a good call!

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The rise since turning pro has been fast. I think playing 2022 on the Challenge Tour really helped. The players out there are very strong, and some of the courses they play on there are tough, with cuts at four or five under par. That definitely got me ready for the step up to the DP World Tour.

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I don’t think at the time I quite realised how prestigious and how big of a tournament winning the European Open was. It was sort of only after I had won when I saw the names on the trophy, did I realise what I had won. But to win my first DP World Tour event is something I’ve dreamed of happening. For it to happen in just over two years of being pro, was probably even more special. I’m going back to defend it in Germany in a couple of weeks time, so I’m looking forward to that.

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Being compared to Rory, is something I have obviously heard for a while now. I wouldn’t say I get sick of it, because it’s obviously cool and an honour to be compared to Rory. But I think when people just keep asking, it does get a bit annoying. I wouldn’t say I got sick of it as a kid, but maybe now that I am older I get a bit more annoyed when people ask me. Don’t worry, this isn’t one of those times! Ha!

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The first time I actually met Rory was in 2015 out here in Dubai at The Els Club. Now a days he’s a very busy guy between playing golf and outside of golf! But we do stay in touch. It’s hard when we’re sort of halfway across the world, but when he’s over here playing on the DP World Tour, I’ll always try and get a practice round in with him.

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At the start of this year, I decided to stay in Dubai when I had my weeks off and it’s been great. It’s definitely helped my golf to just play and practice a bit more consistently, instead of just being at home in the wind and rain and hitting balls at the driving range, then you go onto a tournament not really prepared. So it’s definitely been very beneficial to my game. I play most of my golf at Trump International Dubai with Richard Mansell and Ewen Ferguson who live here, but we tend to play all of the courses across the UAE as well.

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I just want to do much more of the same in 2024. Obviously with the ten PGA Tour cards that are up for grabs is a goal but I wouldn’t say I try to put too much pressure on myself. If it happens, it happens. Knowing that there’s a reward for finishing high up on the Race to Dubai Rankings is pretty cool. So I’ll just try to keep on playing well and try to get one of those.

Main Image: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

The post Journeys with Tom McKibbin: ‘Being compared to Rory, is something I have obviously heard for a while now’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.