Dubai: In 2010 as a slightly greener reporter I thought it was a good idea to approach a 23-year-old golfer from Sheffield, who was propping up the foot of the DP World Tour Championship with a score of eight over par from two rounds of 76, to ask him what he needed to do to turn things around.
At the halfway stage the relatively unknown youngster was 17 shots behind joint leaders Ross Fisher and Ian Poulter - the latter who eventually lost in a play-off with Sweden’s Robert Karlsson after dropping the ball on his marker and incurring a one-stroke penalty.
The media officer from the European Tour told me in no uncertain terms to give the youngster, who was just two years into professionalism, some space. But instead I bounded up to the Yorkshireman, who was in tears on the driving range of Jumeirah Golf Estates, and nervously unleashed my enquiries.
This approach could have gone one of two ways, and in interviews with other golfers since then – namely Poulter after the marker incident - it has regretfully gone the way you were thinking. But thankfully Danny Willett, the son of a vicar who learnt to play in a sheep field, took things in better grace.
Occasionally pausing to dry his eyes, Willett gave customary quotes that detailed how he intended to try and work his way back. With no cut in the DP World Tour Championship there’s no escape for the underachievers at the weekend so Willett would have to grin and bear it.
That he did, finishing tied for 55th out of 60 with rounds of 72 and 73 to end nine over. I’d like to think that the thought of having to face the likes of myself again the following day to explain why he was still playing badly somehow inspired him to avoid our consolatory chats and the unenviable wooden spoon, but what’s happened since I can’t take any credit for.
The next I heard of Willett he was coming into last year’s DP World Tour Championship with a chance of usurping Race to Dubai leader Rory McIlroy at the last hurdle. He didn’t achieve this, finishing fourth in the year-ending tournament with McIlroy winning the event to cement overall season honours. But the experience of just missing out in the emirate no doubt strengthened his resolve for his Omega Dubai Desert Classic victory in February this year. He called it the gutsiest win of his career after sinking a birdie from 12-foot on the last to deny Andy Sullivan and Rafael Cabrera-Bello by a stroke.
With this resilience and experience in tow, he approached this year’s Masters as a 50-1 rank outsider. He perhaps shouldn’t have been this unfancied given that he had three top-10 finishes, including one win from six appearances this season leading up to the year’s first Major at Augusta. But even as last year’s Race to Dubai runner-up, he admittedly surprised all when he saw off defending champion Jordan Spieth to become the first Englishman to don the coveted Green Jacket in 20 years since Nick Faldo on Sunday.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but those following Willett’s progress in Dubai alone should have recognised his true potential after bouncing back from the DP World Tour Championship loss to win the Desert Classic. The last six months have given more than enough indication of his character and quality, and streaks of his determination arguably date back – for me personally - as far as 2010.
I never was fully satisfied with the quote he gave me on that fateful day six years ago but boy has he answered me since.
