Malaysian No 1 Gavin Green is refreshed and ready for his 2021 European Tour campaign, beginning with next week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship which is the first of three consecutive tournaments in the Middle East.
The US$8 million event takes place at Abu Dhabi Golf Club on January 21-24, followed by the US$3.25 million Omega Dubai Desert Classic (January 28-31, Emirates Golf Club, Dubai) and the US$3.5 million Saudi International (February 4-7, Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, Saudi Arabia).
“The 2021 European Tour schedule looks really solid and I can’t wait to get back on the course to compete,” said Gavin, who leaves for Dubai on Friday night to give himself time to acclimatize and prepare.
Gavin has good memories of his early-season Arabian adventure from last year, highlighted by a joint third finish in the Saudi International when he went toe-to-toe with current World No 1 Dustin Johnson in the last round. “It was such a good start to the season, exactly the way I wanted it to be, on momentum, top 30 in Abu Dhabi, top 30 in Dubai and obviously third in Saudi.
“I was moving along very nicely, playing solid golf and giving myself chances, slowly opening small doors … and then Covid-19 hit and everything shut down for, like, three months, which was tough for everybody,” reflected Gavin, who finished a career-high 52nd on the 2020 Race To Dubai rankings and also made it to the season-ending DP World Tour Championship for the first time.
Gavin noted that he was thankful to be able to spend Christmas at home, he and dad Gary getting out of quarantine just in time after returning from Dubai. “It was nice to have family and close friends over and just be normal, not in hotels, having hotel buffets and ordering room service. It just so happened my birthday was after Christmas, so we had a nice celebration.”
The long-hitting Malaysian will have a new caddie this season in experienced South African Dean Smith, who has previously been on the bag for prominent players such as India’s Shubhankar Sharma, Korea’s Byeong Hun An and England’s Oliver Wilson. Smith replaces Englishman Brendan McCartain as Gavin’s bagman.
Gavin noted that he will have to pace himself this season, taking into consideration factors such as travel and quarantine requirements, as well as a niggling left wrist injury which stymied the later part of his 2020 campaign.
“Obviously, learning a little bit from 2020, being away for three months and having only three weeks off wasn’t enough. I’ll try to pace myself better this year, maybe three, four events and then a few weeks off … we’ll have to see how it goes, looking at the quarantines, how I can take some time off and at the same time stay sharp. I can’t afford to quarantine and not do anything,” explained the 2017 Asian Tour No 1.
The wrist injury, caused by thinning of the cartilage and fluids in the joints, forced Gavin to make some swing tweaks with coach Chris O’Connell during a break in Dubai last October after he had to withdraw from the Scottish Championship due to the pain. The changes prevented the wrist from flaring up again but understandably affected his performances as he took the revamped swing into tournament play.
“We made a bit of a swing change aimed at helping the wrist, because on the top of my swing I’m shut and my wrist is very boned, while most players are flat. With my irons, I take a big divot and put a lot of spin on the ball; that all adds up on the wrist. So we were trying to find ways to not impact the wrist so much and at the same time perform the best I can. We worked one solid week just figuring that out, testing, making sure I can do everything the same,” Gavin revealed.
As for that much-awaited maiden European Tour win, Gavin is confident it will come soon.
“I think I’m in a good spot now; I’m a lot calmer, a lot more experienced and it’s my fourth season on tour,” he noted. “When it clicks, you give yourself looks, you give yourself chances … and when you give yourself chances, who knows? I’ve been there before, I’ve played with all these guys before and I enjoy it so much.
“Hopefully I string four good rounds together and hopefully that’s going to come soon!”
By Jonathan Ponniah
