Three or four months off to recover the spark that made him a player in the World’s Top 50 has turned into six thanks to the coronavirus, but Marc Warren still believes he can recover past glories.
It’s only five years since the 39-year-old three-time European Tour winner was among the world’s elite but his form slipped and consistency eluded him completely, and his 2019 European Tour campaign was a disaster.
Without a card for only the second time since he came out on Tour in 2002 – and without any prolonged time off in that spell – he opted to step away from golf for a while.
It was this week he was due to start serious practice again in Dubai, but instead the former World Cup winner is locked down with everyone else, barbecuing meals for his NHS-worker neighbours – one is a doctor in an ICU unit in Glasgow – and determined to make his way back.
“As far as golfing ability goes, I think I’m still good enough to do as well if not better as I have done in the past,” he said. “Not being able to perform consistently over the years has been one of the things that has hurt and frustrated me most, trying to find answers to that.
“Also in the last couple of years I’ve felt that I really struggled with the whole travelling side of it – the kids are a good age right now.
“My motivation for the game would go really quickly and I would get frustrated. I was dreading the day when I had to leave, travel to a tournament and go and play golf.”
The motivation is returning, but Warren admits he doesn’t yet know if he can turn on the spark again.
“The switching off from golf side of things has been really easy – a lot easier than I was expecting or hoping it would have been. On different days, it can be: “I want to be a golfer”. Then the next day it’s: “I don’t want to be a golfer”.
“I turned 39 the other day. For the last few years, I’ve thought about maybe doing something else, but now having a period away from the game, I’m hoping that it rejuvenates a bit of love that I want to get back and do it every day.”
Warren does feel that, like his friends and compatriots Paul Lawrie and Stephen Gallacher before him, some of his best golf could come in his 40s.
“I’ll be ready to go when the time comes and I won’t just be going back for the sake of it, or trying to keep my card, or going because the tournament is close to home,” he said.
“This break has gone a bit longer than I hoped or wanted but the idea was to get the drive and the spark back for golf. I’ve spoken to a couple of people the last couple of months about what I do moving forward, `how do I get the drive for it again, what do I do daily to keep that going.’
“Martin Gilbert of my sponsors Aberdeen Standard Management has been one I’ve spoken to and he’s been a great support.
“And if I do get back I’ll appreciate and enjoy it more the second time, definitely. When I was inside the Top 50 in the world, I did enjoy playing in WGCs and majors, that was amazing.
“I look back on that and I’m disappointed it didn’t last a wee bit longer and I’d taken more advantage of it, but it shows how quick this game can change one way or the other.”
Warren hopes for opportunities on the main and Challenge Tours as he returns, but he thinks the odds are the Tour resets for next year now.
“As far as Q School and that stuff goes, if they don’t get a certain amount of tournaments played then pretty sure you have to go with the same guys again next year – how can you take cards from the people after this?
“I was really surprised they put new dates on some of the Majors and they were announced. I don’t see many advantages to that, to be honest.
“It was the right decision to cancel The Open. Just put everything back a year. When you watch the news right now, it’s all a bit irrelevant.”
