By Martin Dempster - The Scotsman
‘Borderline embarrassing’ - Scottish golfer on fighting back to become winner again
Scott
Henry is a winner again after going to hell and back as he battled two
separate injuries and feeling that his game had become “borderline
embarrassing”.
The
38-year-old, who was one of Scotland’s brightest prospects when he won
the Kazakhstan Open on the Challenge Tour in 2012, returned to winning
ways when landing the Scottish Par 3 Championship at the Paul Lawrie
Golf Centre on the outskirts of Aberdeen.
In the latest event on this season’s Tartan Pro Tour, Henry carded
rounds of 52-52-51 for a seven-under-par total, which was matched by
Chris Maclean following scores of 51-54-50.
In
a sudden-death play-off on the superb Devenick Course, Henry came out
on top with a birdie at the first extra hole to pick up a cheque for
£4,500, admitting it was great to feel as though a nightmare period in
his career was finally over.
“I’ve
worked really hard to get some sort of fitness back and be able to have
my golf back to a decent standard again, so I’m delighted, to be
honest,” said Henry after joining Mark Young (Montrose Links Masters)
and Rory Franssen (Blairgowrie Perthshire Masters) on the list of early
winners on Paul Lawrie’s circuit this season.
Two injuries were ‘working against each other’
“I
can’t take you through all of it as it is too painful to go back over,
if I am being perfectly honest,” he admitted in reply to being asked
how difficult things had actually got for him after making around 80
appearances on the DP World Tour and more than 170 on the Challenge
Tour, which has now been rebranded as the Hotel Planner Tour.
“I had an issue with my back and I got a poor diagnosis with that early
on and I ended up injuring my leg as well, so I had two injuries working
against each other over quite a period of time without realising how
serious both were.
“So
I just couldn’t recover and my game went from being always at a very
strong standard to just not being able to compete. For pretty much most
of my pro career, the lowest level of standard was the top end of the
Challenge Tour competing to get my main tour card.
“Then
I got basically to the point where I couldn’t even compete within
Scotland, so it feels great to be getting closer to what it should be,
though it will never quite be the same physicality that it used to be.
“I’m
older now as well and it is nice to feel that I can compete properly
again. I have felt better physically for the last year, but it’s just
taken time to get my game up to a decent standard.”
Scot twice came close to winning on DP World Tour
Henry,
who recorded two second-place finishes - both in the Madeira Islands
Open - on the DP World Tour, added: “If I knew it was going to take as
long as it has, I probably wouldn’t have done it because I’ve lost a lot
of money doing it. I’ve put in a hell of a lot of effort and had a lot
of failed rehabs.
“Those
were pretty painful experiences when I wasn’t getting the issues fixed
and, honest to god, the standard my golf felt was borderline
embarrassing. It was genuinely that bad.
“So
to have the mental fortitude to grind away at it and be able to get my
game to a much better standard now is great, though I still have a long
way to go.”
