With a win at the innovative Jordan Mixed Open presented by Ayla and a steady campaign complete with three top five finishes, Daan Huizing, currently 21st on the Road to Mallorca Rankings, is looking to put strong finishing touches on his 2019 season.
Q. There are only four events remaining on the Road to Mallorca, what are your goals for the last push?
A. Well the goal of earning a European Tour card is clear, and that’s the same for everybody, but my goal for the year is to win multiple tournaments. I haven’t done that yet so my goal is to win another tournament. I used to not play this one and go to China early but I’ve always enjoyed coming to Ireland and so I figured I would just put it in this year and just try and play. Just battle for it, play for it, and the sooner you can get it done the better.
Q. How is your game feeling at this point in the season?
A. I was struggling a bit with my back last week. The bed I had wasn’t great and I just got a little beat up on my left side—my rib and back. I really struggled with it last week and even though I played quite nicely it just hasn’t been 100 per cent, so I’m just trying to improve that day by day and that’s going to be my main focus.
It’s funny you know, when you don’t have too much expectation and you’re just trying to survive the round then it actually turns out that you play quite nicely. I think expectations are always challenging with golf, so I’ll just try to be my best self every day, and I’ll try to get through this and get it done.
Q. What is it about Ireland that you like so much?
A. The courses are always really good. They’re just in nice shape, with nice grass and the greens are always good. The people also really like golf. They know golf, and it’s a nice crowd to play in front of. When you get to the airport and people at the car rental already know about this tournament, they know it’s going on, it’s just fun. It’s a golf nation and everybody is really appreciative of the sport
Q. You’ve said your goal is to win multiple times. Do you reflect back on your win in Jordan to help you or is it a situation where you don’t try to live in the past too much?
A. A bit of both I think. Of course, you’ve got to remind yourself of what you’ve done. It doesn’t really matter what tournament it is, you still have to close it out and do similar things correctly. I closed it out in Jordan and then have been in contention a couple times since then as well. I’ve come from behind a few times this year. In Denmark I made a really good push on Sunday and had a good finish, but I was chasing. I’ve got to make sure I’m in a little bit better position heading into the last day and then remind myself of the things I did well when I won. You take that experience, you carry those positive feelings with you, but at the same time you can’t think about anything other than this moment right here, so that’s always a balance you have to find.
Q. There is quite a lot of travel coming up in these final events. What are some of the things that you need to focus on outside of golf to be prepared to play when the time comes?
A. You’ve got to try to sleep really well during the week. When you have your morning tee time you need to make sure you have a good rest in the afternoon. You also need to make sure you get your work done on Tuesday and Wednesday and then not practice too much during the tournament. Exercise is also key. Keeping a bit of a fitness level up is huge. Five weeks is a long time on the road. If you get these little workouts in it adds up, especially now with my back not feeling well I’ve got to really make sure I take the time to warm up and get ready. I think outside of those things its good to get your mind away from golf. Maybe a bit of reading, dinners with the other boys, those things. Time just flies. Its amazing how fast time goes. Once you’re in the rhythm of the week, time just flies by and the rhythm of each tournament is very similar, so it’s just the travelling between that is pretty hard. Once you’re there you can just put your head down and do the things you need to do to play your best.
