Brett Rumford is lying tied 11th at the halfway point of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, but the Australian is just happy to be playing again after a nightmare 2015.
The 38 year old is making his second European Tour appearance since last July, having finished tied 35th on his return last week in Abu Dhabi, and the hard work he has been putting in to restoring his health looks to be paying off.
In March last year Rumford was admitted to hospital during the Tshwane Open after he ate an apple which caused a blockage in his digestive system, and as a result had to have 30cm of his small intestine removed.
He returned to action less than three months later, but he drastically underestimated the toll the whole ordeal had taken on his body and he did not play again in 2015 after The Open Championship.
“After my surgery from last year, it was a real eye-opener into how much your body goes in the opposite direction with your immune system being taken out like that,” he said.
“It was really naïve of me to think that I could just come back after three months, with the surgery I had.
Brett Rumford
"I just felt if I could swing the golf club, I could go out and compete. I didn’t realise just how much the effect of having 12 inches of small intestine removed would take on my immune system. My fatigue levels were through the roof.”
Rumford worked tirelessly with Aaron Doyle from Drive 360, an Australian fitness training company, to return to full health and restore the strength required to compete full-time as a golf professional.
“I’ve always trained hard,” he continued. “I try to be as fit as I can but I try to get the strength back more so than the fitness these days. I worked really, really hard with that and full credit to Aaron for the work that he’s done with my body.
“At that first event back at the BMW PGA Championship, I’d lost pretty much 12mph from my clubhead speed. The next week I had to pull out of the Irish Open, and it was a huge eye-opener. I realised ‘wow, this is really going to take a lot longer, a whole lot longer, than I thought’.
“Now it’s nearly 12 months later and I’m still making improvements. They are only small now compared to the first few months when they were immense. I’m back to playing well and I feel like I've worked really, really hard on my body.
“It’s just been a huge eye-opener in terms of how I prep my body these days.”
Adding to his five European Tour victories this week would be a huge bonus, and Rumford certainly has a small advantage being a player who enjoys windy conditions.
“I’m from Perth and it gets pretty windy there with the Fremantle Doctor blowing through most afternoons,” he said. “This course just suits my eye for some reason and I’ve played well here in the past. I was third in 2010 so if I can go a couple better it would be nice.”
