Eddie Pepperell is hopeful that a top ten on his return to golf last week can provide a similar springboard to the one that propelled him to an appearance at last season's DP World Tour Championship.
In 2022, the Englishman missed nine of his first 12 cuts but after finishing in a tie for 11th at the Cazoo Classic, he made every weekend for the rest of the season with three top tens to make the top 50 on the Rankings for the first time since 2018.
After missing four of five cuts this campaign, he took three months off after the Singapore Classic, using a simulator to work on his game, and returned with a tie for ninth at the DS Automobiles Italian Open.
He now tees it up at the Soudal Open looking to turn that good result into some momentum as he aims for another productive summer.
"It was a good return to golf," he said. "I didn’t know what to expect. I was quietly hopeful and felt I was hitting it well at home. You never know until you start getting into competition and seeing where you’re at.
"It was a disappointing finish in the end, I felt like I should have finished a bit higher. But there was a lot of good signs in there, especially with my short game, which I was pleased about.
"Nice first week back and I intend to play a lot of golf for the rest of the year.
"It was a good summer last year. I went from playing poorly to nicely and consistently. It was nice to get on a roll and I hope to do something similar this year.
"I’m hopeful I could have a good six-month spell of playing golf. I want to stay fully immersed in what I do."
My 3 months off is coming to an end. It’s been made a lot easier with a sim in the house! 😁
— Eddie Pepperell (@PepperellEddie) April 29, 2023
Even managed to practice at Marco Simone a few times… so no excuses.
Excited to get my year going 💪🏼 pic.twitter.com/EzLRCqITTL
Pepperell's unconventional preparation seems a long way from the traditional hours spent hitting balls on the range, but the three-time DP World Tour winner has been enjoying his VR practice.
"It has been good," he said. "I can spend more time practising which is helpful, you can go in at a whim and do what you want if you think you need to do something. Having access readily available has been great.
"I’ve been working on some stuff technically, so I feel like I’ve been able to ingrain some of those improvements.
"It’s quite realistic when you’re hitting shots and loading up courses and holes, which I did before Marco Simone last week, it’s quite useful."
