Robert Foley is in a buoyant mood ahead of the Jonsson Workwear Open which takes place at Durban Country Club and Mount Edgecombe Country Club this week.
The 25-year-old, who hails from Switzerland, finished second on the 2021 Pro Golf Tour’s Order of Merit and subsequently earnt graduation to the European Challenge Tour in 2022. Foley only turned professional last summer following a maiden victory at the Raiffeisen Pro Golf Tour St. Pölten and in addition to that victory he recorded two second place finishes and a fifth place finish on his way to promotion.
Foley believes the Pro Golf Tour has provided the perfect grounding for his professional career and his experiences of playing under pressure in the final groups at professional tournaments will be invaluable for success on the 2022 Road to Mallorca.
“I learnt a lot last year,” he said. “I came close to winning a few times before I eventually claimed my first victory. I turned Pro and came close to winning two further tournaments. If I kept knocking on the door, I knew eventually the door will open and I had to walk through that and push on from there.”
The 25-year-old is enjoying his time in South Africa and burst onto the scene with an opening eight under par round of 64 at the Dimension Data Pro-Am, the first Challenge Tour event of the season, but eventually finished in a tie for 57th and Foley admitted he will need some time to adjust due to the depth of talent present on the Challenge Tour.
“It’s been good fun so far and it’s great to be out here making the step up,” said Foley. “It’s a big change and hopefully I will get used to it quickly and have a great year on the Challenge Tour.
“The talent pool is stronger on the Challenge Tour which means you’re going to have over 100 guys playing well every week compared to the Pro Golf Tour where 30 or 40 guys are playing well. You have to fight for every shot out here because one stroke can make a huge difference to where you finish at the end of the week.
“The similarities between the Pro Golf Tour and the Challenge Tour is that you have to shoot ten or 12 under par every week if you want to compete at the top. Good golf gets rewarded on both Tours.”
Foley is focused on competing at the top of the leaderboard early in the season, whilst eyeing a top 20 finish on the Road to Mallorca Rankings to subsequently earn 2023 DP World Tour playing rights.
“I want to finish inside the top 20,” he said. “There’s no point going for anything less than that because I want to compete with the best. Short term goals are to try and get into contention as much as I can and learn from those experiences.”
The Jonsson Workwear Open will get under way at 6:50am local time on Thursday February 24, with Foley teeing it up alongside South African duo Jared Harvey and Thanda Mavundla at 7:00am.
