By Mathieu Wood
Youthful energy. It’s an attribute that Casey Jarvis has in abundance, and one that has fuelled his near ever-presence from week-to-week travelling the globe in his rookie season on the DP World Tour.
At 21, the South African is the youngest player at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Not only that, but this week’s Rolex Series event is his 34th start on the 2024 Race to Dubai – the most of any player in the 70-strong field.
Since graduating from the Challenge Tour last season, Jarvis has taken every opportunity at his hands to compete. As he puts it, golf is a 24/7 obsession.
“The experience has been great,” Jarvis tells the DP World Tour on the eve of the penultimate event of the season.
“I’ve learned so much this year. I think this has been the year where I think I've learned the most in my life. The courses have been unbelievable, in great condition every week.
“It's been a lot of golf. The travelling has been difficult at times. It's been a long way away from home.
“But it's been a good season, with a lot of hard work. I've played everything I set out at the beginning of the year."
Aside from the BMW PGA Championship, which he didn’t get into due in part to his membership category, Jarvis has played in ten of the last 11 events since the DP World Tour resumed after a short summer break.
And yet, while you’d be right in assuming he is feeling the effects of the workload and travel, his tie for sixth at the Genesis Championship in South Korea indicates his game is holding up just fine.
"My game is actually feeling better now than compared to the beginning of the season," he adds.
"I’ve changed something in my swing and it's actually feeling a lot better now.
"My body is obviously a lot more tired now, but I feel like I can still perform to the best of my ability."
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With that result in the final event of the regular DP World Tour season, he played his way into the first of the DP World Tour Play-Offs in the United Arab Emirates.
Now, he wants to earn his spot at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai as one of the top 50 on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex. He comes into this week on the outside looking in, lying 59th.
"Hopefully two more weeks to go and then a nice little break before next season," he adds, with his intention to make his first start of the forthcoming DP World Tour season on home soil at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in December.
With three top tens to his name, Rolex Series experience under his belt, a Major debut at the U.S. Open, Jarvis can surely only be thrilled with how he has settled into the new challenge of the DP World Tour.
Asked whether he has found the transition to the DP World Tour as seamless as he has made it look, he says: "Not at all, it's been difficult
"The courses are a lot more difficult than I've ever played before and compared to the courses back home. It's challenging.
"I probably rate my year five out of 10. I've haven't had my best stuff, but I’ve been playing good lately, so it's trending."
It's an answer that highlights the self-belief he has in his game, something which stems from a successful amateur career in which he won consecutive African Amateur Stroke Play titles in 2021 and 2022.
While his progression since turning professional in 19 has been impressive, Jarvis is always looking for more - a trait that sets the best from the rest.
"My expectations are so high, so I get really upset if I don't have a good week," adds Jarvis, who credits countryman and three-time DP World Tour winner Brandon Stone for helping him throughout the course of the season.
"I think Brandon has also helped me with that to be like, listen, you are actually doing pretty well.
"But I won a lot as an amateur and I haven't won out here yet. I mean that was a major goal for the year and there are still two events left so hopefully I can pull something out.
"Everyone is so good and everyone at their best is going to win. So, it's been tough to manage expectations around that."
But, whether he progresses to the season finale in Dubai or not, Jarvis will undoubtedly be a better player for the learnings he has gained during a successful debut campaign at this level. Even he can't deny that.
"At the beginning of the year, I was a very aggressive player, and I haven't been as aggressive at the end of the year, even though I kind of needed to be because I needed good results," he reflects.
"So, it has helped me a lot this year just to manage your game and you can score well if you manage your game well. You don't have to attack, be aggressive, on every hole."
