The European Challenge Tour rightly prides itself on being the breeding ground for the best young talent in golf but Jurrian van der Vaart is showing the benefit of experience, as well as planning for the future, as he prepares for this week’s D+D REAL Slovakia Challenge.
The Dutchman arrives at Penati Golf Resort on the back of a runner-up finish in the Made In Denmark Challenge – Presented by Ejner Hessel, a third top ten finish of the season that has helped him climb to 11thplace in the Road to Oman Rankings.
Despite now being firmly inside the top 15, and with a European Tour card in his sights, the 31 year old is wary of getting too carried away, having learned first-hand the difficulties of life as a golfer during his seven years as a professional.
Things have been going well, but it's not a magic formula - all the mistakes and things I've done, I've learned and am better for them
“Things have been going well lately but it’s not a magic formula," he said. “It’s more that I’ve done so many things wrong in the first six years that I’ve realised now what I need to start focusing on.
“When you’re younger, and I had a really good amateur career, I felt like I had to perform straight away as soon as I turned pro. Then suddenly you miss two or three cuts at the start and you start to doubt whether you’re actually good enough to shoot low enough, you hire new coaches, doubt your own coach, start doubting everything you’re doing, start travelling differently.
“You get advice from so many different people who obviously all want the best for you but don’t necessarily know you quite as well as they probably should, and through all those mistakes and all those things that I’ve done, I’ve learned and am better for that.
“Some guys don’t make those mistakes, or they have a good support system from the start who guide them in the right direction, and they fully trust them. I’ve always had to kind of do it on my own, which makes you question everything.”
Van der Vaart first earned a place in Challenge Tour ranks for the 2011 season but by the end of the following year he had failed to retain his card.
A leap of faith led to him chasing the American dream for a couple of seasons before returning to seal the fifth and final Challenge Tour spot from the Alps Tour Order of Merit last year by winning the final event of the season – edging out current Road to Oman Number Two Matthieu Pavon by just €4.
This relative level of success, however, brought no financial security for van der Vaart, who was left unsure whether he could afford to pay the airfare to tournaments.
There are guys who thrive in this sort of environment - every shot is under the gun, you've got to be at the top of your game
“I lost my Challenge Tour card at the end of 2012 and applied for a visa in America,” he said. “I went and played on the mini tours on the east coast for two years, and that was a big step – that was selling everything I had, packing a suitcase and booking a flight, getting a room for a month and seeing what happens.
“I stayed for two years and was absolutely broke after it – I had to borrow money from my parents for a flight back and to sign up for the Alps Tour. Then I won the final event by a shot, finished fifth on the Order of Merit by €4, and now I’m 11thin the Road to Oman Rankings with more money than I’ve probably made in my whole career.
“I think there are guys who thrive in this sort of environment where every shot is under the gun, where if you told them they were going to get into every tournament and make enough money for the rest of the year they would let loose a little and not focus and grind as hard as they should.
“I’m not one of those guys. I like a certain stability in my life and especially around me, but on March 24 I had no money to play on the Challenge Tour. I skipped Kenya because I couldn’t afford to go there, or I could have but that would have been my only tournament of the year.
“If you make the cut on the European Tour and play half-decent, the difference is substantial – its thousands of Euro that you can put into coaching, travel, whatever.
“Out here it’s substantially lower, so you’ve got to be at the top of your game – you can’t just finish 40thevery week, if you do that you’ll lose your card, even if you make every cut, so it’s a good realisation that you have to go out and make birdies, play positive golf.”
Against this backdrop of financial uncertainty, which the Hoofddorp native acknowledges provides that essential hunger to work harder to succeed, van der Vaart has adopted an innovative method of attracting sponsors this season.
Everyone needs their own recipe of success and so far I've found most of the ingredients
“I set up a plan for sponsors to come and help me out, and now I have 20 guys who support me, which kickstarted the early season,” he said. “A couple of companies have joined in after that, so change can happen quickly, but you do have to grind it out here.
“What I’m doing is hosting a monthly golf day for them, so that takes a lot of energy to organise but is the least I can do. These 20 guys, I started with three, then four days later it was six, then nine, so it grew organically up to 20.
“I’ve called it Team Jurrian and we play the golf course I’m a member at, we practise with my coaches who will give them swing tips, analyse their putting strokes and whatnot. I offered them a real insight into what I’m doing, not just take their money and send them an email.
“They have to be crazy about golf themselves to want to do this, but it’s given me the financial backbone to settle down and focus on golf, rather than looking at my bank account every three days hoping I can afford the next flight.
“I’ve got a good thing going, a good flow going. Obviously playing well helps, but to get there everyone needs their own recipe of success, and so far I’ve found most of the ingredients I think.”
With Team Jurrian now offering him the stability off the course to produce his best golf, van der Vaart is also keeping one eye on the future with his interest in golf course design – a hobby he hopes will prove beneficial in Senica this week.
“I work with a golf course architect in the Netherlands,” he said. “We work on golf course projects together whenever he needs a good player’s eye – it’s a small world, a small scene, so he put me in touch with Jonathan Davison the architect here.
“There are two golf courses here – the championship one, the Legend Course, is a Jack Nicklaus design and the other is a Create Golf design, by Jonathan, so he is going to walk round with me – he offered to caddie for me as well.
“I’ve been looking forward to this week a little bit more than just a normal week because it’s not just about playing golf, I’ll get a little bit more information. It may be a bit of a secret weapon!”
