Ford growing in stature

From Africa to Asia and now Europe…it’s been a whirlwind few months for PGA.info columnist Matt Ford since securing his Tour card back at Q-School. Having had a tough 2014, the Kent ace has found his feet on the Tour with some solid displays that virtually guarantee his place with the elite next season. Ford reflects on his season to date and impact it has had on various aspects of his life.

It’s been almost a dream for the past eight months. There’s been highs and lows, but the highs have been fantastic. An example of that is I had the opportunity of testing a BMW i8 this week, which was just awesome. I literally just took it out for a spin for an hour on my own! I now just need a hole in one at the right time! If you’d asked me a year ago what was going to happen, I couldn’t have imagined this. What’s important now is what happens in the next five months.

If this was a half-term school report, how do I assess the six months? Well there are two ways to look at it. Measuring myself as European Tour player then I would probably give myself a grade B or C. But if I look at it in terms of where I’ve come from in the space of a year then it would have to be an A. I am very happy with everything at the moment but I am aware that if I want to push on and achieve the good things I want, then I have got to do this, week on week, year on year and keep performing.

The biggest highlight of the season was finishing second at the Africa Open. At the time of my second place in East London I didn’t fully appreciate it. I was on a five week run in Asia/Africa – that was the fourth week and I was at a point where I really wanted to see the family and I was trying very hard to not dwell on those thoughts. It was case of telling myself to knuckle down and get through the five weeks. I then got off to a great start and being in contention for the whole week, meant I had to deal with everything else that comes with that.

I had TV cameras following me the whole weekend, as I was in the last group. That was something very new for me to deal with and a great experience to learn from. I have gained so much confidence from how I dealt with and played in that situation. I wasn't too disappointed with second place as it was such a great result for me at that time and also Trevor Fisher Jnr (above being congratulated by Ford) was unstoppable that week. It was a fantastic achievement so early on in the year and certainly an experience I can draw on. It is the best performance of my career by some way and it was at least a couple of weeks later that I appreciated what I’d done.

What are my aims for the year now that we’re at the halfway stage? I’ve got some decent money on the board and I’m in a decent position as it currently stands on the Race to Dubai. Naturally the position at the start of the year was about securing my card for next season. I haven’t achieved that yet but I have created new targets for the season on the back of the first six months. I am mindful that if you shoot for the stars you might only reach the moon and come up a little short, so for me it’s about shooting high and you never know you might just reach the stars. I can say that the past eight months have been career changing and the goal is to make it life changing.

I have now got myself a regular caddie having generally used local guys. I have taken on Barry ‘Love’ Cornwall, who was with me at Q-School, and is from Royal St Georges. He has the nickname ‘Love’ as it’s what he calls everyone! We’ve been together for seven tournaments and I can tell you that the player/caddie relationship is a proper one. It is much harder than I thought it would be because you spend so much time together and can affect your performance so much.

That result in Africa, coupled with a few recent results, has obviously seen a few cheques come in. It might look good on paper but reality is a bit different. About a third I have to give as a percentage to people, about another third to the tax man, so me and family get about a third of it. So I can’t get the new car quite yet! But I am very happy and lucky to be in this position. At the end of last year I was looking at a job with the Post Office, just to get through the winter, at least it has shelved that. It’s great to just to be more comfortable and hopefully that will help my golf for the last part of the season.

One of the other positives of my year has been to gain a new sponsor in PriceBailey Chartered Accountants, who are based in London. I don’t think this would have happened were it not for finishing second at the Africa Open. There has been a lot of interest in how I’m doing generally as The European Tour is so well publicised. People are so supportive and want to know how you’re getting on. It does mean that the days when I could turn up to the club for a quiet practice have gone! 

The past six months have been a learning curve. I have tended to start really well at tournaments and earnt the 1st round specialist title! I am not sure you can explain it fully, but the mental work I have done must be helping. Doing it for four rounds is the hardest part. In Ireland and Spain I didn't play as well as I would have liked in the latter rounds. Some of that was I just didn't play as well but I also think some of that is down to playing with some high profile players and the impact that has.

I’ve played with Rickie Fowler, Padraig Harrington and Miguel Angel Jimenez recently, which has been a great experience for me but there has been a downside to learn from. I wasn’t too overawed by them, the issue is they obviously attract decent crowds to watch them, but they are not too fussed on watching me! The consequence of that is there is more noise and more movement than I am used to. Playing with Fowler was a real test as there was a lot interest in him as you would expect. ‘Go Rickie’ literally at any point and so many times. But again a great experience to learn from for next time. 

The Q-School guys have all been re-ranked this month and I’ve gone up a couple of places, which could help me get into more events. Looking ahead I would like to get into Portugal and Crans-sur-Sierre in Switzerland. The British Masters at Woburn is definitely on the list, but I’ll have to wait and see. In terms of what’s coming up, well it’s the Scottish Open next.