From walking on air to checking into an AirBnB? Golf has a habit of swiftly bringing you back down to earth.
“The man at the flat I’m renting near Prague for this week’s event didn’t speak English and my Czech is not very good so he just gave me the key and left,” said Liam Johnston of life in the cheap digs of the Challenge Tour.
It may be budget accommodation on the second-tier circuit but Johnston’s own budget has been bolstered by a cheque for some £28,000 after his maiden triumph in the Costa del Sol Matchplay 9 Championship in just his third start on the Challenge Tour this season. He was so high, he probably could have flown himself from Spain to the Czech Republic using the thermal columns that birds soar along with.
Having won on the third-tier Pro Golf Tour earlier in the year, Johnston upped the ante significantly at the weekend and put a whole new complexion on his 2018 campaign.
Prior to his Sunday success, Johnston didn’t have a category for the Challenge Tour and was playing on invitations. Now, he has full playing rights, he is into the top 10 of the rankings and is eyeing promotion to the main European Tour by finishing in the promotion places of the leading 15.
“The goal posts have changed a bit now,” said the 25-year-old from Dumfries. “I may come home after this week’s event and re-assess everything.
“My goal in January was to try to get a Challenge Tour card for next season but here I am in May and that’s done. I’m in the top-15 of the rankings so I want to make sure I stay there. You’ve got to aim high. This is more than I expected but I’ll gladly take it.”
It was something of a family affair in Spain as Johnston’s younger brother, Ryan, caddied for him during a week which ended with a victory over another Scot, Grant Forrest, in the nine-hole shoot-out.
“Ryan will probably do a few more now,” Johnston added of his sibling, who is looking for some employment after graduating from university. “Having a caddie does help. I think everything through a bit more when I have someone there. I have a tendency to get a bit lazy with shots if it’s just me.”
For a player not long out of the amateur game, the format of last week’s tournament suited Johnston to a tee. “It was just about ideal,” he said. “It fed back to those amateur days where we tend to play a lot of matchplay.
“The likes of Grant and myself were possibly still fresher in that kind of golf as some of the others who have been out there a bit longer and don’t get to play it much.”
Johnston’s glory run also featured a quarter-final victory over Jose-Filipe Lima, the experienced Portuguese campaigner who is a former winner on the main European circuit.
“It was funny because Jose was actually the first golfer I watched when I was younger,” he recalled. “My dad would take us to the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond and where we came in on the course, he was one of the players on that hole. I didn’t know why it stuck in my mind but it did.”
If Johnston keeps going at this rate, he could be playing alongside some much bigger names.
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