Edfors toed the party line
European golf’s man-of-the-moment has recalled the moment he was told to end his wild days and get serious.
Swede Johan Edfors will be playing the first major championship of his life at the age of 30 at Hoylake this week. And if ever there was a late bloomer he is it.
Edfors’ victory in the Scottish Open this Sunday – after a scintillating closing round of 63 – was his third title in his last 10 starts.
Yet entering 2006 the Roger Federer look-a-like, who used to have Sven-Goran Eriksson’s son as his caddie, had never finished higher than ninth on the European Tour, had just paid his seventh visit to the qualifying school and was ranked 410th in the world.
Now he is 46th.
It was back in his college days, though, that Edfors was told that he had to change his ways if he was ever going to fulfil his potential.
“I went to the States to university and I really liked it over there, but I probably wasn’t focusing on the right things,” he said. “I had a couple of lost years.”
It reached the point where a good friend sat him down and told him what he thought.
“He is a golf teacher and was a mentor. He made up a schedule that I could only party once a month.
“That was probably the turning point, I think. It was boring, but I improved a lot.”
Not enough, though, for him to be an instant success when he turned professional.
Edfors’ first six trips to the qualifying school all ended in failure and although he did top the money list on the “second division” Challenge Tour in 2003 he finished only 147th on the main circuit the following season and was back fighting for his future.
“After losing my card I realised that what I was doing wasn’t good enough. I had always done it my way and decided I was going to try to talk to more people and see if I needed to make some changes.
“I felt I couldn’t play good enough on European tour courses. I thought I was well-prepared when I played my first year, but I wasn’t.
“I started with two new coaches and we are changing everything. There’s still a long way to go and it’s a work-in-progress.”
Incredibly, apart from his three wins this year the first was in China in March, the second in the British Masters at The Belfry in May – Edfors has not had another top 10 finish.
Indeed, since that initial victory he has not had anything better than 45th aside from the other two successes.
That explains why he has still to climb into the top 10 of the Ryder Cup table.
He would have been there but for the fact that Luke Donald was joint runner-up at Loch Lomond, a performance which puts him fifth in the table and leaves Edfors at 11th, some €50,000 behind 10th-placed Paul Broadhurst.
The Open, of course, is massive in the points race but as the first major of his career it would be massive for Edfors Ryder Cup or not.
