Victor Perez won his first European Tour title at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in September. Runner-up finishes followed at the Turkish Airlines Open in November and the HSBC Championship in January. Perez had climbed all the way to No. 40 in the Official World Golf Ranking when the sport came to an abrupt stop for coronavirus precautions.
Perez, 27, was among 23 men who were slated to make their Masters debut next month. The Frenchman qualified for the Masters by getting into the top 50 in the final OWGR of 2019. With the Masters now postponed, and without any clear idea of when or if it will still be played in 2020, Perez is trying to keep things in perspective.
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“Health is far more important than any tournament but it comes at a difficult time because if maybe this had happened in December, some of the big tournaments would not have been affected as much,” Perez told the PA news agency, according to the European Tour.
One way that Perez is trying to keep his head up is by looking at his Masters qualification as the start of a new era in his career. He’s “planning on playing the tournament for the next 20 years or whatever.” He’ll compete at Augusta at some point.
Perez has already played it, having made the trip to Georgia two weeks ago to a get a look at the place.
“The tournament might be on a date that’s completely different than what everybody else is used to and I think it will make the course somewhat different to what everyone knows. Being a first-timer there could be an advantage I can get from it,” Perez reasoned.
“We had rented a house and my girlfriend, my agent and my trainer were going to be there.
“Being my first major I was trying to keep it really small, try to keep it as golf-related as possible like how I’ve been behaving ever since I turned pro, because I know the stress level is going to be as high as it’s ever been.”
The Masters wasn’t the only big break Perez was looking for. He was also hoping his solid play would position him nicely for a Ryder Cup selection. For now, that biennial event is still on for September at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin
Perez was in the crowd for the 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National in Paris, which the Europeans won.
“As a European it’s something that we take a lot of pride in and something that I’m really looking forward to,” he added.
“I can’t tell if canceling tournaments plays into my advantage or not, time will tell, I just know that eventually the best players are going to be on the team and it’s going to be a matter of being prepared and executing when it happens.”
The only sure thing is that the waiting game continues.
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