Wakefield's Daniel Bradbury determined to seize DP World Tour opportunity at Joburg Open

He has been presented with one in South Africa this week, but in not knowing when such a chance will arise again, he knows this is a moment he must make the most of.

Bradbury, 23, tees off on a sponsor’s invite in the Joburg Open, a tournament that marks the start of the 2023 DP World Tour season.

It is certainly an exciting opportunity for a player who only completed five years on the American collegiate system in May, turning pro two months later because there was nothing left for him to prove as an amateur.

Playing golf in college is one thing - no matter how conditioned to succeed players in that system are becoming - but playing for a living is another matter entirely, as Bradbury is finding.

“When I first turned pro, the first couple of events I played I remember thinking as I walked down the last hole ‘if I par this I’ll make this much money, or if I bogey it this much money’,” Bradbury tells The Yorkshire Post.

“I’ve realised pretty quickly you can’t think like that, it’s just unnecessary pressure. At the end of the day everyone is in the same position.

“Somebody once told me birdies earn you a lot more money than bogeys lose, so just go out there and try and make as many birdies as you can and just enjoy it.”

The Wakefield Golf Club member has been determined to enjoy it, even if there has already been more downs than ups.

Upon turning professional, his management team got him into the English Open at Hillside where he missed the cut by some distance.

He wanted seven Challenge Tour invites to prove himself and get a card on the second tier for 2023, but only got three, making the cut each time and improving with each performance.

“I’d been struggling to get things going all year, I was playing a better than I was scoring, and finally started to see something coming together in Denmark at the start of August,” says Bradbury.

It meant he went to the first stage of DP World Tour Qualifying School at the Players Club at the end of August in confident mood.

“I missed out by one from qualifying from the first stage,” he laments.

“I played well but had 11 three-putts including on the last, which ensured I missed by one.

“It is a very pressured situation and it’s an important week, so naturally you do put a little bit more pressure on yourself, and I had pretty high expectations because I’d just started to play decently.

“The last hole with the three-putt you might say that’s an obvious case of pressure, but I had 10 other three putts the rest of the week so I can’t just blame it on that.”

Just when he could have withdrawn into himself, questioning whether he was good enough to make it, another opportunity came along and this time he seized it.

On the Tuesday of the Open d’Espana week on the DP World Tour, Bradbury got a late call to fill a spot in the field.

He shot 69, 64, to make the cut at a canter, then after a 73 on the Saturday, shot himself up the leaderboard into a tie for 13th with a final-round 65. Bradbury earned 26,000 euros and change, and suddenly he believed again.

“I don’t regret the decision to turn pro at all. If there was a Walker Cup this winter that might have changed my situation, but I couldn’t have waited 18 months for that,” he says.

“Off the back of my finish in Madrid I just put in a few requests for invitations for the start of the season. The Joburg Open is the only opportunity right now and it’s where I want to be, there’s no development tours this side of Christmas, so it was a no-brainer to request it.”

Bradbury has a visa ready if an opportunity to play at a co-sanctioned event in Australia arises next week, or there are two more DP World Tour events in South Africa coming up if he catches the eye this week.

His mum has flown to Johannesburg to support him this week. “She wanted to come to Madrid but because I didn’t get the call until Tuesday it was too short notice, but she wasn’t missing this one and booked the week off,” he laughs.

“It’s nice to have somebody with you, just some company for meals and travelling.”

And he has sorted a local caddie through a ‘friend of a friend’.

If it seems a world away from the vast sums of money Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm shared as the 2022 season finished in Dubai just four days ago, then it is, but for Wakefield’s Bradbury, this opportunity is just as important.

“I was so late to the party I couldn’t event get in the official hotel so we’re staying just down the road,” says Bradbury, who only got the call Friday to say he was in the field.

“It’s stressful sorting everything out. It’s an expensive trip but the potential upside is just too good to turn down.”