Inspired by Ben Hogan, with a swing resembling Bryson DeChambeau, Castleknock native David Carey will make his first PGA Tour start in the US today at the Valero Texas Open.
Carey won Monday's qualifier with a round of 65 at the Fair Oaks Country Club, with his girlfriend Caitlin as caddie, a novelty highlighted by the PGA Tour social media team this week. She will be remaining on his bag this week, Carey confirmed after.
As an indicator of the rigmarole involved in reaching the starting gate this week, Carey had already come through a pre-qualifier to earn a place in Monday's qualifier.
Monday qualifiers for @ValeroTXOpen:
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 28, 2023
David Carey (65)
Peter Kuest (66)
Austen Truslow (67)
Peter Lansburgh (68) @DavidCareyGolf also won the Pre-Qualifier to get in to the Monday Qualifier and will make his first stateside TOUR start, all with his girlfriend on the bag ❤️ pic.twitter.com/wnVQRkNVs2
While Seamus Power is known for taking a rather left-field, circuitous route to achieving recognition in his homeland, Carey's journey is even quirkier.
A former Ireland boys international, he took the unusual step of turning pro in his teens, as soon as an Alps Tour card became available.
For the unaware - and there are many - the Alps Tour is a third level tour in European golf, underneath the second level Challenge Tour and the DP World Tour [formerly European Tour, of course]. There are a number of third-level tours, this one is sanctioned by the golf associations in France, Austria, Switzerland and Morocco.
Carey, now 26, is still best known for shooting the lowest ever round in a professional tournament, with a 57 on a par-68 layout when winning the Cervino Open back in 2019.
He subsequently adopted the moniker 'Mr 57', which is referenced in his Twitter bio. His Hogan-style flat cap has a Four Leaf Clover bearing the message 'DC 57' stitched into the back.
The Dubliner tees off at 3.30pm Irish time, Padraig Harrington the only other entrant in an event that McIlroy, Lowry and Power are all giving a miss ahead of the Masters next week.
Should Carey win around the San Antonio Oaks course this weekend, he will earn the last spot at Augusta.
It wouldn't be his first major start, at any rate.
Carey posted rounds of 68 and 69 to win last year's 36-hole qualifier event at Fairmont St Andrew's. Galway's Ronan Mullarney was also among the 16 qualifiers to emerge from the field of 288.
Carey's qualifier victory was all the more impressive given he hadn't played links golf in more than two years - "a shocking admission for someone from Ireland," he acknowledged.
He made the cut too, on foot of a superb 67 on Friday. Successive rounds of 73 on the weekend saw him wind up on three-under overall, in a tie for 53rd.
A highly respectable showing, although Carey has loftier ambitions. Notwithstanding his world ranking of 912th, Carey was adamant he had as much a chance as anyone of clasping the Claret Jug.
"I know I can do it. If I don't do it this year it will be at some point in the future," Carey told RTÉ Sport ahead of his tee off in St Andrew's last summer.
Playing on the bigger stage certainly appealed to Carey, who admitted to being a "complete show-off" and "the more people that's there, the better."
Prior to the off, Carey had been practicing with Keegan Bradley and Bryson DeChambeau around the Old Course.
Carey's swing - very flat - bears some resemblance to DeChambeau and their driving distances are almost comparable. The Irishman can generate a ball-speed - a metric beloved of the hardened Tour pro these days - faster than both Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy.
He also shares some of the 2020 US Open champion's love of stats and granular detail.
While DeChambeau is a modern influence, Carey's ultimate golfing hero remains Ben Hogan.
This alone is enough to mark Carey out as something of a boffin and student of history - Hogan wasn't namechecked too often on 'Full Swing', where the impression one gathered was that this generation of golfers had no conception of a time before 1997.
Hogan's famed workrate and relatively late blooming is of particular inspiration for Carey, who has endured lean times in his eight years as a professional.
One of only five golfers to hold the career grand slam, Hogan only won his first major at the age of 34.
Indeed, Hogan might have competed the Grand Slam in 1953, had not the Open Championship and PGA Championship overlapped in those days. The season wasn't quite so neatly built around the four present-day majors in those days, and Americans rarely ventured across the Atlantic in any event, not until Arnold Palmer helped revive the Open Championship in the US in the early 60s.
In '53, Hogan won five of the six tournaments, and the Masters, US Open and Open Championship.
"Mr Hogan's life story shows that if you put enough work in and you keep trying and keep working, it can be achieved," Carey said in advance of his St Andrew's appearance.
"At the lowest point of my professional career I listened to an audio book by Curt Sampson, the man who wrote Hogan's biography. It's a really, really good book. It resonated with me the amount of times that he failed and didn't make it.
"He lost all his money and had to go back to teaching. He tried and failed, and tried again, and failed. Through grit and determination, and with not a whole lot of help, he made it on his own.
"That resonated with me. By chance I went home and sitting on the book shelf was Ben Hogan's 'Five Lessons', which my Dad had bought years before. I had forgotten it was there."
