As a former mathematics student, Paul Maddy will be well aware that his rise to The European Tour came against some sizeable odds, so the Englishman who was still a three-handicap leisure golfer at aged 22 is relishing the experience of living the dream.
The 33 year old was one of the stories of the Qualifying School Final Stage in November as he claimed the 13th card to earn a rookie season on The Race to Dubai.
It completed a remarkable and unlikely rise for a man who only began considering a career in golf in his mid-twenties, having gone to University to study maths and computing while off a middling single-figure handicap.
He continued to play intermittently throughout his studies, but it was only when he took a gap year in southern Spain that his game really began to progress before deciding to turn professional at the age of 26.
As he tests his mettle in the heady heights of The Race to Dubai, Maddy cannot help but marvel at where he is now, playing amongst the world’s best golfers, compared to where he was ten years ago.
“I had a slightly different route to most,” said the Cambridgeshire native. “I didn’t turn pro until I was 26 and then played satellite tour golf for four years, then the Challenge Tour for two years, so it’s always been progressing.
“When I first turned pro, the way my game was then and the way my game is now, it’s chalk and cheese. I’m delighted with how I’ve improved.
“I went to University off a mediocre middling single-figure handicap. I just played gentle knockarounds at the weekend with my dad.
“When I finished Uni at 22, I was off a handicap of three. I decided to have a gap year after that and the furthest I got was the south of Spain. I just played a lot of golf there and everything changed after that.
“I went and saw a coach then and got lessons for the first time. There are many different ways to skin a cat I guess. There are so many ways to get where you want to be in golf and this year will be the ultimate learning curve.
“I never would have thought I would get this far. I always thought I’d end up with a boring office job and I’d go from there, but things change.”
While his rise to the top of world golf has been an unlikely one, it has been the result of many years of hard graft on the lower tiers of the game and now Maddy is ready to revel in the experience of playing on The European Tour, and maybe even vying for some of the biggest trophies in the game.
“I want to keep the form I’ve got going and the world is my oyster I suppose,” he said. “It will be a very new experience standing up on the range next to those players. The closest I’ve got to that is the two dual-ranking events I’ve played but I’ll just have to see how it is when I get there.
“I ground it out on the EuroPro Tour for four years and a little bit of Alps Tour and learned my way in. Then I finally had a good year in 2012 and got on to the Challenge Tour. I had a tough two years to be honest, mainly getting used to all the travelling and the whole process that goes with it.
“I thought I had a good chance at Q-School in 2012, having won the Order of Merit on the EuroPro Tour and playing really well. But even from there I didn’t realise quite how tough it would be, but I took a lot of heart from that.
“I worked out how I should play Qualifying School, just making sure to keep it in track over the six days.
“I don’t see why I can’t challenge for titles on The European Tour. I just need to learn my trade up there, start from square one again. I think my game’s good enough, I just need to test it.”
