When Callum Shinkwin hit the shot of his life to the 17thgreen in the third round of the season-ending NBO Golf Classic Grand Final to make only the second birdie on that hole on a relentlessly windy day, it must have provided the same ecstasy he might have experienced landing the knock-out blow as a young boxer.
That he kept his composure the following day – a four under par final round of 68 securing him a tie for third place, and a European Tour card – will have been all the more pleasing for the Englishman, saving his best performance of the season for when it mattered most.
Shinkwin is a bubbly, carefree presence on tour but underneath that exterior is the kind of burning desire to win, calmness and self-discipline more akin to sportsmen who ply their trade inside a ring rather than outside on the fairways and greens.
It comes as no surprise, then, that the 22 year old comes from a background in boxing, even if it is perhaps an unusual transition between two sports that could hardly be more different.
“I was an aggressive boxer but I was quite young so it wasn’t to a very high level,” he said. “I only had two fights but it was a family thing and it was down to my cousins. I enjoyed it.
“My cousin Miles Shinkwin is a professional boxer and he won his 12thfight recently. He’s 12-0 now and he’s fighting for the British title soon in light heavyweight. He’s a class act in the ring too.
“It’s a different sport as I know myself, but he did well and I spoke to him after his fight during Grand Final, but we’re both sportsmen and we gear each other on to do well.
“I used to do a lot of boxing through my family and then I quite boxing after a couple of years doing it, having had a couple of fights. I wanted to keep going with the golf and I used to play every day up until when I was about 17.
“I don’t know how I got into golf really, somehow my dad got me into golf and I just picked up a club and liked it, it just came naturally to me.”
It was that kind of natural talent that convinced renowned caddie David McNeilly to drop down to the Challenge Tour from The European Tour – where he had carried the bag for luminaries such as Nick Faldo, Retief Goosen and Padraig Harrington – and help bring the young Londoner to where his talent belongs.
He explained how the partnership came about: “I played in Sweden during the year and had two European Tour events in a row, taking a break from Challenge Tour, and I managed to poach him through my management company, because he used to work with Matteo Manassero.
“Ever since then, he’s wanted to stick with me, he saw some talent – I don’t know where from but he saw it – and I’ve managed to keep him.”
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Shinkwin developed a welcome habit of doing it when it mattered most – finishing tied third in the Kazakhstan Open, tied eighth at The Foshan Open and tied third at the Grand Final – the three most lucrative events on the schedule. He said: “I planned my schedule around all of the big ones and if you perform in the big ones, you’re going to move up.”
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Shinkwin beat Matthew Fitzpatrick in the final of the 2013 Amateur Championship and says he is a close friend of the British Masters Champion: “Matt’s a great player. We both have the same coach, Mike Walker, and we both see Phil Kenyon for putting and they obviously work quite well for us both.”
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Shinkwin played in the Great Britain & Ireland 2013 Walker Cup alongside Fitzpatrick as well as Challenge Tour winner Max Orrin among many others. Although their team did not win, Shinkwin was one of only three British and Irish winners in the final day singles matches.
After a stellar amateur career, Shinkwin has taken just two seasons on the Challenge Tour to make the step up to the big time, and he says that he felt like he was ready for life in the paid ranks.
“I did feel like I was ready to be a professional,” he said. “I was about 16 when I really started to perform and I finished quite high in the under-16 English boys and finished that year strongly. The following year I won the Carris Trophy by seven shots. That spurred me on to do well and my game improved bit by bit.
“The flying is a lot different to amateur golf – where you’re just driving around Britain mostly – and last year in my first year as a pro I was tired after playing maybe three events in a row. This year I managed to overcome that and I am mentally and physically stronger.
“It’s the way I am, to be very relaxed. I’m a patient person. I’d have been gutted not to have got a card but I would have been pretty much the same.”
As Shinkwin steps into the ring on The European Tour, he looks scarcely bothered by the prospect. But once he gets down to work, the gloves will be off and he will be ready to rumble.
