\n<\/p>\n
Dean told BBC Radio 5 Live the average cost of competing in tournaments is “around the \u00a33,000-\u00a34,000 mark per week”. <\/p>\n
While “technically still under contract” with Morrisons, Dean said he has no plans to quit yet, preferring to assess the situation when the season starts to get busier around April. <\/p>\n
“So maybe at that point, yeah, I’ll consider handing my notice in,” added Dean. <\/p>\n
“I’m quite stuck in my own ways so to me maybe going back and doing the odd shift here and there, it’s not too out of the ordinary.” <\/p>\n
Dean qualified for the DP World Tour last year but decided not to take part, as he is not someone who “puts everything on the line”. <\/p>\n
“I chose to hang back and try to sort myself out,” he said. <\/p>\n
“I had no club sponsors at the time. There was very limited things around that I could fall back on in order to get me there and get me to play. <\/p>\n
“So I made the decision not to, which now it seems that was an OK idea.” <\/p>\n
The biblical line so aptly borrowed by the late great Peter Alliss when Larry Mize downed Greg Norman at Augusta in 1987 – “And the meek shall inherit the earth” – springs to mind.<\/p>\n
It was similarly uplifting stuff on the PGA Tour. Jake Knapp has also struggled and, after falling off the Korn Ferry Tour three years ago, took a job as a nightclub bouncer in his native California.<\/p>\n
The muscular 29-year-old American carried out those duties to pay bills but they also rewarded him with a refreshing sense of perspective.<\/p>\n
“Standing there at one in the morning every Friday and Saturday night, you kind of realise how good you have it when you get to travel and play golf for a living,” Knapp said during his maiden tour win at the Mexico Open.<\/p>\n
“It just kind of gave me some thicker skin and allowed me to get to where I am now.”<\/p>\n
The tournament boasted only four players in the world’s top 50 and only 23 from the leading hundred golfers in the world rankings.<\/p>\n
But his win still earned an invitation to the Masters as well as entry to the tour’s much vaunted $20m signature events.<\/p>\n
Knapp knows who to thank for reaching such heights: his late grandfather Gordon Bowley, whom he would constantly speak to discuss his fledgling career. Knapp has his mentor’s initials GSFB tattooed on his left bicep.<\/p>\n
“He was the guy I talked to after every single round. Still text him after every round,” a tearful Knapp said.<\/p>\n
“He’s super special to me and my entire family, so I know he’s with me out there and he’s watching.”<\/p>\n
While Knapp prepares to head to Augusta, a Masters legend is being credited with helping Law return to winning ways on the Ladies European Tour.<\/p>\n
Ian Woosnam, who won the Green Jacket in 1991, has been helping the Stockport pro, who landed her first victory in two years with a brilliant closing 64 in the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco.<\/p>\n
Law played with Woosnam’s trademark aggression to get over the line. “This win feels a little bit surreal,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I holed out on 14 from the fairway for an eagle and at that moment I thought there was a chance if I kept making birdies. That was the turning point.”<\/p>\n
Law, a key member of the winning 2019 European Solheim Cup team, had not won since the 2022 Aramco Team Series event in London and has been open about a loss of confidence on the course.<\/p>\n
“This win represents all the hard work that I did in the off season,” she said. “I really struggled last year and have done a lot of work with my mental coach and Ian Woosnam, who is obviously a legend of the game.<\/p>\n
“This proves that when I put the hard work in and when I believe in myself that I can still compete at the very top of my game.”<\/p>\n
Tavatanakit’s ability has never been in doubt since her brilliant victory at the 2021 ANA Inspiration.<\/p>\n
That major was the 24-year-old’s first LPGA title, and the aggressive manner of her success suggested she would quickly become a dominant figure in the women’s game.<\/p>\n
But she had to wait until she won against a strong LET field in Saudi Arabia this month for her next success. <\/p>\n
It proved the first of back-to-back triumphs as she added another in Thailand. That LPGA Tour victory came 1,057 days after her maiden title.<\/p>\n
She is a charismatic figure who plays a refreshingly forceful game. “I was just foot on the gas,” she said after surging a shot clear of Switzerland’s Albon Valenzuela on 21 under par. “I’m really just proud of myself. I fought really hard.”<\/p>\n
It is a brand of golf that makes her a potentially vital global figure for the women’s game. Her victory was another reason to celebrate in a welcome weekend of smiles for the game of golf.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n