Victorian veteran Cameron Percy has endured a topsy-turvy year but a little bedtime reading has helped him produce his best result of the season and boosted his confidence.
After missing three cuts on the US PGA Tour in succession Percy fired four straight sub-70 rounds at the recent Byron Nelson Classic to tie for tenth and earn a handy $US157,000.
He said his improved form was in large part based on a book on sports psychology he was given.
“I saw a guy called David Orr in Raleigh,” Percy said. “He’s asked me to do this and try that and this. He gave me a book to this. I read it on the plane.
“I’ve been reading a chapter each night. Little things I thought I was doing I wasn’t doing. It’s just doing a few things I hadn’t been doing. It’s definitely helped,” he said.
“I’ve been playing like rubbish, struggling with my three-wood and driver. Hitting it everywhere but I’ve been just adjusting clubs and all the stuff the last few weeks.
“I’ve been a mess but I’ve been reading it this week. I just tried to focus and it’s working.
“It’s called Gio Valiante. I’m four chapters in and It’s helped so far.
“There were little things that I thought I was doing I wasn’t so just helped for sure.”
Percy also had to play the tournament in some discomfort after a battle with skin cancer.
“I had a skin cancer cut out last week, I got six stitches,” he said. “I have to keep a Band-Aid on it and put stuff on it. It is what it is and I’ve got to put up with it but the stitches catch on my hat and I get headaches and stuff like that.
Meanwhile, former Australian Open champion Peter Fowler has triumphed on the European Senior Tour in coincidental circumstances.
The European Tour reports that Fowler sealed a sentimental return to the course where six years ago he feared for his golfing future, clinching a hard-fought one stroke victory in the Acorn Jersey Open at La Moye Golf Club.
The Australian, who has just turned 56, injured his back on the eve of his European Senior Tour debut on the Channel Island in 2009 and subsequently required surgery which kept him out of the game for nearly a year.
But this time fortune proved to be in his favour as he survived a nervous finish to card a one under par closing round of 71 and a seven under par winning score, holding off the challenge of playing partner Anders Forsbrand to capture his fourth Senior Tour title, and first since the 2013 French Riviera Masters.
Coincidentally, Fowler also made his European Tour debut at La Moye Golf Club 32 years ago, and despite the painful memories of the carer-threatening injury he sustained at the venue, he admits it is a special place for him.
“I made my European Tour debut here and my Senior Tour debut as well, and it is fantastic to now win here too,” said Fowler.
“It’s a course I’m very fond of, so it is special. I also lost in a play-off here to John Morgan in 1986 and my caddie this week, Tim Morton, was on the bag then. I’m staying with him this week, so it’s nice for us to come back together nearly 30 years later and go one better.”
By: Robert Grant
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