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LIV Golf London: Zimbabwean Scott Vincent happy to make most of ‘incredible journey’ as future hangs in the balance
By scmp.com
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Scott Vincent focused on staying in the present as LIV enters second half of 2023 season
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The Asian Tour player is battling to make his way into the top 24 and earning his place on the circuit next year
Scott Vincent has no idea what the future might hold for him in LIV Golf, and he’s OK with that.
With more than half the season gone, the Zimbabwean was on the edge of the protected places heading into this week’s event in England, with the top 24 players at the end of the year guaranteed to come back in 2024.
Most of the rest of the field will face a battle in November or December to retain their spots, despite the uncertainty surrounding the game’s immediate future.
That uncertainty has reached all corners and all tours, not least the Asian one, which took significant financial backing from LIV Golf to start its International Series, the route through which Vincent earned his spot among the elite of the game.
With myriad questions over the framework agreement between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund remaining unanswered, the most Vincent said he could do was “stay in the present”, although he might have wished to be somewhere else after an opening round seven-over-par 78 on Friday, which left him bottom of the individual scoreboard, some 15 shots adrift of early leader Cameron Smith.
Acknowledging that it was “easy to get caught up in that stuff”, the 31-year-old said if this turned out to be the “last season I ever play on LIV” his approach would be to figure out how to make the most of it.
“That’s not the plan [dropping out], that’s not what I’m shooting for, I’m obviously continuing to give my very best and put in as much effort as I can,” he said. “But those are things I can’t control, how I’m going to end up at the end of the year.
“What I can control is how much effort I put in, my heart … where am I, what can I do to best prepare myself for this event, this week and tomorrow.”
It is more than a month since the shock announcement that the PIF, which backs the Asian Tour as well as LIV Golf, was going to enter into a commercial partnership with its main rivals.
And the void created by the deafening silence from the LIV side, whispered conversations and indirect leaks apart, has been filled with speculation, conjecture and in some cases outright fantasy.
I could never have predicted this, but it’s amazing
“For me, and how I view this, it comes back to, ‘can I control any of this? No. Should I be worrying about it? Not really’,” Vincent said.
“Yes, it is interesting, and when the answers do come out then we have a clearer path of what that means, but it doesn’t change what I’m doing day to day.”
That level-headed approach has been helped by working with a sports psychologist, but even then Vincent admits he was is in the midst of an “incredible journey” that has taken him from playing in front of a handful of spectators in Japan, Korea, Thailand, and everywhere in between, to the thousands that have thronged to watch golf’s newest and liveliest competition.
And then there is getting to play alongside the likes of Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Kopeka and in a field that boasts players with 14 major championships between them.
Every golfer dreams of competing against the best, even if LIV Golf isn’t exactly what Vincent had in mind.
“I always felt like, if you dream for something, why not go after it and chase it, so, yeah, it’s been really cool,” he said. “Obviously watching so many of these players as a young kid growing up, and now getting to rub shoulders and speak to them.
“I could never have predicted this, but I it’s amazing and I think it’s doing a lot of good for the game and it’s really helped me.”
Vincent’s journey to this point began on the Asian Tour, and was boosted by the introduction of the International Series, which he is more than a little connected to.
He was just the second player to win on the series, claiming the title at Slaley Hall the week before he played in the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational in England, and earned his place for the 2023 season by topping the series order of merit last year.
Others are battling to follow in his footsteps, including his brother Kieran, while those finishing in the merit’s top 32 will get the chance to compete at the promotion event in several months’ time.
“The Asian Tour has been amazing to me,” Vincent said. “I’ve got to play in the WGC because of that, I got a full European Tour card, so the Asian Tour and what it did for me was incredible.”
As part of its explosion onto the golf scene, LIV put some US$300 million into the series, immediately elevating its prize purses and its fields to a level where it could compete with the DP World Tour.
Where before the likes of Garcia, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Dustin Johnson and Koepka might only play intermittently around Asia, now they are more regular sights, and a host of big names will play at the International Series events in England and Scotland in August.
“You’re starting to see more players come and play, so you’re getting to rub shoulders with these top players,” Vincent said. “What that does for kids and getting them at a comfort level is important, because you go from never seeing any of those superstars to coming here [LIV], and it feels so foreign.”
Vincent may well have been the first from the tour to earn a place on the circuit, but he will not be the last, and he believes the series will leave those that do follow better prepared for what comes next.
“I think with good competition, naturally you have the opportunity to grow with that, and get challenged,” he said. “I think you’re going to see more and more Asian players coming through and hit the ground running.”