The ultimate golfing traveller Scott Hend
Amongst worldwide pro golf players, Scott Hend might be the game’s top traveller. The Florida-based Aussie native, who was second on the Asian Tour’s money listing last season, divides his time between his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, the web.com and Asian tours and foremost events in Australia if time allows. In an era when lots of golf in Asia pros are reducing his or her trips to focus on only one tour, Hend, 40, gets on and off planes - economy class a lot of the time - to provide his wares around the world. But there’s a transparent goal powering his self-imposed arduous travel schedule: to get back into the world’s top 100 professionals and, in the short term, to become qualified for the PGA Championship in August. By the end of the 2014 year he hopes to have adequate FedEx points to be eligible for the last four competitions on the Web.com Tour, when twenty-eight PGA Tour cards are on offer for the new year commencing in October. It would be recognizable territory for the local of Townsville in North Queensland, who won almost $1 million in prizemoney on the PGA Tour between 2004-2006 and has played the Asian Tour since 2007, when he was newbie of the year. He has starred in three US Opens, finishing 32nd in 2006, and one British Open. Hend, a down-to-earth person, believes he has a great opportunity of obtaining his two leading goals. With 10 professional wins under his belt, including three in Asia last season, he thinks his game is again good enough to contend with the globes best. He places his resurgence down to enhanced health after a thyroid operation in 2013. “It’s dietary and bodily and getting the right chemical balance,” he clarifies. “I’ve worked hard at reaching this and feel my well being and my game are today right back to exactly where I can play well again.” With the 2014 Asian Tour beginning in Kuala Lumpur in March, Hend made the 20-hour journey from Florida to Bangkok just before going to the Malaysian capital for the Maybank Malaysia Open, in which he finished equal 18th in a high-calibre field behind the winner, Lee Westwood. Two weeks later he finished 24th in The Championship, performed in Singapore, then 5th in a One Asia event in Korea. Shortly he’ll head back to his family members in the US and rejoin the Web.com Tour.
Even if he does become eligible for the PGA Tour next season or at some point down the track, Hend says he will always have an commitment to the Asian Tour. “You have to show loyalty to the tours that allowed one to get where you are in golf,” he says. “I really feel a powerful devotion to the Asian Tour, that is the reason why I play as many tournaments in Asia as I can. “ But he has worries about the wisdom of the PGA Tour’s entering into China, in which a dozen competitions are being played between March and December. “China used to have One Asia Tour competitions; now it has gone to the PGA Tour. This is a threat to both the Asia and European tours. I believe this illustrates how fragile these tours are.” Hend, who along with 1985 British Open and 1988 US Masters winner Sandy Lyle, is backed by Thai clothing company, Fenix Golf, and a Korean health food company, Bacchus. “Fenix makes really great golf clothing,” he says. “I’m very impressed with it. I know as a sports attire company, it will go a long way. Scott Hend pictured at the XCite Golf Centre in Bangkok alongside a photo of himself exploding from a bunker. For more information about Asia golf holidays visit our website.