PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA | If you are a keen follower of professional golf in the U.S. and the name Marco Penge has not fully entered your golfing knowledge, then don’t feel as though you have made a mistake. You have not been asleep at the wheel. There are many in Britain, where Penge, 27, was born, who might not immediately recognise his name or his golfing exploits either.
It’s not because he has done nothing to be remembered. Rather it is because he has done so much in such a short space of time. In 2023 he finished No. 1 on the order of merit for the HotelPlanner Tour, one of the minor pro golf tours run by the DP World Tour. This was good enough to elevate him to membership of the DPWT.
Last year his three victories in seven months on that tour – in the Hainan Classic, the Danish Golf Championship and then the Spanish Open – nearly won him the prestigious Race to Dubai. In the end, though beaten by Rory McIlroy, his second-place finish gained him one of 10 spots available to DPWT members not otherwise qualified on the PGA Tour.
Competing on the U.S. tour this year, he made his mark by leading the field after two rounds at the Genesis Invitational tournament at historic Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles and now, at the start of the Players Championship, he is ranked 38th in the world.
As if all that were not enough, he recently moved his wife and children from England to Jupiter, Florida, and is settling himself and them into a new way of life. “Moving my family over was a challenge,” he admitted on Wednesday morning as he sat in a director’s chair on a back lawn at the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse, ready and willing to be grilled by journalists. The Wednesday morning grilling is a tradition for those making their debuts at the Players Championship. He looked completely at ease, suntanned, softly spoken and far from overawed, as if, in fact, he had been born in this country.
One more thing. He had missed competing in the two PGA Tour events before this week’s because he and his wife, Sophie, a retired professional golfer herself, have had an addition to their family, a second son named Romeo. “Getting much sleep?” he was asked as he settled back into his chair. He grinned. The question hardly needed to be answered.
“[Over here] is everything I have dreamed of in terms of playing,” he continued. Looking around and gesticulating at the surroundings, he said, “I am super excited to be playing here in front of a large crowd. It would have been nice to have a little warm up heading into this week but sometimes in life you don’t get a choice and lately there have been things that are more important than golf. I’ve had to be there for my wife and my family. It’s been pretty rough to be fair so golf has been a little on the back seat. With where my game is right now on Wednesday morning I feel pretty confident with where it’s at. A little break has been a good thing.”
He said how helpful other European players had been as he found his feet in a new country on a new continent. “If there is anything I want to talk about they are there to support me. It’s obviously very different to playing on the DPWT and living in the country I was born in. I probably still haven’t settled in properly. I’m enjoying the challenge, enjoying these amazing golf courses. To have played at Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines, Cypress Point, here, pretty surreal. Part of growing as a player and I am enjoying the challenge. The list of courses I have played already and we are only at the start of March is pretty crazy. I am very lucky to be in the position I am in.”
Penge was very good very young and now after his helter-skelter upward rise to becoming a legitimate member of the PGA Tour’s elite, he feels as though it is no more than where he belongs. There is an attractive lack of modesty, a degree of quiet self-confidence, in his answer when he says: “I feel this is where I belong, where I was always destined to be.
“Every area of your game is under pressure over here,” he continued. “I find in Europe you can get away with a couple of areas of your game being not so great. This week is a perfect example. You’ve got to hit it straight off the tee. If it’s not on the fairway it is a bit of a waste of time. If you’re missing the greens you’re going to find it tough to get up and down and if you do hit the greens you could leave yourself a downhill, across-the-slope putt. Approach putt needs to be good, holing out. It’s a real test, every area. That’s the part I am enjoying. Definitely highlighted areas of my game that need to be better and parts of my game that are definitely good enough to be playing against the best guys. I am trying to improve and learn from the best.
“I dream of courses like this in the condition they are in. It’s an experience I should only get better from.
“What I’m not liking missing is having a little stroll around a city every week, like Rome or London. Different over here. It’s not that I am not liking it here. I love it. Turning right on red light is great.”