Andrew Dodt: Europe Bound

BY Anthony Powter | 01 Mar 2010

As a four-year-old playing with his father around Gatton Golf Club, west of Brisbane, Andrew Dodt was bitten with the golf bug. As the years passed Dodt grew bigger and so did his dreams that he’d one day walk the fairways on the world’s biggest tours.

Now these dreams have become a reality for the 24-year-old following his maiden professional tour win with the Avantha Masters earlier last month on the European Tour. The win in India has Dodt’s playing rights guaranteed in Europe for more than two years and in the process has secured Dodt’s immediate playing future on the world’s second biggest tour.

Dodt’s impressive rounds of 67-68-71-68 (-14) at the Avantha Masters, in only his eighth co-sanction European Tour event, followed his New Zealand Open runner-up performance in January and a seventh placing at the Moonah Classic. The win in India was perfect timing as Dodt’s recent form, both in New Zealand and Australia, had made it become more a case of “when”, as opposed to “if”, a tour victory would fall to one of Australia’s emerging golfing talents.

After two years as a professional following a stellar amateur career that included wins in the 2007 Australian Amateur Stroke Play and Keperra Bowl, Dodt had quickly forged his way onto one of the world’s main golfing tour stages.

Dodt’s elevation to the European Tour is a product of sheer consistency on the road, as well as pure determination. He’s made his own fortune and his poised to take full advantage of what’s on offer.

“It’s always nice to get a win early in a season as it opens so many doors,” says Dodt, who currently tops the Asian Order of Merit with just over E$347,000, and is more than E$230,000 ahead of his nearest rival, Japan’s Tetsuji Hiratsuka.

“I’ve now had to re-examine my playing schedule, which in itself is a good thing. I’ve got just over two and a half years playing rights in Europe, so Europe is going to obviously be my immediate term focus.”

The signs of a promising professional career have always been there for Dodt. Even as an amateur Dodt’s scoring consistency in tournament play had raised the Queenslander above the bar of other promising amateurs of his era.

It stood Dodt out from the pack of the likes of Tim Stewart, Aaron Pike, Josh Younger and Rohan Blizard, with Matthew Griffin and Rick Kulacz the possible exceptions. Both Griffin and Kulacz have also made their respective inroads in Asia, Kulacz already a dural winner in Asia, while Griffin won early in his career in Fiji.

Dodt’s consistency was exhibited no more so when he won the Australian Amateur Stroke Play Championship over Scott Arnold at NSW Golf Club in horrendous conditions back in 2007. Since then Dodt has gone from strength to strength and he’s made the difficult transition from top-line amateur golf to the professional arena in a seamless and efficient manner.

In his rookie professional season in Asia during 2008, Dodt recorded six top-10 finishes, which included a runner-up result at the Vietnam Masters where he lost in a play-off. In 2009, Dodt fired even better with another top-10 finish at the Macau Open and the cash-rich Barclays Singapore Open, as well as a top-20 in the Black Mountain Masters and Worldwide Holdings Selangor Masters. Dodt would eventually finish 15th on the Order of Merit for the 2009 season.

“My game is ready to move to the next stage,” said Dodt yesterday before heading back to the Asian Tour to play the Malaysian Open.

“During the last two years in Asia, I’ve learned how to prepare for golf tournaments and get use to life on the road. We are working on trying to get possibly five starts with sponsor invites this season on the US PGA Tour, but I’ll be mainly focusing upon Europe until the end of the year.”

It is interesting that Dodt has only played in Europe on a handful of occasions, each time he was an amateur. Despite this lack of preparation, Dodt is not phased with the challenges that Europe will dish out.

“It’s already been as dream start to the year,” he says.

“Like anything you do for the first time, playing in Europe is certainly going to be a challenge. But I’m up to it and looking forward to it.”

Dodt is a grinder on the course. Methodical at times, even to the point that it’s obvious to any outsider that he works his trade within his own cocoon and self discipline and oblivious to outside distractions. There’s nothing wrong with such an approach, you only have to watch many of the world’s best to see similar traits and it’s and approach which is certainly working for Dodt.

“My mental side of my game it pretty strong,” he says.

“I’ve worked hard on that side of my game during the later part of last year. It’s been really solid and I’ve been managing to keep my composure and play one shot at a time and it’s all kind of fallen into place on the course.”

Dodt’s mental resolve is certainly solid. He takes set backs as being part and parcel of the profession and life on tour. It was only last November that he left the US gutted after missing second stage of the PGA Tour School. For many players PGA Q-School is often seen as the “make or break” period of their career. Dodt, however, simply moved with the times and took a valuable lesson from the overall experience.

This approach will serve him well in Europe, considered by many as the hardest world tour to make a living from.

“You see some guys out there and they are taking it so seriously,” said Dodt to me just before PGA Q-School in California.

“The trick is you just have to treat it like any other week and don’t try and over prepare for it. Even if I do not get through second stage, there are lots of other opportunities for me back in Australian and Asia.”

In perspective and with the fruition of time, Dodt’s comments would turn out to be so true.

Within a period of just three months since the obvious disappointments in California, Dodt has secured his full playing privileges in Europe and Asia and in the process guaranteed his immediate professional future. Dodt clearly appreciates the enormity of his good fortune. Fortune that he himself was responsible for and created.

This week Dodt will play the US$2 million Malaysian Open at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club and is looking for back-to-back victories in Asia and to rejuvenate found memories and snatch a unique Malaysian double.

Dodt was the winner of the Malaysian Amateur Championship back in 2006.

“Hopefully, I can continue with the consistency that has been with me lately,” he says.

“I guess there will be a few more eyes now watching me, but I just want to keep playing well and see how it goes over the next twelve months in Europe. It’s been a dream run of late and I could not have asked for anything better.”

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