Exclusive: Simon Dyson is back!!!

Six time European Tour winner and all round golfing good guy is finally fit after suffering from a costly wrist injury back in March last year. Last week he played his first professional tournament since his injury. This week he's at it again.

A few days before Christmas, he met up with Gorgeous George to talk fitness training with a rugby team, one armed practice, and new years resolutions...

"Ouch! I wish they would stop making this rough so thick, it's making my wrist ache!"

Mr Dyson, how have you been keeping?

Yeah good thanks! I’ve been keeping alright. It’s been a weird time though. I mean for the 16 years that I’ve been on tour, it’s comfortably the longest period off that I’ve had. Before this injury, I always thought that four weeks was a long time to have off, and all of a sudden I’ve played two rounds of golf in nine months! So just very strange, but to be honest, really nice at the same time. Don’t get me wrong I’ve really missed the game, really missed it. But I suppose it’s just given me the chance to put everything in perspective you know. As much as I love the sport, and yeah it pays the bills and all that, I have loved being at home with my family, absolutely loved it.

Having a young family, you must have seen this as an opportunity to catch up on what time the tour has taken away from you?

Well yeah, my daughter is turning four in March. I’d said to her this year because she obviously starts school next year, that I wanted to take her out on tour with me a bit more. But then I had my injury so I’ve not had the chance to do that, but like I say it’s been great. We’ve all got on great, and I feel like a have a real relationship with my daughter now, which is something I never had being on tour so much, and her being so young. So like I say, it’s put everything into perspective.

So you’ve been out for 9 months, you must be rearing to get Christmas and New Year out of the way and get back to doing what you do best?

Yes and no really, it will be really nice spending Christmas with family, she kinda gets it this year (the little one). It’s really exciting, living near Manchester Airport you can see the aeroplanes and every time ones taking off or landing, as you can imagine she think its Santa. But as for golf, I’m really ready to get out there and get cracking now.

While you’ve been away what have you missed about not only the game, but the whole tournament lifestyle?

Nothing.

Really?

Nothing whatsoever from the tournament lifestyle. Spending so much time at home it’s made me realise that it’s not that nice being away all the time. Being at airports, being on a plane, travelling, you know. It will be very different going out on January the 1^st after having spent so much time at home. I’m playing twice in SA, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, so I have four weeks in Dubai, and then I will be meeting my family there. It’s going to be very strange, but I’ve got to do it. Until you actually get into Europe, the tour is really difficult. After Dubai I have a week off, then it’s off to Malaysia then Perth, Thailand, then India and it’s just like wow! Non-stop. My Emirates air miles are going to take a hammering there!

We know it’s probably something you’re trying to forget about now, but can you give us the real bare bones (sorry) of the injury? When it happened? Operations etc etc...

Well I remember it well, I was at Pete Cowen’s academy, and he got me hitting shots with just my left arm. It was about mid-March and he had showed me the new DST Compressor, you know the one with the bent shaft? So I was hitting balls just left handed, whilst he was telling me: “that’s the feeling you wanna get”. After 10 or 12 balls I said to him, I’m going to have to stop, my wrist is quite sore. But, I never thought anything of it, stopped, and just went back to hitting balls normally. Then 2 days later I was playing golf with Paul Scholes of all people at Worsley Park. 5^th hole, I hit a 3wood from the fairway and halfway down my backswing I thought I’d broken my wrist. The pain was just unbelievable. So I went to hit my next shot, and it just did the same. That’s when I knew something was seriously wrong. So, I walked in and got myself booked into the Alexandra with Mike Haton who’s a wrist specialist the following day. He had a proper look and told me to rest it, but for a month really nothing changed. So I went to play in Spain on his advice of just strapping it up, and after 1 round it had completely gone again. Then, I had a cortisone injection a week before Wentworth because Mike was reluctant to operate too soon. I went to play the Irish Open the week after and it just went again. So that was it, after a month on the side-lines I went under the knife, and what had actually happened was that the sub-sheet that goes over the tendon holding everything in place, had totally snapped. I remember Mike telling me when he opened it up: “it’s worse than I thought”. But luckily it was an easy fix.

We've always been a fan of Dyson's on-course clobber. Keep up the good work. 

So no more left-handed practice?

Well my left arm is so weak it’s frightening, its really weird how weak it is. I can hit like 50 – 60 yard pitch shots like that but I couldn’t grab a driver and give it a rip. But that’s a good drill to start building everything up. My wrist feels really tight compared to what it was before, but it will never go again which puts my mind at rest. And I’m hitting my irons brilliant at the minute, but with my driver I’m just finding it really hard to commit 100%. It’s just a case of easing into it.

You mentioned your family, but what else have you been up to keep yourself from going insane during such a long period away from the game? Found any new hobbies?

I have! Luckily one of my friends – Steve Diamond, is the director of Sale Sharks. Which you might be surprised to hear is a rugby team, and he’s been letting me train with the team. The minute my cast came off my wrist I went to see their fitness team and they set me up with a programme to build my strength up. But whilst I was doing that, I was doing leg weights and rotational stuff too…

I was going to say; surely scrums and tries aren’t the best cure for a wrist operation?  

(Laughs) I was just in the gym. But I feel great and the stuff they had me doing was brilliant, I’ve absolutely loved it. Then in August, I went to America and did my TPI and got my level one fitness qualification in just four days, which was great too.

Bloody hell stop, your making us feel guilty.  

I feel great mate, honestly! Now I know that Christmas can be quite boozy but I’ve made sure that mine isn’t, because when I was in my cast I had nothing else to do really, the weather was good so the inevitable happened… the barbeque came out and so as you can imagine, that was a quite boozy period instead.

Nothing wrong with that…

Well, I didn’t go mad it was just a few barbeques you know, friends round that sort of thing. I told myself that as soon as my cast comes off, that would be it. All I would be doing is concentrating on my golf and getting 100% fit. So yeah, staying flexible, doing loads of chipping and putting, so it’s been good.

How’s things with the flat stick holding up then, because obviously that’s all about keeping your wrists out of it?

Putting is fine. Well its been all about the positioning of my wrist, so after a certain amount of time it starts to ache, but I’ve been practicing for about twenty minutes at a time. With chipping, like all my other clubs I had to start off a tee just because I didn’t want to be hitting the ground. Then when I got to hit full rescues and hybrids, I then started hitting balls off the deck. Which has helped even more, stopping me flicking my wrists through the shot. Touch wood, I’ve felt nothing at all and my wrist feels good.

It sounds like a more serious injury than we all thought then?

Too right!! If somebody would have told me when I had my surgery, you still won’t be 100% in 6 months I’d have said: “yeah, give over.” I didn’t think what I’d had done was that much of a big deal, but after 8 weeks in a cast, just realising how weak my wrist had become was scary. I had to literally teach my hand how to grip properly again. There was just no rotation at all. I was given a load of exercises to do, and I remember thinking: my God, I could do 100s of these. Then the physio said: “make sure you don’t do more than 20 a day”. Being sat there, doing 20 mundane exercises a day for four weeks on the spin, (seriously deep breath) it was SO frustrating!

Having gone through all this, has it changed your outlook as a golfer? Will you enjoy playing tournament golf even more than ever now?

(Without having a chance to even think about finishing my question….) MASSIVELY, massively. I did an interview the other day for the York Evening Press, and I said to them that around two years ago I could have quite easily walked away from the game. With everything that had happened, I just wasn’t enjoying it. I wasn’t seeing my daughter grow up. When you’re putting in so much effort, I was just banging my head against a wall, having ten different thoughts over every golf shot. It was like “What are you doing to yourself?!” Really not good mate. Then, all of a sudden I have just had 9 months off, my heads as clear as a bell, I’m pretty fit, well really fit. I’m just going to go in and try to enjoy it. What’s the worst that can happen?

Dys, your only allowed one set of clubs mate...

Top. Man. So what’s your first tournament back?

I’m playing the BMW SA Open, 7^th January.

Bloody hell, so not far away at all then. Nervous? Excited?

No, I’m not nervous at all. It’s weird because I’m going into it with no real expectations, BUT, obviously I’ve got personal expectations because I’ve just put in so much time and effort off the golf course. You know, it will only be a matter of time before it clicks, and who knows? It might all click the first week.

So a lot has happened since you’ve been away. One of those things being the second coming of ‘The Big 3’ – Day, Spieth and McIlroy. Coming back from such a long period off, do you feel at all intimidated by them? Were you watching last year’s majors thinking you had some serious catching up to do?

No, not really mate. Because it’s not how good they are, it’s just how consistently good they are. That’s the difference. They have a bad day, they shoot level par. They have a good day, they shoot eight under.

Knowing that, does it effect how you approach a tournament?

No, because it’s nice to see people doing so well. McIlroy has done brilliantly. He’s a lovely lad. Jason Day has done awwwwesome, with everything he went through in his upbringing. And Spieth, I could watch Spieth all day. He’s just like a typical 1980s golfer, simple but just so effective. I love watching all 3 and they are all very different. Two power-houses and one short game wizard. It’s great to watch, and I just think you’ve got to learn from it. You know, really sit and think what are they doing so well? I remember watching when Thomas Bjorn when he was on an unbelievable run, and I started to realise every time he made a mistake he recovered from it brilliantly. It’s just all about learning from the guys who are doing well.

Regarding the fine and suspended ban that you were given at the BMW Masters back in 2013. When you look back, do you feel anger or frustration or do you just see it as something that could have happened to anyone?

I don’t really think anything about it anymore. I mean, it’s funny, I was at the top of the amateur game for four years, then I’ve been on tour for 16 years, and that’s the only thing that I’ve ever done wrong. At the end of the day mate, I’m the only one who knows what was going through my head when it happened, and I know it wasn’t intentional. I also think the panel knew that, and that’s why they didn’t properly ban me in the end. They could see, hang on, this lads been on tour 15 years, and he’s never been caught doing anything remotely like that. People still bring it up in the wrong light now, and you’re just like: “why are you talking about it like that? It’s three years ago!” But some people have nothing better to do I suppose. Put it this way, I found out who my friends were.

And….?

This one didn’t surprise me because I’ve always got on well with him, but McIlroy was great. He came over to me in Abu Dhabi and just put his arm around me and we had a little chat. That meant a lot. I knew my closest friends would be fine, because they know me, they know who I am and that I’ve just simply not been brought up that way. I would rather give someone an advantage than rather sneak it off them. I work far too hard to be that stupid. That’s how I see it and if anyone wants to see it differently, that’s up to them.

Well it sounds like you’re in good place. Have you sat down and thought about some realistic targets for 2016, and even 2017?

I haven’t really set out any big targets. I’ve had a few thoughts, but I’ve got my old caddy back as well, which I’m absolutely buzzing about!

With his best mate back on the bag, Dyson's thinking about winning again

Guy Tilston?

Yeah! Don’t get me wrong I’ve had a couple of good caddies since but, something was just missing. We just got on so well and we won six times in six years. Then unfortunately I was out injured and he went to work for Marcel Siem, and he just said I want to stay with him, that was it. It was a shock. The next thing you know, I was comparing all my other caddies to Guy and they just didn’t compare. Then, I found out he had split with Marcel about three months ago, so I spoke to my wife, my manager and my coach, and they all said it’s a no brainer - give him a ring. I got a text off him two weeks later saying: “Let’s crack on.” Buzzing.

And your targets now you’re back with Guy?

Yeah well, I’ve got a few rough ideas but we will sit down together and just get things in writing, and say: “These are our goals, by the end of the race to Dubai, what have we achieved.” I haven’t done that for ages, and I think you need it. You need to have positive, realistic goals. I used to do it, then I won and I’d think oh I’m playing mint I don’t need them, which is wrong. I just think I got a little complacent. So to answer your question, I think I’ll play 30 tournaments, and I think that I want roughly six top tens. So you’re looking at one every five weeks.

GolfPunk likes the sound of that Simon. Happy New Year! It’s great to have you back Sir.

Cheers! It’s funny how it changes though, I’m still the same player and still the same person, but now I have my caddie back on board, I’m fit, and I have a clear head, I’m thinking about winning again. I’ve really got that winning frame of mind, instead of going out there just to make up the numbers.

Dys, keep on keeping yourself nice. 

 

Related to this article

Simon Dyson Takes the Biscuit Tin Challenge