With professional golf tours temporarily shut-down due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, many golfers are using their down-time to do something productive – and England’s Paul Waring is no exception.
The 35-year-old is holed up at his home in Wirral and has been brushing up on his DIY skills in his garage, redesigning his practice facility.
“This has taken up all my time so far,” he reports from his Birkenhead base. “It’s involved everything from joinery, electrics, plumbing and plastering. I think after doing all this I feel like I could be a builder if I wasn’t a golfer! I’ve integrated a laundry room into the space with some extra storage above it so it’s all neat and tidy now.”
Waring produced one of the feel-good stories of the 2018 European Tour season with a breakthrough victory at the Nordea Masters in Sweden in what was his 200th competitive start on the circuit and he’s missing the intensity of competition after a mixed start to his 2020 campaign.
“I really miss competing at the moment,” he says. “There’s no feeling like the adrenaline you get when you’re competing, be it challenging to win a tournament or battling to make a cut.
“I started the year well with a 12th place finish in Abu Dhabi, but followed that with two missed cuts at the Dubai Desert Classic and Saudi International.”
“I then had good spells in Oman to finish 25th but had to pull out of the Qatar Masters the following week with a neck injury. It was an up and down start to the season to say the least.” – Paul Waring
Waring’s handiwork might be to his benefit in the long run as an improved practice space should give him the best opportunity to hit the ground running when the European Tour springs back into action – even if the timescale for a return is currently unknown.
“It’s difficult at the moment to say what tournaments will fit where during the remainder of this year as we have no idea when we can start playing again,” he says. “Hopefully it’s sooner rather than later but everybody’s health is far more important than us playing golf tournaments.”
