Broadhurst has Finally Made It

It has taken some time, it has, but English veteran Paul Broadhurst has finally made it into his first World Golf Championships event. He's set to make his debut tomorrow (Wednesday) in the first round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play championship at La Costa against the No 3 seed, Retief Goosen. Both four and five years ago the 40-year-old former Ryder Cup star was fighting for his future at the European Tour qualifying school and wondering what he would do if he did not survive the ordeal. At the second attempt he managed to make it back onto the circuit, however, and now Broadhurst is part of the elite 64-man field at La Costa competing for a first prize of £745,000. He is one of 17 Europeans taking part, but the only one making his WGC debut. It is a story of triumph over adversity, but the experience did not feel very special on the journey across the Atlantic this weekend. "I left home at 11am on Saturday and got here 4pm Sunday," said the Warwickshire player, trying to shake off the effects of jet-lag. "I sat on the plane at Heathrow for four-and-three-quarter hours before they announced they were cancelling the flight because of computer problems. "I ended up going back home, but then getting up at 3.30am on Sunday to drive back to London and have another delay of one hour. "Then when we got to Los Angeles the connecting flight to San Diego was delayed for an hour as well. "Because I have not played for two weeks, the plan was to get out early and get some work done. But I did not have time to do anything Sunday and my first practice round was a bit of a shocker." There is the obvious danger that the event could be a very short one for him - what with Goosen waiting for him in Wednesday's opening round. Amazingly, apart from an unofficial event in Ireland over a decade ago, this is the first time Broadhurst has played match play since 1991. That was the year he made his one and only Ryder Cup appearance, winning both his games at Kiawah Island, and then represented England in the Dunhill Cup. He has played only a handful of tournaments in America during his career and his only two majors other than the Open, where he equalled the major record with a 63 at St Andrews in 1990, were the US Open and USPGA nine years ago. Since the trauma of dropping out off the European Tour and then having to battle to resurrect his career at it's Q-school Broadhurst has had a new lease of life. His victory in last April's Portuguese Open was his first for 10 years, he earned over £625,000 for 22nd place on the Order of Merit and with a runners-up finish to Henrik Stenson in Qatar last month his world ranking is now at what he believes is an all-time high - he is also currently in 10th place in the Ryder Cup race. If he can climb into the top 50 it will open even more doors - such as the Masters at Augusta in April It would be a brilliant achievement to earn a second Ryder Cup cap 15 years after his first, but he says: "I think you have got to be playing all the big events to have a chance really and I am not in a lot of them yet. "I have asked for an invitation to the Bay Hill Invitational (in Florida next month), but I don't know whether I will get it. "It all gets so much more complicated when you play well! When you are a bit lower down the rankings you just get the European Tour schedule and decide where you want to go." Broadhurst could have played in the USPGA last August, but the father-of-four turned it down because he had already organised a family holiday to Florida to mark his 40th birthday. Thanks to the fact he has continued to play well, though, another chance of success on the world stage has arrived this week. And Goosen or no Goosen, he is determind to make something of it.