Slattery is keeping it simple to get back in Tour swing

Dec 11 2007 by Richard Williamson, Liverpool Daily Post

LEE SLATTERY has gone back to basics as he aims to reclaim his position among the leading golfers on the European Tour and avoid a repeat of his nerve-wracking end to the gruelling 2007 campaign.

The Southport player suffered the shock of losing his full tour card by less than £50 after a season which started in South Africa and ended 10 months later in Spain.

But the 25-year-old showed all his battling qualities and undoubted golfing skill in bouncing back at the first time of asking when he finished second in the final of the qualifying school to regain his full playing rights for 2008.

Now he aims to confirm the promise he showed in winning the 2004 Challenge Tour to initially burst onto the European scene.

Slattery reeled off seven top-six finishes – including victory in the Telia Grand Prix – in the space of three months to make the leap up.

Twelve months ago Slattery had broken into the top 100 in the Order of Merit after a solid season, which included finishing second at the Madeira Open.

However 2007 proved to be a roller-coaster year for Slattery and the Southport player admits that the constant pressure to make the halfway cut to finish in the money and the fact the battle to retain his card went right down to the last event took its toll.

“When you are not playing well it takes everything you have got just to make the cut,” he explained. “But after that I was losing concentration and falling away in tournaments.”

He now plans to modify his schedule for the next 12 months to strike a balance between chasing results and taking valuable breaks from a demanding programme, which includes up to 52 events and stretches from Australia and China, to South Africa and India – as well as across Europe.

Slattery’s season started promisingly enough in South Africa when he followed up his 25th position at the Alfred Dunhill Championship by finishing in a share of 16th at the South African Airways Open the following week.

He was in the money again at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship and the Dubai Desert Classic, but the way he finished the events hinted at the problems that lay ahead.

In Abu Dhabi he made the halfway cut with rounds of 71 70 to lie in 41st position, but closed out with 76 74 to finish on three over par 291 and last of the 75 players to play all four rounds.

In Dubai the collapse was equally as dramatic. He started with 70 71 for a share of 56th and a place in the weekend action. But he finished 76 83 for a 12-over par 300 total that left him last of the remaining 66 players.

Slattery’s slide continued as the next seven events saw him fail to break 70 in any round and miss the cut at each of them before arresting the slump with a share of 50th at the BMW PGA Championship.

“It was a very difficult time,” Slattery reflected. “When you are not swinging the club well and not feeling right out on the course, it becomes a real grind to try and stay in the money.”

Inevitably when things are not going well, the temptation is to start tinkering with just about every aspect of your game, but it was not until Slattery returned to one of the coaches who had formed his early game – Alan Thompson at Heswall – that his season gained any kind of clarity.

“You do start to look at every aspect of your game when things are not going well – perhaps thinking about things a bit too much,” added Slattery, who is grateful for the continuing support of sponsors Yorkshire Bank and Lechler Coatings. “In the end I decided to go back to Alan Thompson, who really simplified everything for me.

“I wanted to swing like I had done during my time on the Challenge Tour because I felt that was the best spell of my career. Everything I worked on with Alan was very simple, but it felt right for me very quickly. I had worked with him when I was starting out again after a bout of glandular fever had halted my golf and I was working in Next as a shop assistant.