Simon Dyson on his career, coaching the next generation and would he have taken the LIV money

Dyson managed it six times on the European Tour, three times more on the Asian Tour as a young golfer trying to find his way in the world.

Nearly a quarter of a century on Dyson is a forty–something trying to find a path in his professional life off the course.

The 45-year-old from York has done media work – most notably with Sky on the EuroPro Tour last year – set up his own coaching company and still remains active in the sport that he gave so much to and that rewarded him in equal measure.

But four years on from accepting that after wrist surgery he was no longer the same golfer he once was, Dyson still gets the competitive pangs from time to time.

“When I first stopped, the Abu Dhabi tournament was one I used to love playing, and I sat down to watch it on the Thursday morning and the realisation hit me that I wasn’t going to play that one again,” Dyson tells The Yorkshire Post.

“I had a couple of years where I didn’t miss it, and then I’ve started to miss it again.

“I loved Thursday mornings, knowing there was a new tournament, another chance to compete.

“I just loved competing, and that was it. And when I couldn’t compete any longer that’s when the hunger faded, unfortunately.

“I came back from having wrist surgery and I just wasn’t the same player. I couldn’t commit to the shots and I just wasn’t enjoying it as much any more because I was working twice as hard as I ever had done.

“I’d always been one of those players who worked hard and saw results, all of a sudden I’m working twice as hard and seeing no results.

“It was quite demoralising really.”

It was while trying to rediscover his game on the Challenge Tour in 2018 that Dyson – who won events as prestigious as the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the Irish Open, as well as winning the KLM Open three times in six years – made the transition into the second phase of his golfing life.

“I’m watching these lads on the driving range thinking ‘God they flush it’. Then I’d look at their scores and they’re shooting 77,78s,” he says.

“It got me thinking that I could really help someone like that, so that’s why I got into the coaching side.”

Dyson works with everyone from professionals trying to make their way in the game to 10 handicappers.

“A lot of them are already good players so I try and help with their mindset, I do a bit with them in the gym,” says Dyson, who worked under renowned golf coach Pete Cowen for the entirety of his career.

“When you’re working with somebody you can see the bad shot they’ve got in them, so we look at it in the gym because if they’re restricted with a certain movement they’re never going to be able to correct the swing.

“So we have a look at that, help them with exercises, get them back on the range and then help them understand that gym work is absolutely crucial, because a lot of them don’t bother doing it.

“I worked hard during my career, but I worked smart. I didn’t batter ball after ball until my hands were red raw, I did a lot of it in the gym, I looked after myself a lot.

“So I put the players through a 15–, 16–move process to work on what they’re not very good at because I know before they even go on the range what is holding them back. It helps them understand it.

“A lot of it is golf strategy. I had a lad in today who’s played a bit on the Asian Development Tour and Clutch. We get on one hole and he picks driver out, and I say ‘you don’t need that – we’ve worked for four months on 80 to 120 yards, get your four iron out’.

“So he hits this four iron, flushed it down the middle, left him 110 yards, he hits that to four feet and makes the birdie. That is stress–free golf, playing to your strengths.

“Then I’ll get a 10–handicapper coming and after a month’s work I don’t see him for six months because we’ve fixed him, but that’s the way I want it, I don’t want them coming every week.

“I’m enjoying it and it comes natural to me. I feel like I’ve got a good eye for the game.

“Pete kept it so simple with me, and I try to do exactly the same with the people who come to me.”

Dyson has purposely chosen not to seek too much counsel from Cowen because he wants to do it his own way, but he plans to watch his old mentor in action at the LIV Series event in Orlando later this month, which brings us on to the topic that has driven a wedge through men’s golf.

Dyson, who might have been a target for LIV had he still been playing, is open-minded about the impact the controversial Saudi Arabia–backed tour is having on golf.

“I can see it from all aspects,” he says. “Everyone has got a price, it’s another tour – let’s look at it from a collective of golf, and it hasn’t done golf any harm. It’s shaken things up, there’s more money on the LIV tour but also more money on the PGA Tour as a consequence.

“With European Tour events now co-sanctioned with PGA Tour all of a sudden there’s more chance for European Tour players to play on the PGA Tour.

“There’s now a stepping stone to earn that better money on the PGA Tour where all these want to be, so it hasn’t done those players any harm.

“You look at all sport – Ladies European Tour has the Saudi-backed Aramco Team Series, you’ve got Newcastle United, Formula One, boxing, but because something brand new and different has come to golf it’s getting scrutinised.

“I think if they can start working together then there’s a place for everyone.”

If, hypothetically, LIV had have come for him, as they successfully did with his contemporaries like Ian Poulter and Richard Bland, what would the Yorkshireman have done?

“I’d have given it a lot of thought,” admits, who won nearly £10m in prize money during his career. “The worry for me is they’ve been paid that much up front, is the hunger still there? With Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas and players like that, the hunger is clearly still there.

“Whereas you look at a couple of these other lads who have gone to LIV, their performance has dropped.

“If you finish dead last on the LIV every week, you’re still going to earn $2m every year. There’s some who were never on a leaderboard and earned $8m. What a great decision to go; enjoying their golf, not playing as much as they did, having given 20–odd years to the PGA Tour. Now all of a sudden they’ve earned $8m.”

While he sees the benefits to the game – more money, another tour for the young players he is teaching to make a good living off – he worries about the repercussions for the European Tour, now the DP World Tour, where he has such fond memories.

“It is not as strong as it was 10, 15 years ago, and never will be again unfortunately,” says Dyson.

“I remember winning the Dunhill Links, I played with Darren Clarke in the second–to–last group and the last group was Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald – and I beat them.

“The final time I won KLM, I played with Dave Horsey and Rory in the last group and beat them. You were playing against really top quality players.

“I don’t think it will get that strong again unfortunately. One of the reasons why is they’re going to lose 10 of their best players each year to the PGA Tour, which is a weird one for me.

“It becomes a feeder circuit. Keith Pelley (DP World Tour chief executive), as good a job as he has done bringing in different formats, he said it’s not a feeder tour, but how is it not if you’re losing your 10 best players every year?

“If you win a Rolex event now it’s classed as a joint–sanctioned event with the PGA Tour that gets you a card in America, so there’s another three places that are gone.

“It’s a shame they’ve had to do that.”

For Dyson, now, he has to content himself with watching on from afar, coaching the next generation, taking the media opportunities when they come, and getting those competitive juices flowing whenever he has the opportunity.

“I played a couple of events last year, a 2020protour event at Moortown and won it, which made me think maybe my game’s not as far off as I thought it was,” he smiles, ruefully. “I still enjoy competing. I want to stay fit, I want to stay competitive, because I want to play Seniors in a few years’ time. I’m 45, I don’t feel it, so why not?”