One name jumped out at me as I scrolled through last year’s DP World Tour Q-School scores – that of Sam Hutsby, who got through all three stages to claim the 13th card. Why? Well, 13 years ago he came through Q-School for the 2010 season, during which he proudly displayed the Golf Monthly logo on his bag.
Success seemed a near certainty. Hutsby had peaked at number three in the amateur rankings and played the Walker Cup in 2009 a few months after Matteo Manassero pipped him to the Amateur Championship. But it didn’t quite happen. He played steadily enough in 2010, making 19 cuts out of 27, but missed out on retaining his card by one place.
After a few years flitting between tours, he dropped off the main tour in 2015 and the Challenge Tour in 2018, seemingly for good. But then he reappeared last year with a handful of Challenge Tour starts, in which he twice finished top six.
I caught up with Hutsby a few weeks into his first
