AAs a professional golfer, no matter what the outcome, it is always important to see the positive. Matthias “Matti” Schmid missed the cut at the Porsche European Open in Winsen (Luhe) last year. This year, on the other hand, he is allowed to play on weekends. “That’s progress,” said the 24-year-old from Maxhütte-Haidhof. It didn’t bother the man, who has been praised as Germany’s greatest talent for years, that after a brilliant opening round of 70 strokes on Friday, he slipped down quite a bit from eleventh place with 75 strokes.
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Although on Friday, in contrast to the previous day, there was largely no wind and the sun was shining at 21 degrees, things didn’t go quite as planned for Schmid. “The course is difficult even without wind, especially since the flag positions were much more difficult today. But my game wasn’t quite as good as yesterday. My tee shots were bad at first, but got better over the second nine holes. But my God, we still have two days,” said Schmid.
Because only one thing counted for him: After he had only finished 125th place at the Dutch Open in Cromvoirt after halftime in the previous week and had to leave, he was allowed to show his class to the many German fans in the Lüneburg Heath on the extreme over the Pentecost weekend show the long and difficult North Course of the Green Eagle Golf Courses.
Schmid enjoys the home game: “It’s fun when so many fans accompany you on the lap.” As it should be, the new crowd favorite dutifully gave autographs after the lap. Maybe that’s why he’s looking forward to the weekend full of optimism: “You can catch up a lot of shots on this course,” said Schmid, “on a good day you can also play five or six shots under par here.”
For Schmid, this seems the ideal framework for ending a small, mini-crisis. In the current DP World Tour ranking (73) and in the world ranking list (229), Schmid is not listed as the best among the German tour newcomers. The reason is easy to explain: In addition to the missed cut in the Netherlands, it was only enough for places 37, 110, 63 and 30 in the last four tournaments. This may surprise some fans, because after all Schmid was followed by the DP World Tour last year Martin Kaymer (2007) was the second German to be named “Rookie of the Year”.
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But for a professional golfer who knows what he’s capable of, nothing to worry about. “Such phases are normal in professional golf,” says Schmid. His manager Irek Myskow sees no reason to change anything either. In addition, Schmid has had an experienced man at his side since last year. Michael Waite, nicknamed “Sponge”, is considered one of the top caddies in the business. The Englishman helped Michael Campbell defeat Tiger Woods at the US Open in 2005.
An idol for generations
The superstar was Schmid’s great idol from an early age, as he was for whole generations of golfers. Because his father worked as a golf instructor at the Schmidhausen Golf and Country Club and assembled his first clubs at the age of four, the boy always had time to practice from an early age, while his father taught hobby golfers.
“Matti” already managed his first hole-in-one or ace at the age of seven, by the time he was eleven he had reached a handicap of 4.8 that more than 95 percent of amateur golfers can only dream of. The ideal basis for achieving things, both as an amateur and when switching to the professional camp, that no German before him had achieved. He won the European Amateur Championships twice in a row (2019, 2020), only the second German after Stephan Gross from Heidelberg (2008) to secure this most important European title.
While Gross, after qualifying directly for the European Tour, never returned to his old class and now works in his father’s company, Schmid seems to be following the path that one of his role models outlined. Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy won the 2006 European Amateur Championships at the age of fifteen and rose to become one of the best in the business. Even as an amateur, Schmid was able to keep up with the best in the world.
Last year he made the cut in his last appearance as a hobby player at the British Open, finished 59th and was awarded the “Silver Medal” for best amateur. Turning professional right after that coup, it only took him seven tournaments to earn full DP World Tour eligibility. For an exceptional talent like Schmid, it’s not about securing his job in the next few weeks, as is the case for many climbers. His goal after narrowly missing out on second place at the Dutch Open: to win a tournament.
