When you get to a certain vintage, everything can become a bit of a hassle. The rigmarole, for instance, of catching a flight and muddling through the associated palavers, plooters, faffs and footers can often generate the kind of turbulent groan that would have fellow plane passengers adopting the brace position.
Golfers, on the other hand, are made of sterner stuff. He may be inching towards his half century, but David Drysdale’s energy and enthusiasm for the profession that is his passion remains undiminished.
“We got home from a flight from Florida on Saturday, unpacked, packed again and got on to a flight to Hong Kong the next morning,” he said of the here, there and everywhere whirl that’s par for the course in this business.
“You’re in the door and out again. After 25 years of this, I know what I’m doing. And I still love it. I’m kind of numb to all the travel, it doesn’t bother me. This is all I know and all I’ve done.”
Drysdale is certainly not done and dusted either. He may be struggling to retain his Asian Tour card – this week’s Hong Kong Open is his penultimate event of the campaign - but the prospect of a new lease of golfing life on the senior scene is keeping the competitive fires stoked.
Last week in Tampa, the intrepid Drysdale negotiated his way over the first hurdle of the Champions’ Tour’s qualifying school process. The 2025 over-50s circuit in the US will offer total prize money of around $70 million, the highest in its 45-year history.
Earing the lucrative opportunity to dip your bread in that sloshing gravy boat, though, won’t be easy. Only five players earn cards at the forthcoming q-school final.
“It’s ridiculous really,” said Drysdale of a daunting task that’s akin to breaking into Fort Knox with a spurtle. “It’s probably the toughest q-school of the lot. But I’ll give it my best shot.”
The safety net, of course, is the Legends Tour on this side of the pond. As a stalwart of the regular DP World Tour for over two decades, Drysdale will have an exemption for the golden oldies circuit in Europe when he turns 50 in March. Just where did the time go?
“I can’t believe I’m nearly 50,” he said with a startled gasp. “I was about 26 when I first came out on tour, so I wasn’t that young compared to some of them now.
“But I’d be playing practice rounds with guys like Andrew Oldcorn and Gordon Brand Jnr, who were about 40, and I’d be looking at them thinking they were ancient. Now, the kids on the Asian Tour are probably looking at me and saying, ‘who’s this grey-haired git?’.”
He may be climbing the brae on the age front, but Drysdale has certainly enjoyed pitting his wits against the young ‘uns on the Far East circuit.
After losing his DP World Tour card in 2022, the Asian Tour has offered the Scot a competitive sanctuary as he builds towards the next chapter of his long career.
It’s been an education, and the standard of golf is as high as the readings on the temperature gauge.
“It’s bloody hot,” added the former Challenge Tour winner after recent outings in Indonesia and Thailand. “It’s been 35 degrees and 95 per cent humidity.
"You’re knocking back a bottle of water on every hole. Sometimes you get to the 12th and the last thing on your mind is actually hitting a golf shot. It’s almost about survival.
“But I’ve loved it out here. There are so many good players in Asia; loads of young Koreans and Thais who people back home will never have heard of but you play with them and think, ‘wow’.
"I’ve not played that badly this season but there have been loads of four, five or six-under cuts. It’s a strong, strong standard.”
During an admirable shift at the coalface, Drysdale racked up 575 appearances on the DP World Tour. In that time, he posted four second place finishes, but a victory eluded him.
“All in all, it’s been a reasonable career,” he reflected. “But you always want more. That’s just a golfer’s nature. You always think you could’ve done this or should’ve done that. It’s been a long grind but an enjoyable one.”
As he prepares to become a rookie again among the auld yins, the indefatigable Drysdale is still putting in the hard yards. And clocking up the air miles.
