Smyth ready for American dream finish on Champions Tour
Des Smyth is hoping for an American Dream finish his megabucks Champions Tour career.
The Drogheda ace, 55, plans to round off his six-year stint on the US Seniors circuit by rediscovering the form that has helped him win over $4 million.
Des Smyth's Champions Tour career could be coming to an end.Barring a miraculous series of results, the eight time European Tour winner will say goodbye to his Champions Tour exemption and switch to the European Seniors Tour next season.
But he has no plans to go quietly and hopes to rediscover his magic touch as he heads Stateside next week to play the last three events of the US season.
Buoyed by his third place finish in the Scottish Seniors Open at the weekend, Smyth said: “I am just looking forward to finding my game again because I have just gone off the boil. I felt good last week and played some good golf with just too many mistakes.
“But I am not thinking of next year in the US and I am probably going to play in Europe again. I am happy about that and looking forward to getting back home.”
Smyth has earned a cool $4.3 million in the US since he won the Champions Tour Qualifying School in 2002 but is 76th on the money list this year with only the top 30 retaining their cards.
Still the oldest winner in European Tour history, he won eight times on the regular European circuit and added four senior wins to his CV since he turned 50.
Two of those victories came on the Champions Tour in 2005, when the six-time Irish professional champion banked a massive $1.23 million.
But he admits that 34 years on the road and six years of transatlantic travel has taken its toll on him mentally and physically and with his son Greg winning the €9.2 million Lotto jackpot last month, he is no longer under financial pressure to provide for his family.
He said: “I got tired just going over and back to the US. It is a real trundle. It wears you down. For the first time in my long career, I am a bit jaded.
"I felt it coming on me last year and I told my family that I didn't know if I could do this for much longer. I am getting tired for the first time in all these years.
“I suppose it is only natural to feel like that. But with my son winning the lottery, there are lots of worries gone now. I would still have gone to do what I love doing to make the money to secure my family. That's off the agenda now.”
Smyth will wrap up his season in the European Seniors Tour Championship event in Valencia from November 7-9 and then take time off to prepare for 2009 European Senior Tour season - his 35th as a professional.