Our Interview with NEW Bunker Ambassador Gary Boyd

‘I’m playing as well as I have done in a long time’

We sit down with our new Bunker ambassador Gary Boyd to head about his plans for 2021

How has lockdown been for you?

I was out injured for nine months as I broke my wrist and then I got back to playing this year and then Covid happened which has put a bit of a hold on things. The rehab all went well and I’ve been playing as well as I have done for a long time. I started working with Liam James who is part of Robert Rock’s academy – I had a lesson with him 18 months ago and had a good result off the back of that. I was doing a lot of stuff myself so I never really followed it up but I needed some new ideas and to make sure that I was working towards the right things in practice so I got back in touch.

I’m actually self-isolating now as I went to the Dominican Republic for two weeks and it was great to be able to do lots of work. We went into lockdown again in the UK so I went over there, the weather was good, the course was fantastic and I got some good work done which was the main thing. It was great; they took our temperatures wherever we went and it all felt very safe.

What does next year look like for you?

I’ve got a medical exemption status on the Challenge Tour and I’ll play the rest of the season on the EuroPro Tour. The exemption would get me into maybe half the starts plus I’ll hopefully get some invites as I’ve had a decent career and played well in certain events before. I will have to perform pretty well in the first half a dozen events to get into the other ones – a win would be huge in terms of going to the top of the entry list, it’s been a while but I’ve been close a few times. 

Gary has an attachment with Woburn and has kindly offered to host a few golf days for us there in 2021. This will only be open to members of Club Bunker so to have a chance to join Gary at Woburn join here -  https://bunker-mentality.com/pages/club-bunker

What’s the big goal?

The ultimate one is to get back onto the European Tour. It’s been good to be able to reflect on my goals for now and the next five years and to set out a plan to get my game back into shape and perform at the highest level again. I’ve been doing some coaching to supplement things a bit and that’s been great to remind myself about certain parts of the swing – so much of it is about basics and if you get those things right everything tends to come good. It’s so easy to overlook little things like alignment and ball position. 

What was it like to get back playing with a card in your hand?

I played in some mini-tour events and it was weird to putt out again. But after a bit the juices get going and you go back onto auto pilot and it was interesting to see where my game was and what I need to work on. My irons have been as good as they’ve been for a long time, I’ve been driving it really solid the last few months and my short game and wedges were just a bit rusty. 

When can you expect to get back playing again?

The Challenge Tour schedule should come out around the end of December, I know they’re working hard to get events on and the promoters would, understandably, like them to be at the end of the year. I’m part of the MENA Tour in the Middle East and North Africa and that should start around the end of January/start of February and I’ll play as many as I can and then the Challenge Tour normally starts in April.