Exclusive: The goal is to stay focused on my game and to finish the season strongly, says Adrian Meronk

As I write this update for Khaleej Times I have just finished playing in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, Surrey in England.

With rounds of 67, 68, 73 and 72, I finished eight under par in tied 28th place. Not quite what I was hoping for but it was a challenging week with the course set-up and the quality of the field.

I have moved to number four in the Race to Dubai, with last week’s champion Ryan Fox from New Zealand overtaking me into the third spot. Ryan finds himself behind the top of the table headed by Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) and Jon Rahm (Spain). It is certainly a flattering company to be around.

It is nice to see I am still holding the number one card for the PGA Tour from the Rankings, with 10 Cards being allocated from the 2023 – 2024 Race to Dubai at the end of the season to those not already holding 2024 PGA Tour Cards.

I currently sit number 51 in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).

My best position on the rankings is 45th which I achieved in December 2022 when I won the ISPS Handa Australian Open on the DP World Tour.

I have had a tough few weeks with all the noise around the Ryder Cup selection, as you will have read about.To be honest, I was shocked, sad and angry not to get into Luke Donald’s Ryder Cup team for Italy at the end of this month, but I have now just about accepted it.

The first couple of days after that were tough, but I have moved on and am focused on my game. I want to finish the season strongly and that is my only goal now.

I know it’s easy to say, but it’s like having a bad round and letting it go. This one was a little bit tougher to accept because it wasn’t based on me and someone else made that decision. I feel I’ve shown in the last two years that I’ve played really well on the DP World Tour. If you look at the results and the numbers, I thought it was enough to make the Ryder Cup team, but there’s nothing I can do about that now.

However, I have been pretty good at accepting things in my career. I’m trying to turn all that disappointment and anger into motivation.

I’d say that four picks rather than six would probably be reasonable in the Ryder Cup selection and I think leaving one or two picks for these big tournaments would be a good idea. This time the European team has been picked basically after a four-week break and then playing two small events. I think one spot should be reserved for after the PGA Championship, at least.

Time is hopefully a great healer so I should perhaps not be too hard on myself and instead reflect on my rapid progress over the last couple of years.

In November 2021, when I played in that year’s DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, at Jumeirah Golf Estates, I was in 161st place on the OWGR. Since July 2022, I have won three times on the DP World Tour - at the 2022 Horizon Irish Open, the 2022 ISPS Handa Australian Open on the 2023 schedule and in May earlier this year at the DS Automobiles Italian Open.

I was planning to play this week in France on the DP World Tour at the Cazoo Open de France at Le Paris National, but I withdrew last night because I felt that playing more than four weeks in a row is never easy, either physically or even more so, mentally.

My next event is the $5 million Alfred Dunhill Championship in Scotland in a couple of weeks.

My focus now is to look forward and make the top 50 in the OWGR at the end of 2023, when traditionally all the players receive invites to The Masters, the first major of the year.

In my situation now, my goal is to enhance my OWGR position. I have had a very good year so far but always seem to be outside of the top 50, looking in.

The OWGR global points allocation system changed in August 2022, and in my opinion, it is still finding its level as well as an understanding by players and fans alike. You need to be a Mathematics Professor to be able to calculate and predict the ups and downs and the variables. I have gone down a few spots this year despite achieving a win and so much more.

For the first time this year, I played in all four golf majors on the calendar, something not many DP World Tour loyal players achieved, in fact, Victor Perez missed out on The Masters this year.

Thanks to everyone for their support, it has meant so much to me and my support guys and gals at Team Meronk.

For now, its back to the range and more practice as I look forward to hopefully seeing you all in Dubai in November – it will be upon us very soon.

sports@khaleejtimes.com

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