New starter eager for action in Hawaii

Former European Open champion Kenneth Ferrie starts his new career on the US Tour in Hawaii tomorrow – and does so alongside an American who, for a very different reason, is just as excited to be at the Sony Open.

Todd Demsey, a former college team-mate of Phil Mickelson, is back as a member of the circuit for the first time since 1997 and five years after a second operation to remove a benign brain tumour.

Left alone the tumour could have been fatal and he was told there was still a 5% chance of dying during the operation or of him coming out of it paralysed.

“Any time you open the skull it’s risky,” said Demsey. “I was obviously scared, but I was more concerned for my family than myself. I was worried when I went to hit balls the first time afterwards – it hurt my head.”

He was back playing on the Nationwide Tour later the same year, but it was not until a closing 64 at last month’s qualifying school that he earned the chance to play the main circuit again.

Demsey finished eighth while Ferrie was 14th – arguably his best, and certainly his most important, performance of a year that saw him crash to a lowly 167th on the European Order of Merit.

That was shocking for a player good enough to have finished 11th in 2005 and to have shared the lead with Mickelson with a round to go in the 2006 US Open.

Ferrie, from Ashington, commented: “I’ve never felt this good about a new year. Torrey Pines, Pebble Beach, Muirfield Village, Sawgrass – I would be excited to play those venues if they weren’t staging a tournament.

“But when you add in the crowds and the millions of dollars, to an ordinary guy from Northumberland, it sounds like heaven.

“I think of myself as a normal guy who is lucky enough to play golf for a living. I don’t prance around like I’m God’s gift. I’m from a pit town in the north-east and proud of it.”

Scot Martin Laird, a graduate from the Nationwide Tour, and Londoner Brian Davis also play in this week’s event, as does Swede Daniel Chopra, surprise winner of the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship and second on the European Ryder Cup table.