Marco Penge was the leading European tour player to earn a PGA Tour card this year, and he already is feeling plenty of stress. After finding a home (West Palm Beach, Florida) and a golf club (Old Palm), he began his season in California with his wife expecting their second child.
“I’m playing these four weeks and then straight home for the birth,” Penge said last week. “Yeah, it’s been a bit hectic. For us to have moved over here, it meant that she had to give birth here. At the moment she’s in Florida without her family and friends and I’m over at Torrey Pines and the next three weeks for me.
“She’s been great,” he said. “We’re both really looking forward to having our second child.”
Finding a golf club wasn’t all that easy. Penge found that a few clubs did not seem terribly inviting, and he was happy to find the atmosphere he wanted at Old Palm. It probably didn’t help his cause to show up with shorts and a T-shirt.
“I was kind of a little too casual, I think,” he said. “But myself and Old Palm is a good match and facilities are great there. So yeah, it’s nice to be at a golf club that wants to have me there.”