The Magical Kenya Open lived up to its name for Joe Dean after the Yorkshireman enjoyed a life-changing week with his runner-up finish on the DP World Tour.
The 29-year-old earned his DP World Tour card after coming through all three stages of the Qualifying School last November but has played a limited schedule so far this season, with Dean initially struggling to finance the costs involved with travelling the world to compete.
Dean missed the cut at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in his first appearance of the year before returning to his role as a supermarket delivery driver ahead of his recent appearance in Nairobi.
His trip was rewarded by claiming a share of second, two strokes behind winner Darius van Driel, with the performance moving him inside the top 40 in the Race to Dubai standings but also earning him over £170,000 in prize money.
“It was an amazing week and I couldn’t be any happier,” Dean told Sky Sports News. “It has been fantastic! To be honest, I’ve been playing quite well outside of tournaments, so it has been nice to finally get it figured out inside a tournament.
“We’re just in a bit of a shock at the minute, trying to figure everything out!”
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Highlights from day four of the Magical Kenya Open at the Muthaiga Golf Club in Nairobi.
Dean’s career has been largely limited to the now defunct PGA EuroPro Tour and other mini tours in recent years, although his impressive performance in Kenya will enable him to focus more heavily on golf over the year ahead.
“Around the past year it has been more of the delivery side [for Morrisons] to the golf, but after qualifying for the DP World Tour in November, it’s been a little more the other way around!” Dean explained. “Come April, it’s going to be probably time to hand in my notice at Morrisons and concentrate on the golf side a little bit more.
“A month’s worth of shifts on for Morrisons probably covers one air flight for one tournament, so it’s heavily expensive to do this DP World Tour.
“At the end of the day, I’ve now got some good people around me, a good team and hopefully some more great sponsors can join onboard soon so we don’t have to rely on the Morrisons wage as much!”
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What’s next?
Dean admitted he was unsure on his playing category for the remainder of the season, although has set his sights on featuring in part of the DP World Tour’s Asian Swing during March and April.
The DP World Tour heads to South Africa for back-to-back events co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour. The SDC Championship takes place at St Francis Links, Eastern Cape and begins on Thursday. Stream the majors, PGA Tour, DP World Tour, LPGA Tour and more on NOW.
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