Every day is different on the professional golf tour for Werribee’s Daniel Valente.
Exhilarating highs one round can be replaced by a harsh reality check the next.
“It’s the nature of the beast,” Valente told Star Weekly.
At this year’s Queensland PGA Championships, Valente shot his lowest round as a pro with a score of 62, only 24 hours after carding 72 in similar conditions.
It encapsulates the ups and downs of golf and life on the tour.
“How do you wake up one morning and shoot 72 and the next morning you shoot 62?” he said.
“If you knew the answer you wouldn’t tell anyone, that’s for sure.
“My career is still young but I’ve had a couple of really good weeks with a good finish in a big tournament and quite a lot of money.”
“It shows that more and more it comes down to the mental side of the game.
“Technically, you’re going to change minimally in a day, but you can play really well or play poorly day to day, which just shows it’s so much in the head.”
Valente joined the professional golf tour in 2012 and his year-end rookie ranking was 1492.
In four years since, he has climbed sharply in the rankings and has been as low as 719.
He is currently ranked 747th in the world and is constantly striving to go higher.
“You feel you’re playing better and your game is improving, but, at the end of the day, the only things that matter are the scores and the position you finish in the order of merit,” he said.
“I feel like I’m on the right path and that kind of validates it.”
Valente’s greatest strength is his consistency, and the 31-year-old has missed few cuts over the past 18 months.
With his income dependent on making cuts, there is always pressure to perform and he is meeting every challenge head on.
“I’ve been fortunate the last 18 months,” he said.
“I’ve missed only three cuts, so I haven’t really gone through a spell like guys who might play poorly for eight weeks in a row.
“My career is still young but I’ve had a couple of really good weeks with a good finish in a big tournament and quite a lot of money.
“Then you can go 10 weeks [without prizemoney] if there are no tournaments.
“That’s why you’ve got to make sure you keep getting better.
“Guys come and go because there’s only so much of the pie and not enough for everybody.”
Valente got his start as a junior at Werribee Park Golf Club.
At 18, he moved to Sanctuary Lakes Golf Club, which he now calls home and is one of its ambassadors.
Balanced life
His ambition from an early age was to turn pro, but he did not rush into it.
His parents had a holistic view of his life and urged him to do a university degree to have something to fall back on in case his golf career did not pan out.
“Looking back now, absolutely it was the right decision,” Valente said.
“My parents kind of made me do that and it was certainly beneficial not only to go and do a degree, but to have the discipline of the study and to get something behind you.
“I was still playing amateur golf at a reasonably high level while doing my studies, so I guess it was a bit of a balancing act to get the two together, but it was definitely beneficial.”
Valente’s goal is to join one of the major tours, in the US, Europe or Japan.
In the short term, he is awaiting a call from the organisers of the lucrative Volvo China Open.
Valente, coached by US-based Geoff Jones, finished 21st on the OneAsia tour money list last year – the top 20 players will get an invitation to the event in Beijing.
“I played reasonably well in a couple of OneAsia tournaments that were co-sanctioned with them last year and I finished 21st on the money list,” he said.
“They give 20 starts from the order of merit into the Volvo China, so there just has to be one guy not go, which is reasonably likely because there’s a Japanese event on at the time.
“The Volvo China is worth just over US$3 million ($3.97 million) and at the same time there’s an event in Perth worth maybe $100,000, so it’s a massive difference.
“You can’t always pick the times you play on the tour, so you get yourself prepared the best you can.
“It would be a great opportunity to play that event.”
