Marco Penge Goes From Doghouse to Penthouse With a Win in China
Marco Penge has been on a recent roller coaster ride, with a three-month suspension in December for betting on golf, to winning his first time on the DP World Tour on Sunday at the Hainan Classic in China.
With a goal to make it to the PGA Championship next month at Quail Hollow, he teed it up in the final round, hoping to earn a spot and erase his three-month break from professional golf.
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Positioned far down the Asian Swing rankings, Penge, who already has an exemption into The Open at Royal Portrush, knew he would have to do something extraordinary, which meant winning his first DP World Tour event.
Marco Penge hits his tee shot on the 18th hole during a practice round of The Open Championship golf tournament at Royal Liverpool in 2023. Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
Shooting a 5-under 67, which included seven birdies over a 9-hole stretch in the middle of the round, made the difference, defeating American Sean Crocker and Norwegian Kristoffer Reitan by three shots.
'This obviously means the world to me. It's something that I've always dreamt of achieving - winning on the biggest stage,' The 29-year-old Penge said. 'After my time off it was the thing that I wanted to really prove to myself and prove to everyone, to show what a player I am.'
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When DP World Tour officials approached Penge about his betting, he always maintained that he bet on players only to win and never believed it violated the rules.
"Back in April 2024 the Tour were informed by a betting agency that I had placed some bets on golf from 2022, with an overall average stake of £24 and total profit of c.£250. Sixty-eight per cent of the bets I placed were before I took the integrity programme education course in March 2023,' Penge said in a statement after his suspension and £2,000 fine was disclosed.
Final Asian Swing Standings
Rank
Player
Points
1
Keita Nakajima
(Japan)
835.12
2
Eugenio Chacarra
(Spain)
790.45
3
Marco Penge
(England)
633.47
4
Ashun Wu
(China)
607.40
5
Richard Mansell
(England)
585.00
"All of my bets were positive bets (meaning betting on someone to win rather than lose) and a majority of them were in the majors and Ryder Cup. My bets were all for entertainment purposes to make watching golf more fun - just like most would do if it was something like the Grand National or other sporting events.'
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The PGA Championship will be Penge's third career major, missing the cut in his previous two Open Championships.
The visit to the Queen City will be Penge's third tournament on the PGA Tour in the United States.
He missed the cut at the ISCO Championship and the Barracuda Championship.
'Before this Swing started, I said to my caddie, I think it was in Singapore, I said my goal is to get in the US PGA Championship, that's something that I'd love to do,' Penge recalled. 'Obviously coming here, I hadn't had a top five or anything like that, so I'd kind of forgotten about it a little bit, but it popped in my head last night. I thought, well, if I win tomorrow, maybe I might get in the PGA and I've already qualified for The Open. To be able to play against the best players in the world and see where I'm at compared to them would just be an unbelievable experience and something I'm looking forward to.'
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