{"id":820227,"date":"2026-03-12T06:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T06:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/820227\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T06:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T06:06:19","slug":"america-is-right-on-red-for-englands-penge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/820227\/","title":{"rendered":"America is right (on red) for England\u2019s Penge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"Marco Penge feels comfortable among the PGA Tour\u2019s elite.\u00a0 Ben Jared, PGA Tour via Getty Images<\/strong><\/p>\n

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA | <\/strong>If you are a keen follower of professional golf in the U.S. and the name Marco Penge has not fully entered your golfing knowledge, then don\u2019t feel as though you have made a mistake. You have not been asleep at the wheel. There are many in Britain, where Penge, 27, was born, who might not immediately recognise his name or his golfing exploits either.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not because he has done nothing to be remembered. Rather it is because he has done so much in such a short space of time. In 2023 he finished No. 1 on the order of merit for the HotelPlanner Tour, one of the minor pro golf tours run by the DP World Tour. This was good enough to elevate him to membership of the DPWT.<\/p>\n

Last year his three victories in seven months on that tour \u2013 in the Hainan Classic, the Danish Golf Championship and then the Spanish Open \u2013 nearly won him the prestigious Race to Dubai. In the end, though beaten by Rory McIlroy, his second-place finish gained him one of 10 spots available to DPWT members not otherwise qualified on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n

Competing on the U.S. tour this year, he made his mark by leading the field after two rounds at the Genesis Invitational tournament at historic Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles and now, at the start of the Players Championship, he is ranked 38th in the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As if all that were not enough, he recently moved his wife and children from England to Jupiter, Florida, and is settling himself and them into a new way of life. \u201cMoving my family over was a challenge,\u201d he admitted on Wednesday morning as he sat in a director\u2019s chair on a back lawn at the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse, ready and willing to be grilled by journalists. The Wednesday morning grilling is a tradition for those making their debuts at the Players Championship. He looked completely at ease, suntanned, softly spoken and far from overawed, as if, in fact, he had been born in this country.<\/p>\n

One more thing. He had missed competing in the two PGA Tour events before this week\u2019s because he and his wife, Sophie, a retired professional golfer herself, have had an addition to their family, a second son named Romeo. \u201cGetting much sleep?\u201d he was asked as he settled back into his chair. He grinned. The question hardly needed to be answered.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Over here] is everything I have dreamed of in terms of playing,\u201d he continued. Looking around and gesticulating at the surroundings, he said, \u201cI am super excited to be playing here in front of a large crowd. It would have been nice to have a little warm up heading into this week but sometimes in life you don\u2019t get a choice and lately there have been things that are more important than golf. I\u2019ve had to be there for my wife and my family. It\u2019s been pretty rough to be fair so golf has been a little on the back seat. With where my game is right now on Wednesday morning I feel pretty confident with where it\u2019s at. A little break has been a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Penge has accomplished much in a short space of time.\u00a0 Orlando Ramirez, Getty Images<\/strong><\/p>\n

He said how helpful other European players had been as he found his feet in a new country on a new continent. \u201cIf there is anything I want to talk about they are there to support me. It\u2019s obviously very different to playing on the DPWT and living in the country I was born in. I probably still haven\u2019t settled in properly. I\u2019m enjoying the challenge, enjoying these amazing golf courses. To have played at Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines, Cypress Point, here, pretty surreal. Part of growing as a player and I am enjoying the challenge. The list of courses I have played already and we are only at the start of March is pretty crazy. I am very lucky to be in the position I am in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penge was very good very young and now after his helter-skelter upward rise to becoming a legitimate member of the PGA Tour\u2019s elite, he feels as though it is no more than where he belongs. There is an attractive lack of modesty, a degree of quiet self-confidence, in his answer when he says: \u201cI feel this is where I belong, where I was always destined to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery area of your game is under pressure over here,\u201d he continued. \u201cI find in Europe you can get away with a couple of areas of your game being not so great. This week is a perfect example. You\u2019ve got to hit it straight off the tee.\u00a0 If it\u2019s not on the fairway it is a bit of a waste of time. If you\u2019re missing the greens you\u2019re going to find it tough to get up and down and if you do hit the greens you could leave yourself a downhill, across-the-slope putt. Approach putt needs to be good, holing out. It\u2019s a real test, every area. That\u2019s the part I am enjoying. Definitely highlighted areas of my game that need to be better and parts of my game that are definitely good enough to be playing against the best guys. I am trying to improve and learn from the best.<\/p>\n

\u201cI dream of courses like this in the condition they are in. It\u2019s an experience I should only get better from.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m not liking missing is having a little stroll around a city every week, like Rome or London. Different over here. It\u2019s not that I am not liking it here. I love it. Turning right on red light is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2026 Global Golf Post LLC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marco Penge feels comfortable among the PGA Tour\u2019s elite.\u00a0 Ben Jared, PGA Tour via Getty Images PONTE VEDRA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,236157,4298,207706,79,236158,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-820227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-marco-penge","10":"tag-pga-tour","11":"tag-players-championship","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tpc-sawgrass","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116214706164579063","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}