Marco Penge opens up on tour ban: ‘My anxiety was through the roof’
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Marco Penge is hot on Rory McIlroy’s heels in the Race to Dubai after a breakout three-win season, but it could have been so different after he hit rock bottom at the end of last year…
Golf is a game of inches. And no one knows that better than Marco Penge.
This time last year, Penge was facing a tricky up-and-down on the 18th hole at the Genesis Championship in Korea. If he failed, he would lose his DP World Tour card and spend another season competing on the second-tier Hotel Planner Tour and feeding off scraps at the top table.
He chipped it up to around five feet, before draining the birdie putt to sign for a final-round 67. His tie for 22nd at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Incheon was enough to move Penge up to 110th in the Race to Dubai standings.
“It was just a massive blur,” Penge told George Harper Jr and John E Morgan on the Life on Tour podcast. “You’re so in the moment. ‘Well, this is to keep my card’. It was amazing for me as a person, I proved a lot to myself in that moment to get over the line, that I could do it in the most pressured situation.”
Little did anyone know at the time, Penge was going through something away from the course. A potential ban was hanging over his head for breaking the DP World’s rules on betting.
It was never anything extravagant. He gambled around £2,500 over three years, his average wager was £24, he never bet on tournaments in which he was competing, and his total profit was, he says, around £150. But it was enough for the bookmaker to notify the DP World Tour, who in turn informed Penge that they were investigating.
Penge explained: “In April last year I was in Dubai doing a training week. I was in the shower, and my wife comes running in. She’s got my email on her phone because she helps me out with a lot of stuff, and she says that the tour have said there’s a betting investigation.
“I was obviously like, ‘Oh shit!’ I came out the shower and I was crying, my missus is cuddling me and I’m just thinking, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ I had an interview the next day, I see all the bets I had, and I [tell them], ‘I’ve had a bet on golf all my life.’ I love watching golf when I can cheer a couple of players on, and that is all it was – purely entertainment. I don’t watch the Grand National without having a bet on a horse. You either bet on a horse and cheer them on, or you don’t bother watching it. And that’s all it was.
“So I went through the processes, but my anxiety was through the roof. I felt like I had let a load of people down, [wondering] what everyone’s going to think.
“I didn’t understand the rules fully, I never had a bet on myself, never had a bet on a tournament I played in, just didn’t realize you couldn’t have a bet in general. But I broke the rules, lesson learned. Everyone has their opinion on it, which is fine, but I said, ‘Look, I’ve had a bet on golf, here’s all my betting accounts, I just didn’t realize I was doing anything wrong, and I’m sorry.’ I held my hands up.”
That announcement came in December, and he was suspended for three months for breaching the DP World Tour’s Integrity Programme. The weight off his shoulders, he said, “felt amazing”.
“I played for six months with no one knowing, and me not knowing what the outcome was going to be,” Penge added.
“It was actually a relief once everything had come out. Because that was the hardest time for me – not being able to openly discuss with my closest friends about what was going on. I told my caddie, and that was it. I felt like he needed to know, because I was feeling so anxious about it. But my family were great, my wife was awesome.”
For Penge’s golf, though, it was the chance for a full reset.
“It gave me three months to reflect on what needs to be better, so I changed my team around a little bit,” he explained.
“I got a new coach, who was part of my team in the short game area already, and just made a massive plan. I sat down with a massive whiteboard and wrote what was good and what was rubbish. Who do we need to be more like in certain areas? What do they do that I don’t do? How can I be more consistent? And just made every day structured, and consistent in my practice.
“I came back and saw the signs straight away that it was working. It felt great. I was so clear in my mind that I knew what I was doing – and still to this day it’s the same plan. It keeps me at ease.”
And he hasn’t looked back.
The Englishman won his first DP World Tour title at the Hainan Classic in April, before edging, of all people, Rasmus Hojgaard by a single shot at the Danish Championship.
Then, last week, just a few days short of the one-year anniversary of that putt, Penge beat Dan Brown in a playoff at the Open de Espana to book not only a Masters debut but wrap up his PGA Tour card for the 2026 season.
“It just shows you – in sport, life, and especially golf – you’re always waiting for that one moment to kick-start something,” he said. “That was my moment, and this year wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t holed that putt.”