2017 review: Wonderful Wallace

First he topped the Alps Tour. The he climbed through the ranks on the Challenge Tour. Now, after a whirlwind 12 months, Matt Wallace is a European Tour winner who has gone toe-to-toe with some of the game’s leading players in a Major Championship and the Rolex Series.

Not bad for someone who was competing on golf’s third tier in 2016.

Two years ago the Englishman lay at a lowly 1156^thin the Official World Golf Ranking. A promising first season on the Alps Tour in 2015, which included two top-five and two top-ten finishes in seven starts, showed Wallace had promise but few would have predicted what happened next.

After tying for third in his first tournament of 2016, Wallace finished as a runner-up in his second Alps Tour outing of the season – he was getting closer.

A first victory swiftly came the following week at the Dreamland Pyramids Open, opening the floodgates for a dominant spell where Wallace won five Alps Tour titles in five consecutive starts, a record at that level.

That record-breaking run catapulted him up to 273^rdin the world, and turned heads in golfing circles – could he carry on winning at a higher level?

After his fifth victory Wallace teed it up in the Fred Olsen Challenge de España. On a week of low scoring – which included just the second 59 in the history of the European, Challenge and Senior Tours – he held his own, carding four rounds in the 60s to finish in the top ten.

Wallace, who made the cut in his next two Challenge Tour starts, was soon in contention for his first title at that level.

A composed performance in the Terre dei Consoli Open proved he was not just a three-round master, as he had been on the Alps Tour, as he claimed a share of fourth place.

A sixth and final victory at the Alps Tour Grand Final took Wallace onto the Challenge Tour as the 2016 Alps Tour Number One and at a career-high 209^thin the world – bring on the season-opener in Kenya.

At the 2017 Barclays Kenya Open Wallace showed all the quality that had seen him conquer the Alps Tour.

After three consecutive rounds in the 60s Wallace took a one-shot lead into the final day in Nairobi, but after an outstanding closing 65 from playing partner Aaron Rai he would have to settle for tied third. A near miss this time.

It would not be long before Wallace returned to the winners’ circle, though.

More exceptional scoring at the dual-ranking Open de Portugal at Morgado Golf Resort saw Wallace become a European Tour champion in emphatic fashion.

Wire to wire – yes. Lowest opening round by a European Tour winner in 2017 (63) – yes. Just the second winner since 2013 to card three bogey-free rounds en route to victory – yes.

One month after that win Wallace found himself teeing it up against the world’s very best in the U.S. Open.

Having come through a qualifier at Walton Heath, Wallace found himself playing with the likes of Danny Willett, Lee Westwood and Matthew Fitzpatrick.

“I’m a very confident guy, but with it being my first Major, at a U.S. Open, I was certainly nervous,” said Wallace, looking back on his Major debut.

“I normally don’t get like this though, because at the end of the day it’s just golf and if you’re confident in your game you can just fly.

“At the U.S. Open I wasn’t too comfortable with my game at the time as well, and on a U.S. Open golf course you need to be right on it.”

Although he missed the cut at Erin Hills, Wallace showed the world he can compete with the game’s elite this year.

In the Italian Open, event five out of eight in the prestigious Rolex Series, Wallace played the best golf of his fledgling career to lead by two going into the final round.

Although he eventually succumbed to his fellow countryman Tyrrell Hatton on the last day, Wallace produced one of the moments of the season – chipping in for birdie at the 17^ththen celebrating like he had scored the winning goal in a World Cup final.

That rousing celebration, the look of elation on Wallace’s face, is without doubt one of the defining images from this season – and shows just how far he has come.

Now a regular on the biggest stages, the future looks bright for Wallace.