By Mathieu Wood
When one door closes, another often opens signalling new opportunities and that is exactly the case for Callum Tarren in 2025.
Despite being English, he is perhaps better known stateside having played on the PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour over the last six years.
But, after losing his PGA TOUR playing rights at the end of 2024, Tarren is now in the early stages of his first full season on the DP World Tour at 34.
His journey to golf’s global tour is far from a common route, but it’s one that is full of intrigue.
And after a challenging campaign on the PGA TOUR last year, when he dropped 300 spots on the Official World Golf Ranking to below 450th, Tarren is a man with renewed confidence.
“In the search to get better it sometimes goes the opposite way. It did for me,” said Tarren.
“I fiddled around with my swing too much, got away from my DNA as a player and it resulted in my worst season since I have been a professional.
“Obviously, it is on the PGA TOUR, so you are playing at the highest level, with the best players, but I was very disappointed at the end of the season.
“It fuelled my fire, really. After it was over, I was kind of relieved that the season was done and wherever I would be playing it was like a fresh start for me.
"So, having the opportunity to come out here on the DP World Tour was even more exciting."
While his name may be familiar to the hardcore golf fan, having competed in two Major Championships and finished a career-best joint second on the PGA TOUR at the RSM Classic in 2022, Tarren is a new face for many.
He is a beneficiary of a membership category for players who finished in positions 126 to 200 on the 2023-24 FedExCup Fall Points List.
Tarren, who reached a career-high 141st in the world in 2023, recalls how he jumped at the chance to sign up to be a member on the 2025 Race to Dubai season.
Speaking to the DP World Tour from Qatar last week, he added: “When I got the e-mail about being able to join the tour under the FedExCup category, I joined within minutes.
“I was on the train home in England, having flown back from America after competing at PGA TOUR Q-School in December.
“I said to people around me, ‘I’m going to commit to the DP World Tour’."
Three events played and so far, so good. Small sample size, yes, but Tarren only has good things to say – with a top ten at the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship under his belt after holding the 36 and 54-hole lead.
“I am reinvigorated, especially after getting up there [in Bahrain] and having the lead for a couple of days," he said.
"I haven’t been in that spot for quite a while. It was nice.
"Just little things like having the cameras following you, you know you are getting watched by lots of people. I feel as though I handled myself well.
“I am really enjoying the new challenges, visiting new countries.
“Everyone has been very welcoming. It seems there is more of a friendlier vibe out on the DP World Tour compared to the PGA TOUR.
"It was great to be in contention in my second week. Obviously, I’ve played a few DP World Tour events [over the years], but to get up there on the leaderboard and feel them juices that we want to feel was very rewarding.
"I feel as though my game will stand up pretty well out here, especially having travelled all over the world and on the PGA TOUR."
As Tarren alludes to, while he may be experiencing an international schedule for the first time this year, he is by no means someone who hasn’t travelled.
A graduate of Radford University in Virginia, United States in the summer of 2014 after studying business marketing and a minor in finance, Tarren initially worked at Rockliffe Hall in the north-east of England “just to get me by, really”.
But after playing on a few mini tours in his first year as a professional in 2015, he ended it by taking a big leap of faith by joining his friend and ex-Walker Cup player Michael Skelton in signing up for PGA TOUR China Q-School.
“I think at the time he was playing on the EuroPro Tour, and I asked him what his plans were for 2016," he said.
“He said he’d signed up for PGA Tour China Q-School and I kind of laughed at him because he can be out there at times.
“But having done some research when I got home after playing golf with him, I thought, 'well, I'll give it a go' and the rest was history really.
“I went to Q-School and managed to finish I think second or third to get my full card in China for 2016 and then I ended up playing out there for three years which was great.
“I embraced it quite quickly. I remember so many good stories from China.
“There was quite a good group of us out there from all over the world, a lot of Aussies, New Zealanders, there were a few Americans, there was me and Michael from England. So, it was quite a close-knit group.
“Obviously, culturally it was very different, but I think being a professional golfer and travelling the world playing golf, you have to be able to adapt to situations like that.
“It was the first time I'd had status on any professional tour. I was just so upbeat and excited about what was ahead. I really enjoyed it out there.”
While walking the Great Wall of China stands out among his many memories, there are other less glamorous tales.
“I remember one time we went to this restaurant, and we ordered what we thought was chicken and a chicken’s head and chicken feet came out on the plate with rice and that was the meal,” he recalled.
“It was crazy to think that was what we were about to eat.”
It was all a far cry from his initial strides into golf at the age of 11 at Dinsdale Golf Club in the north-east of England, having initially played football and cricket as a child.
After winning the order of merit in China in 2018, he was onto the Korn Ferry Tour and played there until he gained his PGA TOUR card for the 2021-22 season.
But all the while, his home remained on the other side of the Atlantic in Darlington, England.
Many may have opted to move their base stateside, but that is where his heart lies.
“When I got my Korn Ferry Tour card, me and my partner, Ashleigh, had no children, and she had a job," he said.
“I just felt like I was just getting my feet under the table, going out to America.
“The years passed by so fast, there was just never a right time for me to move myself and her to America.
“And then we had a baby, Sophia, and I got my PGA TOUR card in the same week in August 2021.
“I'd actually ended up flying back from America for the birth of Sophia.
"I was home for three days and then ended up flying back out to America for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals and in the second week of the finals I ended up getting my card.
“I didn't want to take them away from the support network we have at home of family and friends.
“When I look back, maybe I could have committed to moving to America. But it’s just part of my journey.
“Home is always going to be home for me back in England and at the end of the day, I've always said if I was to take the two girls away from their life in England and move them to America, I'm still going to work or going to play golf tournaments, they would then have to create their own life in America with no support.”
With all that in mind, being closer to home this season inevitably fills him with happiness.
“I have got a young family at home and when you get back to mainland Europe, the travel isn’t as crazy,” he added.
“There were just lots of benefits for me at where I am, hoping to try for another kid at some point.
“Hopefully I'll see a lot more familiar faces from back home supporting me this year which would be nice.”
Over the course of the coming weeks, Tarren is set to do a fair bit of travelling, with events in Kenya, South Africa, Singapore and India on the horizon. With many set to be first-time destinations, it is exciting times.
“When you look at the schedule, the Tour goes to some incredible places and places that I haven’t played golf at before,” he said.
“I am a big golf fan, so I watch the DP World Tour on a regular basis.
“It’ll just be nice to be competing in the events now, having watched them on TV a long, long time.”
And now being back competing against players he grew up with, Tarren is ready to capitalise on the lessons he has learned around the world.
“I can move it a pretty long way, but that's not the be all and end all of professional golf," he said.
“Power and distance obviously help when it's going straight [but] it can also hinder me when it's not.
“I've evolved as a professional golfer since the start of my career through the different tests and different tours I’ve played on. I'm just excited to see how it holds up here.”
with thanks to the PGA TOUR for footage of Tarren - to view the full piece on YouTube as part of their Origins series, click here.
