“I won a toilet. An all-singing, all-dancing toilet.”
Not every athlete can proudly state they’ve won the fanciest of additions to their bathroom, but Gemma Dryburgh can. The Scottish golfer sensationally claimed a maiden LPGA Tour title with a four-stroke win at the Japan Classic last weekend and, alongside her trophy, a cheque for $300,000 and a spot in next year’s majors, she also won the most prized toilet anyone could ever dream of.
“I’m very excited,” she told Mirror Sport. “I’m just renting at the moment so they asked, ‘where do you want the toilet sent?’
“I said I’m not quite ready obviously, because I’ll need to wait until I buy a place, and they were like, ‘oh yeah we’ll wait for you to buy somewhere, just let us know.’ I think it’s like £8,000 or something. It’s a very nice toilet.”
In all seriousness – toilet envy aside – Dryburgh’s achievement in Japan is momentous. The 29-year-old became the first Scottish player to win on the LPGA Tour since Catriona Matthew in 2011 and, in a positive indication as to where British women’s golf is, she became the third UK winner on the Tour in little over a month following Charlie Hull and Jodi Ewart Shadoff.
“The first couple of days it definitely hadn’t sunk in,” said the Aberdeen-born golfer, currently in Florida playing the Pelican Women’s Championship where play was cancelled on Thursday due to Tropical Storm Nicole.
“I think doing all the media stuff this week, and seeing all the players and caddies, it’s become more real. My parents are flying over to Florida tomorrow so when I see them it’ll be even more real.
“It’s been a long journey. I’ve been dreaming of this probably since I was 15 years old. My goal was to get on the LPGA and the dream is to win on the LPGA. I’ve been working towards it for a long time. But just looking back on times with my coaches, playing in the freezing cold and the rain, and all that hard work becoming worth it means a lot.”
“You’ve got to play your own game"
Perhaps understandably, Dryburgh admits her phone blew up following her win with messages of congratulations, including from Catriona Matthew herself. As brilliant as her victory was, it’s also a true testament to her perseverance and hard work after she initially struggled in her rookie year on the Tour in 2018.
“When I first came out here, I had watched the LPGA for a long time and I had people I looked up to out here,” she explained. “Then I’m on the range next to them.
“It was like, ‘woah, this is weird’. But it was very cool obviously. Now it’s almost become the norm – I know all of them now and I’m friends with some of them so looking back it’s quite cool to see the progression in that way and feeling more and more comfortable each year.
“Eventually you start to get the results, and you get more confident, and then I’ve obviously improved a lot in my game since 2018 – it’s night and day.”
Of course, getting that self-confidence and improving your game is a lot easier said than done in many cases. Additionally, when you throw in the disruption that came from the Covid pandemic into the mix, it was another hurdle Dryburgh needed to overcome if she was to achieve her dreams.
“You’ve got to play your own game, I think that’s the biggest thing for me,” she said detailing her biggest learnings. “When I first came out here people maybe hit it further than me – or this and that. Everyone is so unique, and everyone has their strengths, and I think you have to play towards that.
“Every part of the game is so important because everyone is so good but at the same time you have to play to your strengths and you can get caught up in that a little bit when you first come out here.”
Having a place to call home
It’s often said home is where the heart is, and Dryburgh probably recognises that more than most at this moment in time. Her uptick in form and winning her first LPGA title also coincides with her finding a place she can actually call home, specifically in New Orleans where she had previously gone to university.
Prior to that there was a lot of hopping from place to place, and that is unlikely to do people much good if you’re trying to balance life with your sporting career.
“I just got a place out here this year, before that I was kind of going back and forth,” Dryburgh explained. “Some weeks I would stay with friends or host families and it got kind of tough towards the end, because I didn't really have a place to call home.
“Obviously, going back to mum and dad’s was home, but sometimes I wasn't able to get back there, so that was getting a little bit much. I decided finally this year it was time to get a place. I think that's probably helped my mindset as well, just having somewhere to call home and having a place to put my things and go back and actually reset.
“I've got some good friends there as well that are not in the golfing world so going back there is like a proper break away.”
That separation is something that has become such a key talking point within professional sport. So many athletes have spoken about falling into the trap of wrapping their self-worth in their results and performance that it can be easy to forget who you are and what really matters.
That’s the same for Dryburgh. Living out of a suitcase, so to speak, carries that risk of always having golf on your mind and the Scot is no stranger to the topsy turvy waves of emotion the sport can bring.
“It keeps you humble, that's for sure,” she said. “Even after playing well, it can bring you back down to earth and you can never take it for granted. Just enjoy each and every moment that you can because, I hate to say it, but there are ebbs and flows and I probably at some point will not be swinging it as well as I am now.
“But these things come back and I think you just have to keep working hard and keep consistently doing what you're doing, and what's working, and then trust the process.
“Sometimes when you get into those lows, and you’re maybe not playing quite as well as you were before, you can get a bit down on yourself and then you can almost get attached to yourself as a person. I've been through that and I think every golfer has.
“You have to separate that, from you as a person to you as a golfer. I know a lot of PGA Tour guys have spoken about that as well, but I think that's a big thing. Sticking to the process and going through those ebbs and flows, and hopefully there's more highs and lows, but it's all part of the journey I guess.”
She added: “I've never actually thought about this but doing that move to New Orleans has probably done that for me. Having that place to go outside of the golfing bubble, having somewhere to go that's completely different and it's not really a golfing haven either.
“I've got a very nice golf course where I practice out there but it's not like a Florida or a Phoenix – where all the golfers go. Having that place away, kind of separates it and, when I go there, I don't feel like I'm Gemma the golfer. I'm just Gemma.
“I think that's been a really big key and I’ve kind of just realised that now that we're speaking about it!”
"The sky's the limit for women's sports"
With Dryburgh’s maiden LPGA title in the bag, it represents another brilliantly positive moment in British women’s sport. She’s now made herself one to watch and, with a place at next year’s Solheim Cup very much an aim for her now, she could well be catching more attention in the very near future.
But as every month passes by right now, it highlights just how much momentum there is surrounding British women’s sport. Whether it’s the Lionesses victory in the summer or the curling gold medal at the Winter Olympics, Dryburgh can probably also consider herself part of that wave of momentum now.
“I hope so,” she said. “That would be very cool actually thinking about that because every month there seems to be a really cool story coming out of women's sports.
“I think women's sports is just going from strength to strength and it's really cool to see. The sky's the limit for women's sports. With the Lionesses as well, it's so inspiring to watch them win in the summer and the good vibes in the country was just amazing.
“It was not just in England, it was all over the UK and I think the world as well. I think I saw, on the FIFA Women's World Cup, the tickets have been sold out and it has websites crashing and everything. It's great to see the interest is there.
“Even in Japan I've never seen so many fans, it was amazing. They just love women's golf and I'd love to see that everywhere. I think it's going to get there as well.”
