“I’m experiencing feelings of happiness,” Lieser said after the triumph, thanks to which he broke another Czech barrier – he secured a card for the elite European Tour. “It was terribly mentally demanding. I left a piece of myself there.”
For years, domestic golfers have been trying to break through on the professional scene. Here and there they indicated possibilities, but they did not succeed significantly. It also showed up to Lieser, but it wasn’t until the transformation of his distinctive talent from four years ago that he turned his turn into his golf career.
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“I will repeat myself, but my golf turned completely upside down after I met my wife. Sometimes two people meet and both start to prosper,” the Czech golf hero mentioned his life partner Michaela, with whom he has an 18-month-old daughter Elizabeth, these days. Thanks to his new relationship, he didn’t cut golf, which he was thinking about, and instead started playing better than before.
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He took the first step up last year and advanced to the Challenge Tour from the Pro Golf Tour. He played only five tournaments this year due to coronavirus, but he improved with each one. Fourteen days ago, he won in Cádiz and celebrated his victory in Mallorca on Sunday.
“Yes, I’m better at patting, better at short play, better at hitting greens and driving, but most of all I’m incredibly strong mentally. Sometimes someone out of courtesy says you’re strong between your ears, but I really feel that way,” he said.
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He mentioned again how the home background helped him to take off. This is exactly what captures current events. After the success in Cádiz, he could play another tournament in the same place, but he preferred to fly home before the final for a week. “Time with my family charges me with positive energy. It’s a restart of my head and I can go again,” said 29-year-old Lieser.
He was sixth in the season before the final Challenge Tour. He needed to get in five to play a card on the prestigious European Tour. “It will sound weird, but I went to win the tournament and I wasn’t interested in the calculations,” Lieser said.
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As in Cádiz, this time he gradually climbed the order. The final eighteen in Mallorca, however, was extremely exciting, for a while there were up to twelve players in the game for the title, a few more holes before the end there were seven golfers to minus ten. “It was a shootout,” Lieser said, adding, “I couldn’t do it at all, but when I saw that the others didn’t play much either, I kicked and ended up sharply.”
He played par on the 17th and birdied the heel on the final 18th. “I didn’t experience that kind of pressure, I literally felt it,” he said. On the other hand, he managed the moment of truth. “I wasn’t even stressed out. Fortunately, my hands didn’t start shaking, which was very good. Really, I don’t stop surprising myself,” he said.
And he was surprised at how moved he was. He kept no tears during the phone call with his wife. “People who know me know I’m not sensitive, but I had trouble stopping my tears. It was such an emotional first time on golf,” said a member of the Golf Geum Technology team.
He has already risen to 179th in the world rankings, which currently guarantees him a position among sixty players for the Tokyo Olympics. “There is no athlete who does not want to play in the Olympics. A chance has opened up. We will see how it will be,” he said.
At home, he looked forward to a reward in the form of his wife’s excellent cuisine. “If she went to cook in a Michelin-starred restaurant, everyone would be happy,” he said.
He will not have time to rest in the near future. In addition to his media responsibilities, winning the Challenge Tour secured him a seat on the European Tour next week in Dubai, where he will fly. Then he has to come up with a program for next season. The question is how many tournaments he will play. “It probably won’t be four or five in a row, but not more than two. My wife and I need to discuss this,” Lieser said.
One knows for sure. In the first season of the European Tour, he does not want to play the second violin next year. “I’m not going there for an exam, I’m much further,” he said confidently.
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