For a man who has ADHD and admits that overstimulation is a problem, Marco Penge has had an eventful year. It has involved moving to the United States, finding a new home but finding himself unwelcome at certain golf clubs, and then becoming a dad again in February but watching his son spend 21 days in intensive care. Now he faces his first Masters. “It’s going to be a challenge,” he says.
Penge, 27, is generous company both in terms of his time and candour. His star is rising. In February, his peers on the DP World Tour voted him the player of last year, ahead of the Masters and Race to Dubai champion Rory McIlroy. Three wins built on mammoth drives, as well as a runner-up spot at the Scottish Open, earned him that accolade and it bookended a remarkable chapter.
In 2024, Penge endured 19 missed cuts and saved his Tour card only with a birdie on the final hole to make the weekend at the Genesis Championship. The poor form was partly due to a protracted investigation that ended just before Christmas when he received a three-month DP World Tour ban for gambling on golf tournaments. He had not bet on himself and the wagers were small change, but the turmoil was enormous. It has been 18 months to remember.
Penge won the Spanish Open last October before starting his new life Stateside Stuart Franklin/Getty
Romeo Penge only got out of Jupiter Medical Center in Florida on March 17. “It was different than with our first child and we didn’t expect or understand some of the things that can happen in pregnancy,” Penge says. “His lungs were a little undeveloped and he needed some help to breathe for the first 2½ weeks. It was a waiting game in terms of him deciding when he wanted to do it on his own, but the staff at the hospital were amazing.”
His blossoming last year resulted in the extra reward of a PGA Tour card, but the move to the US is not always trouble-free. Bob MacIntyre was honest about his homesickness after his first US salvoes and Penge, Crawley-born and Horsham-raised with an Italian father, is a “proud British-Italian”. Indeed, while you might think his suspension would have coloured his view of his home circuit, he says he will probably play three or four years in the US before going back to the DP World Tour.
“I miss foggy, cold mornings,” he says. “I miss the changing culture every week playing in Europe, the changing cuisine. I want to play majors, Ryder Cups, but my ambition is to go down as a legend in European golf and, ultimately, I’d love to go back to Europe and live in the UK. I’ve got a big attachment to the European Tour. There’s probably a lot of three-times winners but not many ten-times ones and I’d really like to get to double digits.”
That should not be read as a lack of commitment to his new life in Florida, where he loves the fact that you can go into a bar and golf is likely to be playing on the TV. However, he did not get off to the most auspicious start. After winning the Spanish Open in October, he flew to Florida with his wife, Sophie, the low amateur at the Women’s British Open in 2017. Their mission was to find a home and a club.
“That whole day me and my wife were here, there and everywhere,” he recalls. “We were just in our casual, travel clothes and found that can be a little disrespectful to some clubs over there. I nipped into one, had a quick look around the range, and was only there for about five minutes because we had so much to see, so I was a bit surprised when I got the reply saying I’d not got in.”
Receiving an ADHD diagnosis has given Penge a greater understanding of what makes him tickLuke Walker/Getty
He does not name the sensitive souls offended by a top-30 player’s shorts, but he joined Old Palm and it may say much about an unburdened mind that days after Romeo’s release he had his best result in the US, finishing fourth at the Valspar Championship last month. “He came out on Tuesday and my wife came up on Wednesday with both my boys and my dog. I’d only booked it for me and my caddie so we were all crammed into this little Airbnb.
“I just went to play golf and came home and played with my kids and dog. It was great being there and hearing my oldest [Enzo, who will be two in June] shout ‘Dadda’ rather than thinking, ‘I’ve got seven holes left and I’m tied for the lead.’ It helped my brain by being able to switch off.”
His brain gets mentioned a few times because it was during his enforced hiatus that he had ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) diagnosed. The symptoms of being inattentive but also able to hyperfocus on an activity explained a lot, which is why he calls his ban a blessing. “I was in disbelief that I’d made that error [gambling]. A few years before, there’d been a slideshow about what you’re allowed to do and not do, but it was seriously boring.
“When you don’t have much attention span you kind of switch off and [do] not pay attention to what you need. That can be quite penal, as I found out. I’d felt something was not quite right for me to have made this mistake and there were other situations where I’d struggled too.
“So I had a brain scan and they diagnosed me, and it helped me understand myself as a person, what makes me tick, and why I struggle in certain situations.”
It means his coach, Alex Buckner, knows he must get information across in the right way or “it might go in one ear and out the other”. There are a myriad of other situations that would seem to make a sportsman’s life harder.
Penge has warmed to aspects of life in the US but misses “cold, foggy” morningsJordan Bank/Getty
“I just get overstimulated very quickly because I’m always thinking about everyone else,” he adds. “I can’t seem to store many types of reading and my brain doesn’t deal very well with anxiety. I’m either fully engaged or not at all, but there are a lot of positives about having ADHD too, like being able to hyperfocus. It explains why I was able to win three times last year because I have the capabilities to go somewhere else mentally that other people don’t.”
He is not taking medication, but has worked out coping strategies with his wife, coach and psychologist. His caddie, Max Bill, needs a good understanding of ADHD but, Penge says, “we’ve got a similar brain”.
All of which brings us to Augusta. The glare and pressure of the year’s first major, hundreds of media, a fetish for rules and snaking queues for Day-Glo gnomes in the shop can coalesce into an assault on the senses. The prospect of being overstimulated seems all too real.
“I wanted to visit before to get that first ‘wow’ kind of giddiness out of the way,” he says. “I was meant to do that but my son was born, so I changed plans. I’m sure I’ll be bouncing about, buzzing, like a little boy, but it’s about finding the balance. I’ll talk about it with my team at the start of the week, but I know it will be a challenge.”
The plain-speaking Englishman is searingly honest about the defects in his game Bradley Kanaris/Getty
Penge says the Masters is his favourite tournament to watch and rattles off his highlights reel — Tiger Woods’s chip-in on the 16th in 2005, his comeback win in 2019, Bubba Watson’s hook in the play-off in 2012, Phil Mickelson’s pine straw escapology on the 13th in 2010. “It’ll be cool just to go and check out the areas where these great players hit those historic shots,” he says.
Many golfers can become bogged down in psychobabble or indulge in textbook speak, but Penge is brutally honest about his game. His driving has long drawn plaudits, but he does not resort to “taking-the-positive” tropes about other aspects. “My iron play is so hit and miss,” he laments. “Even last year it wasn’t great at times. I hit tee shots every day where I’m like, ‘That is world class.’ But I don’t do that with my irons.
“Last week was the last straw, so I’ve started to make a couple of changes. It feels like a rebuild but, to be honest, it can’t get much worse. I know I’m one of the, if not the, best drivers in the world, so in the last three days I’ve probably hit 1,000 iron shots and 25 drives.”
There is an Italian connection in his backroom team, with Edoardo Molinari providing his stats breakdowns, and he has dual loyalties when it comes to football, edging 55 per cent to England in head-to-heads “depending on who I’m watching it with”. He was a talented player himself, earning trials with Southampton and Reading.
One of his stated aims is to “stay humble”, but do not underestimate the talent or desire of a man rated by many as the hottest prospect in European golf. Eighteen months have taught him a lot. “No matter what happens from now I’ve kind of proved myself to the world,” he says. “I’ve learnt I do well when I’m up against it and I enjoy the challenge of overcoming setbacks.” It is showing.