I’m a Morrisons driver who just won £170k playing golf

If you live in the Worksop or Doncaster environs and are waiting for a Morrisons delivery, it could be your lucky day. You might just be receiving your groceries from Joe Dean, who claimed his best finish as a professional golfer at the Magical Kenya Open on Sunday, banking a £170k jackpot for second place. Magical indeed.

Though Dean plans to spend a few days at home to recover from the excitement, he has not ruled out a return to the day job before he tees it up in his next tournament. Sensible after 10 years of struggling to sustain a living playing golf, even if the £85 a shift does not quite match the £42.5k day rate he pulled in Kenya.

“I started in March 2020 during the pandemic,” he tells i. “I spoke to my girlfriend. We knew golf wasn’t going to be on the cards for quite a while, so we thought I’d better earn a bit of money and put it towards a house. It did the job. We were able to get a mortgage and get our first home, so it was fantastic.

“During lockdown I was doing 30-35 hours a week. As the golf kicked in, I took it back to 25 hours, two or three days a week and just went from there. I did two or three days before Qatar and was down to work afterwards but took a week off between Qatar and Kenya just to regroup.”

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Until Sunday, Dean’s biggest payday was £20k for making the cut at the 2017 Open Championship at Birkdale. Winner Jordan Spieth flew back to Texas by private jet. Dean was halfway home before Spieth teed off for his final round. Before earning his 2024 tour card at Q-School last November, Dean had been grinding away on the Euro and Challange Tours, making £60k over four years.

He finally made his DP World debut as a touring pro at the Qatar Masters a fortnight ago. After missing the cut, his boss granted him the following week off to prepare for Kenya, and following four rounds in the 60s, he sits 36th in the Race to Dubai and not quite sure what to make of it all.

“It’s obviously amazing,” he said. “The money is phenomenal, but it costs up to £80k a year to fund yourself and with taxes and coaches to pay it all goes back in. If you don’t win again and you don’t have any sponsors, it’s all gone. Don’t get me wrong its hell of a lot of money, but you have to be sensible about it.”

Hence holding on to his Morrisons gig. “I think I have three or four weeks off now so I might pick up a shift or two. I don’t mind doing it. It’s a good laugh and a good set of people. It helps a lot of people out, so I don’t mind doing it. A few of the locals know me and we have a quick chat, but for most I go under the radar.”

Dean shared the same amateur coach, Peter Ball, as Danny Willett. And as a youth in the Sheffield region he had the same ambitions, to turn pro and win a major. For most, that dream fades quickly. After winning the English Amateur in 2015 Dean signed with Octagon sports agency rather than pursue the American college circuit like so many do in the modern game.

“I looked into it but it didn’t suit my path in golf, if you like,” he adds. “I like more of a relaxed approach. Gym in the morning, studying, back to the gym in the afternoon and then golf was not really for me. I decided against it. It suits some and that is fantastic, but it wasn’t for me. At the end of the day you still have to get it around the course.”

Dean missed out on Q-School qualification in 2018, finishing outside the top-25 qualifying spots by a place. He then fell into the fruitless habit of range golf, spending hours hitting balls in search of the perfect swing. Only now at 29 has he come to understand that perfection gets in the way of good enough. He spent just 15 minutes on the range before the first round in Kenya. Bar a bit of chipping and putting, he didn’t bother again.

Among those to congratulate Dean was the mother of Lee Westwood, hitherto Worksop’s most famous son. He wouldn’t say whether Mrs Westwood shopped at Morrisons. “I know Trish very well. She’s lovely. She sent me and my girlfriend a nice message, which was really nice.” With that he was off to speak to a television crew from ITV, his life, Morrisons apart, spectacularly off its axis.