MAKING HIS MARK

David Facey talks to Adrian Meronk, who is eager to progress from first Pole to play on tour to first Pole to make the Ryder Cup team

- David Facey

Thankfully, the 6ft 6in giant towering over me has a sense of humour, and he laughs when I ask him what it feels like to be known as Adrian the First of Poland. That is the good-natured nickname bestowed by his fellow players on Adrian Meronk, who seems to clock up another ‘first’ every time he sets foot on a golf course.

Meronk nods his head, before replying, “I know just what you mean. I hear it a lot: the first Polish golfer to play on the European Tour – sorry, the DP World Tour now – the first Polish player to win on the circuit, the first to play in The Open, The Masters. Hopefully, the first to play in the Ryder Cup and to earn a PGA Tour card. But that is for the future.

“The list goes on, and I’m very happy about it. I want to be an inspiration for other Polish golfers, to let them see what is possible and fill them with the ambition to be the second Polish player to achieve these things. And the third. And the fourth. And so on.”

Meronk’s trailblazing exploits could easily have failed to come about. He considered a career as a volleyball player – his father played professionally for a while – and his height and reach would have been obvious advantages. But he found team sport too frustrating – an emotion he has happily overcome, given his Ryder Cup ambitions.

From volley ball to golf 

“I used to play a lot of other sports growing up, especially volleyball,” Meronk explains. “My father played as a professional - well, semi-professional I suppose, because he also had a job – but the extra money was very useful.