TROON, Scotland — Most people have probably never heard of Joe Dean.
After shooting an even-par 71 on Saturday and sitting four over par heading into the final round, he’s not going to win The Open at Royal Troon.
But Dean is competing in the Open, which is a great story in itself.
The 30-year-old mini-tour journeyman from Britain, who is eight strokes behind leader Billy Horschel after the third round, has been working as a food delivery truck driver for British supermarket chain Morrisons since the COVID-19 outbreak and said he is “still registered” despite continuing to pursue his dream of becoming a professional golfer.
“A lot of the people that I know and that are good friends are really good athletes but they’ve never competed in a tournament like this,” Dean told The Washington Post, “so it’s really awesome.”
Dean was trying to survive on the Challenge Tour, a lower level than the DP World Tour, when COVID-19 shut down the world.
At the time, his fiancée, Emily Lyle, encouraged him to get a proper job.
“It wasn’t my decision,” Dean says. “My fiancée said, ‘You can’t just hang around all day. Get a job.’ And I was like, ‘OK, why not?’ And I’m honestly so glad she did it, because now we have the home we’ve always wanted and we can start living our own lives and be comfortable and happy.
“Probably within a week. [COVID-19]”The local Morrisons had advertised for drivers, they obviously knew this would be a big hit,” Dean said, “so I went straight in and signed up with Morrisons and within a week or two I was a driver – I’m technically still on the roster.”
“During lockdown I was working 30-35 hours a week. When golf started again I decided to go back to 25 hours, two to three days a week and keep going from there.”
Before Dean won £170,000 for finishing runner-up at the Magical Kenya Open earlier this season, his biggest prize in golf was £20,000 after qualifying at the 2017 Birkdale Open.
Dean laughs that his fellow delivery truck drivers know nothing about golf or how special it is for him to be playing in the British Open.
“Not a lot of people know anything about golf, so when I came back and said I qualified for the Open, they were like, ‘So what does that mean? Does that mean I’m not going to work next week?’
Dean is working this week pursuing a different kind of career.
He qualified for the Open by finishing runner-up twice on the DP World Tour.
Dean doesn’t seem too stressed about where to go next.
“We have a comfortable life and a great home life,” he said, “so if it’s fate, it’s fate.”
