Papadatos’ Passion Reignites

There was a time in Dimi Papadatos’ life when a brief thought about what was for dinner that night would have diminished his next swing.

That’s not to say golf isn’t still extremely important to the 34-year-old New South Welshman, as his lofty standing early in the Ford New South Wales Open will attest.

He will stand on the first tee on Friday after a fabulous first-round 67 – just one off the lead shared by Lucas Higgins and Lachlan Barker.

It’s just now – for arguably the first time in almost two decades (yes, Dimi fans, it’s both true and frightening) since a 15-year-old amateur pegged it up in his first state championship – success in his current world won’t be fully measured by what happens over the weekend.

Dimi and good mate Cobie Campbell have taken the entrepreneurial plunge into a combined golf simulator and fitness business in Tuggerah on the Central Coast.

It’s called InSim Golf – although a couple of wags have suggested it should have been called DimSim – and while it’s going well as a fledgling enterprise, it obviously requires time and attention.

And maybe, just maybe, this balance across the active mind and strapping frame of the uber-popular Papadatos might be the solution to rediscovering his imposing game.

Papadatos has won four times on the Australian tour, once in Europe on the Challenge Tour and has played twice in Open Championships.

But even though he still loves golf, he’ll be the first to tell you it has pushed him close to breaking point the past couple of years without much on-course success – and a billion miles of ultimately fruitless travel en route to those nasty thoughts about the game he loves.

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“I was playing poorly and things just start getting you a little bit down, then it happens just a little bit more, and it can be a bit of a spiral from there,” he said with typical candour.

“It affects your golf first, but then if you’re down, it affects everything outside of golf – friendships, family and stuff like that.

“So, yeah, it’s pretty tough.

“I’ve only had one good round here, but, you know, it’s nice to know there’s something still in there, and I think having that business on the side’s definitely helped me… put my focus into something else, too.”

Papadatos mixed five birdies with just one bogey en route to his opening round at The Vintage, playing in the windiest part of the day, to boot.

And nobody was more shocked than the man himself after a few months away from the game.

“I’m very happy to be playing so well. Absolutely. And surprised,” he joked.

“There was a point there today when I thought, `This is how I used to play’, and it was a great feeling.

“To be honest, I haven’t played much. I played one round in three weeks. I played the Elanora pro-am and shot even, and I thought that was OK, and here we are.

“I sort of got out of my way, and it’s nice to know it’s still in there somewhere.”

Which is a far cry from where his game has been.

“Fortunately, golf has never been life and death for me, but it does tend to break you slowly.

“Unfortunately, (the unravelling) is just so slow. It doesn’t break you in a day, golf, but it just wears you down and just grinds away, and you know, if you don’t turn it around, it just keeps going.

“You think it will, and it has plenty of times turned around for me.

“But I’ve had a lot of downs in golf, and none have been for as long as that.

“So hopefully I can put a few more of these good rounds together.

“I’m very thankful I’ve had a lot of good support from family and good friends, and they’ve told me, `Just keep going, just keep going’.

“So here I am, still going.

“And it was actually fun today.”