Eddie Pepperell: Home support vital for DP World Tour

“I’d take it to Ibiza!”

You would never have guessed that Eddie Pepperell has just been asked where he would host the British Masters if he was ever offered the gig.

The Englishman, who won his second DP World Tour title in this very event when Justin Rose took it to Walton Heath in 2018, will tee up at The Belfry this week as he looks to continue his mini-revival.

Pepperell took three months off after starting 2023 with four straight missed cuts in the Middle East and Asia, opting to skip the remainder of the Asian swing, as well as the three-week stint in Africa, and spend the time working on his game on a newly-installed simulator at his Oxfordshire home.

It certainly worked. Pepperell’s return to competitive action yielded a tie for ninth at the Italian Open before a tied-22nd in Belgium and a share for 12th at the Scandinavian Mixed.

But while last week’s BMW International Open ended on Friday after a pair of 75s, Pepperell is looking forward to home comforts as the DP World Tour’s finest descend on this corner of Birmingham.

“It’s an historic event,” Pepperell tells bunkered. “I’ve played it in every year since it came back in 2015 – and I wouldn’t miss it for anything really.

“Any time you get the opportunity to play in your home country, you take it. You get really well supported, and it’s important for the Tour – perhaps now more than ever.

“One thing I’ve picked up on a lot this year is that every time we go to an event in Europe, as long as they’ve had their home players there, it’s been really well supported,” Pepperell explains. “A couple of events haven’t had their best home player there due to LIV, but it’s still been well supported because they’ve had a good player there.

“So for the Tour, it’s of paramount importance that players support their home events.”

World No 8 Matt Fitzpatrick, who won his first title as a professional at the 2015 British Masters, as well as Tyrrell Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood – 15th and 21st respectively – have opted to skip this week, meaning Justin Rose, at 31, is the highest-ranked Briton in the field.

Pepperell, the World No 244, continues: “I would consider this more of a home event than the BMW PGA Championship in many respects. It’s more singularly British, if that makes sense.

“Wentworth is a massive tournament, but it has a more global feel to it. This has more of a domestic feel, so I would always play it.”

So how about those hosting duties, the honour currently bestowed on Sir Nick Faldo?

“Well, I’m definitely not going to be knighted any time soon,” Pepperell jokes.

“It’s something that I’d love to do – but I think I need to achieve a lot more in the game before that’s likely.

“To have Nick on hosting duties is a really good move. It was putting some of the players in a really difficult spot asking them to host it and then them maybe not getting everyone they had hoped to play in it.”

“But yeah,” he laughs again, “if I was to host it, we’re going to Ibiza. We’ll have the pro-am on a boat, a party on the sea, maybe get Craig David to perform for a small fee…”

• Justin Rose taking the sentimental route on British Masters return

The Betfred British Masters, hosted by Sir Nick Faldo, gets underway at The Belfry on Thursday. You can read our full preview here.

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor