Humphries "surprised himself"

LUKE HUMPHRIES admits he has “surprised himself” by dominating the sport over the past 12 months. 

The World No.1 picked up his first major Grand Prix just under a year ago and then has gone on to win the Grand Slam, Players Championship, Worlds, World Cup and Matchplay.

‘Cool Hand’, 29, admits it’s now the serious end of the season again beginning with the World Series Finals in Amsterdam, starting on Friday night.

He revealed: “I have surprised myself this year. When I won the Grand Prix last October I felt at the time it was a great start to my career with my first major win. I’d love to follow it up with another major in the next 12 months. That would have been a realistic goal. 

“But I followed it up with two more majors straight away and then the World Championship, World Cup and World Matchplay. There’s been many other major finals as well along the way. 

“There’s been major wins but also eight or nine finals in a year. It’s something quite incredible to be honest. 

“It may be something I’ll never be able to do again, it will be incredibly tough. I just want to keep working hard and playing well and lift as many major titles as I can. 

“I won’t be putting too much pressure on myself to retain every trophy I won last year. It’s kind of impossible to recalibrate and do the same. The talent is too high these days. 

“I always say my goal is to pick up a couple of majors a year. If you do that and tick along, you’ll be sat in the world’s top four for a long time.”

Humphries has drawn New Zealand’s Haupai Puha in the first round with Gabriel Clemens or Damon Heta waiting as the next tie. 

He added: “I’m feeling really good, I had a nice break and time off. I came back last week and felt back to normal.

“Going into this weekend I feel sharp again. Now I’m ready for the back end of the year and the big majors. 

“It meant a lot to win in New Zealand for the World Series, it was something I wanted to tick off on my CV.

“They are not say to win with the top eight players in the world in them. They might be small events but to us top players they mean a lot to win. 

“This is not a ranked event but it’s important to get a great start to what I call the business end of a tough year.” 

Words by Phil Lanning