Before I get into the competition, I have created a blog for members of Hoylake, family and friends enabling them to keep track of my progress throughout the year. Events come thick and fast in the summer therefore I won’t be home as much to explain how I’ve done. This blog should allow me to give a detailed description of what happened and I openly welcome anyone to follow it.
Moving on, my first tournament was in Portugal at a place called Montado Golf Club. A very typical overseas tree lined course with water and a penal penalty for any wide carve. I started off at 12 noon first round at the 10th with a bogey, par, birdie start. It all went drastically wrong on the 13th however, when on a narrow tee shot ( OB left, water right) I pulled, 2, 3 woods with the wind resulting in both being a foot out of bounds. It wasn’t your typical Sunday carve which is why I felt slightly aggrieved. It ended up in an 8. Some average play on the back 9 made me par in for +4. Then the weather thought it’d be kind and adapt to my cultural norms and start chucking it down with rain with the wind picking up. On the front 9 I had to battle hard through some tough holes with good pars managing to birdie the 7th but bogeying 8 to finish with 76. A round I can only summarise as 17 good holes.
For the 2nd round I had a 7.55am starting on the 1st, lovely! A 3 putt from 25ft on the 1st started the most atrocious putting display for the next 2 rounds. I bogeyed 1 and a missed 10ft putt on 4 for par gave me another bad start. A small putt on 7 for birdie was missed along with other outside chances, this equated to going out in 38 (+2). I had another 3 putt on 12 from 20/25ft and by the time I played the 14th, I had hit 12/14 greens and was +3. I kept going as there were still 2 par 5’s to play which I manage to birdie ending up in a 73. No prizes awarded from people guessing where I went next.
With a 3 round cut being a strange format I knew it would be around +5 which I was at the moment. Level or better would see me through, just trying to make cuts however is something I’m not content with so hopefully this will be a rare occurrence. Starting on the 10th my putting woes continued with another 3 putt on 12. A 2 putt birdie on 15 saw me shoot level for the back 9 hitting 9/9 greens. A ridiculous 3 putt on the 1st from 12ft along with being on the fringe on the 2nd yet 3 putting that for par really hurt my chances and my confidence as well. My first bad drive of the day at the 5th lead to a chip out and again taking 3 from about 25ft meant any chance of the cut being made was very slim with a 6 here. Insult to injury was on my mind when I 3 putted 7 for par. My final hole was that of complete frustration and what should’ve been. A hole along side water which you then hit over led to 3 balls going for a swim and a resulting 10.
Yes it looks bad but I should never have been out of the competition by then. A total of 39 putts is what hurt me more than anything. Forgetting that last hole I worked out from the last 2 rounds if I cut out the silly 3 putts and a couple of missed, but not all, small 4/5 ft. putts, I should’ve been about L/+1 total when playing the last, that’s including an 8! So from driving the ball Ok, hitting greens but not hitting it close and average putting I could’ve still been top 20 with a round to go. I know golf is a game of ifs and buts and although I didn’t do a lot right this time, I still have the potential be up there. So I’m going to take this thought with me into my next tournament and in the meantime get practicing.
matthewjordangolf 