I had been looking forward to this event for ages – I’ve played Spey Valley a few times before and it’s very impressive. But if you thought Crosland Heath had deep heather then play Spey Valley … I’m not joking when I say it’s three times as thick there!
It’s a great layout, and the views are amazing. You can see the snow-topped Cairngorms whilst you play!
The best part of the week was that Laura and Jess came with me; it was Jessica’s first little holiday and we planned to explore as much of Aviemore as we could whilst we were there (photos to follow).
We rented a house for the week, so started the journey up on the Friday, stopping over near Glasgow to break the 7 hour drive.
Over the weekend we visited the wildlife park, the reindeer centre, the café at the top of the Cairngorms, and the Osprey Centre. All amazing places to visit whilst up there and well worth a visit!!
There are also the details of the house we rented below – perfect location, 10 minute walk from the golf course and the village. Very homely with everything you need.
It was also great to have Duncan from www.ignitesports.co.uk up there for a few days to work on the mental side of my game. He makes sure my that my preparation is good and that my practice at events is constructive.
He sure helped and come Thursday morning, when I was first off at 7.35am, I was ready to play! Thanks, Dunc!
My golf in round 1 was again pretty mixed. Each week I’m starting to hit more and more good shots but I just seem to keep making 1 or 2 really bad mistakes that are costing me dearly.
I’m finding it hard to move on from those shots at present and they then carry on through the round. That’s unlike me but I am getting better and looking forward to that round when I put a good mental performance together.
Thinking back to rounds like Galgorm Castle in 2011 when I was perfect!
Round two and we all had to deal with a 2.5 hour delay. I teed off at 3.25pm and started on 11. This was a tough start and we played the first two holes in a challenging wind. I bogeyed them both which is never great, but I battled back.
I then played the last 10 holes in -3 to shoot a respectable 70 (-1) for the day and although I missed the cut I felt a lot happier about many parts of my game.
I’m looking forward to getting back out there this week in Italy for the Challenge Tour event near Milan.
Wish me luck! 🙂