Back on the road after three weeks off, and what a busy three weeks it has been!
So what have I been up to …?
Well, golf wise I managed to see my coach a few times, and also play a couple of Yorkshire pro-ams. I shot -1 at Rotherham and then won the YPGA pro-am at Leeds Golf Centre with -6; it was also great for my team mates, Graham, Mike and Martin to pick up 5th place prize too with an impressive -17!
It was nice to post a decent number after the practice and the work me and Mark had done on my swing in the previous two weeks, so that was a reward in itself!
Also in the middle of my three weeks off it was truly a massive honour to be the ‘best man’ at my best friend Ben Johnson’s wedding. It was an incredible day, and I know everyone had a great time and I’m sure Ben and Lucy will never forget their wonderful wedding!
The following Friday I then helped out a friend (seeitnowsports.com) with a Ryder Cup golf lunch at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Leeds, which was fun. I had the guests hitting balls into a net using the Trackman to monitor their distance and stats so they could compete against each other; it seemed to work well and the competition soon heated up once the drinks were flowing.
It’s also been great to spend some time at Woodsome and catch up with many of the members before heading back out on tour.
And just before I did we held the 3rd annual Arrow Self Drive golf day at Woodsome, and what a great day it was! 100 guests turned out to support my career and with the help of everyone at Arrow we had a fantastic day.
The weather was again kind to us and the course was brilliant as always! To receive comments from guests of how the day went was very pleasing and I can’t wait to host it again next year!
So once the three weeks were over it was en route to Rome for the next Challenge Tour event. I’d heard great things about the course, so hoped I could carry on where my golf left off in France with another positive week.
After dodging cars like go-karts around Rome, we finally found the golf course, and what a beast of a course it is! The last time the CT played here (6 years ago) it measured approx. 800 metres shorter and after a practice round Tue/Wed it was soon apparent that I would be hitting a lot of 4 irons into greens, and only if I found the fairway first!!!
Round 1 was scrappy. I made a perfect birdie down the 10th, my first hole, and then played average for the rest of the round really, some glimpses of form but far too many loose shots and, very unlike me, I missed a few shortish putts!
We then got called off the course with one hole to go due to bad light … the night before there had been storms like I have never seen before and that delayed the first round by an hour as they had to clear the debris from the bunkers and greens.
So back to the 9th tee to play my last hole first thing the next morning and then hopefully after a good Italian breakfast a great 2nd round would see me there for the weekend…
The following morning…
I made a solid par down the 9th, my last hole of round 1, then after an hour turn around we headed back out to battle this monster of a course!
I think the general thoughts from the players are that it’s great to play a course where you really have to hit it good, and good golf shots are rewarded! If you play poor round here you have no chance at all!!!!
To give you an idea … in round two I hit 6 iron or more into the green TEN times!! Now that’s a proper test of golf, and if you’re off the fairway from that distance you’re getting nowhere near the green in regulation!
So round two I felt to play really nice, hit some quality golf shots but just didn’t hole enough putts, so signed for a level par 71. That was a pretty good score out there, and with the cut falling at +5 it just showed how tough it was.
So, another weekend of golf and another chance to try and move up the board. At the start of the week making sure you’re there for the weekend is key, then hopefully you can attack a bit more over the next two days.
So how did the weekend go . . . ?
I actually felt like I played pretty solid in round 3, but as this course shows, it’s so easy to drop shots when you’re hitting long iron after long iron!
And my round of 73 (+2) was a disappointing finish to a round full of quality shots!
But there were a lot of positives to take into the last round, so I really hoped that I could put it together for 18 holes and leave Italy with some extra confidence before heading home.
The final round….!
After a sloppy start of bogey, par, bogey, I then knuckled down, knowing that I had to find something in this round!
So to battle back and shoot level par in the end was very respectable and leaving the last green I was happy with my day’s work.
I’ve played pretty solidly all week, so to finish T25th was not too bad at all, and the main thing was that it notched a little bit more money onto the Order of Merit which could be crucial come the end of the year.
So another week over and another journey home began … but having 5 hours to pass, we managed to park up in central Rome and have a coffee sitting outside the ‘Pantheon’.
Not a bad place to put my golf stats into the system on the computer …
A big thanks this week must go to Steve for his work on the bag; he puts in 100% every time and sure saves me shots out there, and in the heat we played in this week, it’s been great to not have to lug a trolley round on this brute of a course!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my first blog back after three weeks, and I hope I still have some more interesting blogs to write before the end of the season …
I just don’t know when and where from yet …
But I’m sure we’ll speak soon.
Thanks for the support, as always!
Chris