Well, it’s coming towards the back end of the season now and I still have some big opportunities to open a few new doors!
I started writing this over breakfast in Kazakhstan after a 19-hour journey to get here, a journey that hopefully will be worth it as this week we play for four times the normal money, with first prize somewhere in the region of £60k.
A life changing amount, but what would be more life changing would be the European Tour card you would most likely earn for your new OOM position.
This week my travel started Saturday, heading down to a friend’s place in Surrey to break up the journey to Gatwick, as Sunday was an epic travel day!
A lunchtime flight (3.5 hr) to Kiev with a connection there and an onward flight to Almaty (5.5 hr). Then with a 5 hour time difference I don’t actually get to my accommodation until 5.30am.
Straight to bed!
So when I said earlier I am writing this over breakfast, it’s actually your breakfast time and now my lunchtime!
So, after a few hours’ sleep I headed to the course for the start of three days’ fun practice, getting used to new greens, thick rough and 15-yard wide fairways. They really have made this course tight!
Round 1:
I played pretty solidly today, made a few nice birdies but a few poor errors had me finish at -1 for a 71 and into 38th position. But a great position to try and build on for the rest of the week!
Let’s see what happens!
Round 2:
Well, I definitely did not build on a good first round, I made a lot of poor mistakes today and if it was not for a few flashes of greatness I would be trying to catch the next plane out of here.
But after a scrambling 73 (+1) I actually made the cut safely and lived to fight the weekend!
I now had the chance to try and improve my weaknesses and put a few other things to the test! Game on!
Round 3:
I actually played the worst golf of the week but somehow turned it into another 71 (-1), so there must be some positives in there. An afternoon on the range and a few swing videos sent across the Wifi to my coach back home and I had some answers to work on the following day.
Round 4:
Another early start, and a bit of a change of plan this time. I set my alarm that bit earlier (6.15am) to get down to the gym where I was staying and ‘wake up’ properly! A good stretch and some CV work to get a little sweat on!
Then an extended warm up on the range to hopefully stand on that first tee with some good thoughts. It sure helped, I hit it nice on the range and took that to the course playing the best I have all week.
A slightly poor finish – missing a 4ft birdie putt on 17 to get to -3 and a bogey up the last to finish again with a 71 felt a little disappointing but I guess over the course of a round it all evens itself out, as I made a career par on 15, and a great par save on 16… So I can’t be too disappointed as I still moved up a few places to finish T32nd.
Overall, a positive week, and now two trips to Kazakhstan for the Challenge Tour ‘major’ under my belt; I have made the cut both times and this year improved my position by 30 spots!
I also feel I have built some momentum and confidence in my game and I’m looking forward to my three weeks in the Emirates on the Mena Tour in preparation for the Tour School.
*Massive thanks to Shahbaz for his work on the bag and Laird and his family for their hospitality in their lovely home, it sure made it an easier and more fun week*
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, hope to have some exciting results to read about over the next two months! Fingers crossed!