The KLM Open!

Tour Diary

Weeks feel like they are flying by at the moment – that’s another run of four tournaments ticked off – but it’s great to take plenty of positives away from it all and, of course, add points to my OOM tally!!

In Denmark, my ball striking was world class, but a cold putter led to a missed cut by 1 shot; from there I went on to finish T14th, T37th, and finally T25th last week at the KLM Open.

And it was great to see the effort I’ve put in to my putting pay dividends and see my stats hugely improve, as I promised you all they would!

I had also set some short-term outcome goals to push towards over the previous 4 events:

• win €100,000
• be in contention
• push for top 250 in the world

I didn’t achieve them all, but I got myself in contention to win, I added approx €50,000 to the OOM, and raised my world ranking back up to 331

So, how did the KLM Open go last week?

I arrived with positive memories of a T8th finish last year; I like the course, hence the reason I chose to play this week, rather than Portugal next week which is my scheduled break.

But this year the course couldn’t have played more differently, and the forecast predicted it was going to be another very wet week which would surely affect the scoring.

Thursday morning, looking out of the hotel window, it looked pretty grim; scoring wasn’t great but at the top of the leaderboard players were still making birdies. I watched some of the coverage and the wind was in and out, and the rain was coming in showers then drying up.

It certainly changed in the afternoon. The first of the afternoon groups got it tough, they probably played 9 holes in wind and rain, which progressively got worse to the point where we then teed off and after two holes of fighting with umbrellas and debating with the referee, they called it off!

I haven’t played in rain and wind that bad for a while. I holed a good 10ft putt for par on 10, I then played the unreachable par 4 11th sensibly to 12ft for three, and then watched the wind make a mockery of the putting and I three putted my way to a double bogey!!!

Coming off the course then was the best possible decision. We got lucky to restart the following day and had pretty decent weather for 34 holes!

I parred 12 on the restart then birdied the next four holes making putts from 55ft, 16ft, 8ft and 18ft!! In the end, I shot 68 (-3) and followed that up in the afternoon with a level par 71 to cruise through the cut to enjoy some more weekend golf!!

Bad weather and delays sure make the weeks feel longer and longer, you miss the breaks and down time you normally get during a week, and they’re what keep you fresh for the whole tournament.

And this week I also had to find time to locate a dentist, with half a back tooth falling out in Crans last week, making it super sensitive and pretty painful. Thankfully I got it sorted Tuesday night in the local town, with some help from my manager Duncan!

After a slow start to Saturday’s round, I then made eagle on 6 to change the momentum for the day, it got me under the card and from there I played nicely, carding another round of 68 (-3) which also moved me up to T16th with a round to go.

I had some more #TeamHanson support out this week – Cathy and Jim Baxter cheered me along all the way, so it was lovely of them to join me for dinner Saturday night.

So, one last push and then home for a week to see the girls!!

Through 9 holes I was level par, and both my playing partners were -3. I was playing ok but nothing dropped, all of a sudden it feels even worse when they are pulling away from you!!!

I then went bogey bogey, so you can imagine how I felt!!!

I constantly remind myself that every shot counts, they all have the same importance, all you can do is stick to your process, try to hit good shots and hopefully hole some putts. Down 12 I did and it gave me a little lift!!

I then hit it close on the par 3 14th and birdied 15 after finding the par 5 green in two shots!

I parred in for 70 (-1) which felt ok – it dropped me down the board to T25th but I guess it’s another solid week and nice to shoot four rounds of level par or better.

I’ve now got a scheduled break and then it’s full steam ahead for the final four events: British Masters, Alfred Dunhill Links, Italian Open, and the Spanish Open!!

Four fantastic opportunities – I can’t wait to get stuck in!!!

Last modified: June 3, 2019