The Porsche Open – Germany!

After what felt like such a long week in Italy with four alarms before 5am and so much waiting around throughout the week, I was pleased when I opted for the late afternoon flight Monday to Munich!!

On completion of play Sunday, the Tour had arranged a bus for any players/caddies flying from Malpensa, which was one of the other three Milan airports.

I had booked into an airport hotel, and also arranged for a late checkout! That was exactly what I needed, a nice meal Sunday night, a lazy morning Monday, a good breakfast, a session in the gym and then head back to the airport for a 4.30pm flight.

No one was too sure what to expect in Germany after receiving the below email and some pictures which players were sending around…

The course was totally flooded and closed Monday, Tuesday and, in the end, Wednesday for practice!

I’ve played there three times on Challenge Tour and had my best finish here too (T3rd), so not playing the course felt like no huge issue for me, but to many others that may have been a problem.

The course is built alongside a few rivers and the banks had recently burst after the unbelievable amount of rain they had in the area!!

And I’d also heard from the TV crew that they were not able to get out on the course with the buggies to lay the cables for filming…

My first thought was: No TV = not a happy sponsor – and will there even be an event!!

All I could guess was that it was going to be a long week, probably one with many delays again, and if we played 72 holes we would be very lucky!!!!

So two days spent on the range, putting green and short game area with a walk around the course Wednesday morning with only a putter in hand, I was all prepped and set for round 1.

I felt my tee times this week were as good as I could have asked for…first out in the afternoon wave (12.10pm) and first out again the following morning at 7.20am!

Those times meant I got to play the greens in the best condition possible each day… That helps with them being so soft!!

The weather had been perfect since we arrived so the course had managed to dry out the best it could… So no one expected a delay in tee times as the forecast was also very good!!

So after waking up Thursday morning and checking the scores it was quite a surprise to see they hadn’t started…

This time for fog! That delay ended up being 3hr 25mins, so again I wasn’t going to finish my first round on time!

But for me, as I mentioned with my tee times, I was first out Friday anyway so I wasn’t having to get up any earlier than planned!!

I birdied 12 in near darkness to end the day level par and take a little bit of momentum away with me to sleep on…

A pretty poor sleep with what seems a common golfer’s worry that your alarm is not going to go off so early… But it did! As it always does, and I was up to the course just before 6am to start my routine!!

After a stop-start morning of more delays we got back out to play our last 6. I made a great birdie down 16 and in the end a great bogey up the last after finding the water for two on what I’m sure must have played the hardest hole all week!!

We had an hour turnaround and went back out knowing that I probably had to shoot -4 to make the weekend. I knew I had played well the first 18 but just not got the ‘rub of the green’, so a big effort to stay patient was key!

Birdie, birdie start… That helped!! All of sudden the target in my head felt in reach!

But a mixed front nine of birdies and three putts meant a strong back nine was needed!

It didn’t happen and in the end I needed to find 3 maybe even 4 birdies in the last 4 holes!

So making bogey on my 15th pretty much ended my hopes… Then the double, double down the next two holes really doesn’t reflect my score for the day… I battled and battled and you soon know when the task in front of you is impossible!

I just had to keep myself out of the way of the two guys I was paired with, they were both on the cut bubble and I didn’t want them to have to look for my ball, or cause them any stress, they were focused!

So a tiring and disappointing end to the week, but three weeks on the road where I have to look back on the bigger picture and realise the run of form I have had and the points I have put on the OOM is a huge achievement!

As ever though, you walk off the course after missing a cut, feel pretty sorry for yourself, annoyed with your performance and then your mind jumps forward a bit…now I’ve got to go to Fiji!

How, when, how much, can it even be done…?

But first I tried to change my so-called Easy-jet ‘flexi’ ticket to get home early…but that ticket wasn’t so ‘flexi’ with the Saturday flight full!!!

But Singapore airlines came to the rescue with a really early flight Saturday morning which got me home in great time, extremely tired but in time to get to a good friend’s wedding!!

Things were getting better!!

“Ping, ping” another email then came through…

“Mr Hanson, the Tournament Committee at the Alfred Dunhill Championship have granted you an invite into our event, could you please confirm you would like to play?”

Now the big question… Do you fly 30 hours around the world to play a co-sanctioned event in Fiji for a prize fund of €1 million or do you travel to Scotland to play an event I have watched on TV and dreamed of being part of at the Home of Golf since I was a boy…?

And there is also the slight increase of 5 million dollars in prize fund!

Shall I let you guys answer that one….?

The magic invite list!!

You guessed it……. I drive up to Scotland next Sunday!!