Hi everyone,

I am writing my first blog the day after playing the first stage of the Europro tour q school at Slaley Hall in Northumberland. The event was 36 holes where the top 39 players made it through to the final stage at Frilford Heath from the 2^nd to the 4^th of April. The first day was a blustery one, and the fact that it was wet under foot put an extra emphasis on hitting fairways, as mud balls were bad. I had a solid front 9 with bogeys on 1 and 9, but let it slip a touch on the back 9, finishing with 3 consecutive bogeys for a 79. I had one excellent birdie on the par 5 12^th where I hit a pitching wedge from 122 yards to 3 feet. I was still in a good position on tied 34^th place, which was inside the cut line for getting through.

The next day was even harder than the previous, the first 7 holes were windy and then the rain and hail came. I had a double bogey on my second hole but fought back wonderfully with birdies on my 3^rd and 6^th holes. Once the rain came it was torrential, it was a case of just getting the ball in play off the tee and trying to make pars. We played 13 ½ holes before the course became unplayable so we had to go back and sit in the clubhouse for 2 hours while the course drained. When we finally resumed play I knew all I needed to do was plot my way around the golf course sensibly and play to my strengths. I managed to do this, my putting was fantastic all day and I managed to hole putts from 15 feet on the 8^th, 9^th, 12^th and 18^th, which resulted in a score of 76. This was one of the best scores of the day and had me in tied19th on the final leader board.

I comfortably made the cut to get to final stage next week and have a lot of positives to take out of the 2 rounds. I am looking forward to next week.

Thanks for reading

Neil