Longhirst Hall and Burhill
Hi everyone,
It is a couple of weeks since I have added a blog so I have two tournaments to tell you about. I played the events at Longhirst Hall which is a nice course near Morpeth in Northumberland where I made my professional debut last August, albeit on the Lakes course, this time we played the Dawson course which in my opinion was much better. I had a morning tee off time the first day and a late one the second day.
I didn’t play my best golf the first day and struggled to a round of 80. I hit a good drive on the first and then a good second shot which went into the hazard over the green and then after that I played solid apart from 3 iron shots which I left out to the right, one of which cost me a triple bogey 7 on the fourth hole. The second round I played much better, although I started a bit dodgy in the breezy conditions, I was 3 over through 5 holes, I managed to play the final 13 holes in level par and have a 75. It wasn’t what I was looking for after playing so well at Wychwood park but I sat down with my coach Sandy Smith and we worked out where the problem lay. It was a good learning experience after being so far behind and managing to play well for the last 13 holes I showed myself that I could grind out a score.
The second tournament was the following week at Burhill Golf Club which is near Heathrow airport and is a lovely parkland course which had fantastic greens. I played a practice round on the Tuesday and then due to the club being closed for a pro-am I went and played at Henley golf club with my friend from university James Brockington with whom I was staying.
When the tournament started I teed off at 2pm on the first day, I actually hit it very well for the majority of the round, I had 2 birdies and 3 bogeys for a one over par round of 73. I had played better than that but I had 2 3putts on my back 9 which cost me two shots. I drove the ball very well and chipped the ball fantastically, I had 4 chip shots that I hit to within a foot and another from about 15 yards which I holed. The second round I was playing in the morning wave of players and I had a bad start with a double bogey on the first due to pulling my second shot left and then 3 putting. I held it together though and managed to birdie 4 and 9 to get back to level par. I bogeyed 10 and birdie 11 to remain level. I hit 2 drives on 13 and 14 which were only a couple of feet off the fairway but found horrible lies and I bogeyed both of the holes and then when I had to go at the last few flags to try and make birdies I hit it over the pin on 17 and made another bogey followed by a final par and a round of 75.
All in all there were a lot more positives that came out of the week despite the results not being exactly where I want them to be, I believe with a lot of hard work and a few breaks combined with the experience I am getting that I shall be able to move in the right direction very shortly.
