America and Winter Practice
Hi everyone,
Sorry it has been a while since I wrote any updates on my blog. I have been practicing hard and working a lot in the gym over the winter in order to get my game in shape for the new season.
I have been doing a lot of work with Craig from Golf Fit to strengthen up my weakest areas in my body so that I can swing the club more how I would like and so that I can get more power into my swing. I have felt a big difference in the coil I get at the top of my backswing and the power I can generate with my big muscles on the way down since I started in October. I have added approximately 20 yards to my driving in this period which is fantastic and was one of the areas I set out to improve during the winter.
I have also been working with my swing coach Sandy Smith on trying to get the club more upright at the top and I have a tendency to get a little flat which stops the club travelling as far as it should. I feel like I am starting to get to grips with this and am now able to hit fade shots much better as the club isn’t as closed.
I went to America for 4 weeks in January so that I could get some practice in and play a few events in the warm weather. Nothing you practice can really prepare you for playing under tournament pressure and having a scorecard in your hand. I played two one round events and a three round event (The Orlando Open). I tried to schedule everything there around building up to the Orlando Open as it was the main event and had a 2-day cut and a lot of top players in the field.
I finished 8th in the first one day event at a golf course called West Orange, I played well and hit a lot of good shots, just had a little bit of rust and wasn’t quite used to the bermuda grass on the greens, but overall I was satisfied with my performance. The second one day event was at a golf course called Black Bear. I hit it well during that round but felt like I didn’t commit to a few shots and had one horror hole which meant my score wasn’t as good as I had hoped for but I had still hit the ball well and made some impressive birdies.
The Orlando Open was at a golf course in downtown Orlando called Dubsdread. It is a relatively short golf course, but is very tight and you need to position the ball well off the tee. It is par 70, but with the windy conditions we had it was playing much tougher. I played the first day and despite not getting many birdie putts to drop I managed to limit my bogeys and shoot a round of 72 which placed me tied 26th after the first day. It was a field of 90 players and there was only 30 that made the two round cut to play the last day.
The second day I started to feel a lot more comfortable with what I was doing, I changed my routine ever so slightly and made sure all I was doing once I got over the ball was focusing on the target. I hit a lot of very good shots and had a round of 68 including 5 birdies and 3 bogeys. This managed to have me in T20th place going into the final round and I was very happy to make the cut in my first proper event of the year. There were some notable players who didn’t make the cut including Daniel Chopra who is a winner on the PGA Tour.
I got to the final round looking forward to it, however I had a poor start, playing the first 3 holes badly, but I managed to have a birdie on the 4th (hardest hole on the course) and from then on I played my best golf of the week in tough conditions. I hit the next 13 greens in regulation and really found a groove in my swing and although I didn’t make as many birdie putts as I would have liked I had a round of 75 and finished up in 24th place.
I am back home now and looking forward so much to getting another 6 weeks of hard graft in before the start of my Europro season, which begins with the final stage of q-school at Frilford Heath on the 8th of April.