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Wednesday, 20 October 2010

NSU Shark Invitational

After a kick up the arse from Coach Marsh, we set about preparing as best we could for our home tournament at PGA National Golf course. I personally practised hard before the tournament trying to figure out what went wrong with my swing at the end of Yale and trying to develop some confidence on the greens. I had a session on the Sam Putt Lab, which indicated my putting had a lot of work to be done. I needed to create a better setup position, as it was very closed in relation to my target. Also the tempo of my stroke was very inconsistent, and so coach threw me the Metronome and said get to work.

By the time PGA came about i felt good about my chances. I played a good first round but finished with 3 bogeys for a 75 which was disappointing. The next 18 straight away was a shock to the system as i had never walked 36 holes carrying a bag before, i felt very sluggish and unmotivated to get the job done, i didn't putt very well and scored 77. As a team we lied 4th after 2 rounds, a promising position 8 shots, back, individually i was 42nd, very disappointing. However i took this as more of a positive because i realized that my Cardio training and nutrition had all of sudden become vital to performing well in college golf tournaments.

The last round got under way and after being 7 over thru my first 12 holes, i decided that i could actually play the game finishing with 4 birdies in my last 5, each of them i didnt even have to putt they were so close to the hole. A closing 76, for a 32nd position wasn't the greatest outcome, but there were a lot of positives out of the week, learning that with my game being poor i could still get it around a very tough golf course.

The team did great finishing with a closing round of 289 (-1), unfortunately we lost to Lynn by one shot! But some great positives from the week and its a shame we couldn't have had a chance to play them in a playoff.

A few things to improve for next time

Stick with Left below right putting
Cardio off course training and Nutrition whilst competing
Better practise habits for the next tournament


Friday, 1 October 2010

Yale

We arrived yesterday after 2 flights from Fort Lauderdale and an hour drive to Yale in Conneticut. The weather was terrible cold, windy and rainy. I thought we had flown back to England.

We arrived and went straight to the golf course. I couldnt believe how much this place is like being at home. The lush green fws and greenside rough reminded me so much of Wentworth. We did some putting work, mainly speed, the greens here are slow bumpy and slopey so just like England.

The practise round unfortunately got cancelled because of the poor weather, so we decided to go explore the town of Yale. We visited a burger place were the Ham Burger was invented! Then onto a surprise our coach had setup for us, a tour of ESPN's studios!!!!!

ESPN was great, we had a tour of the whole facility, looking at the number of different studios they film the sports shows on a real treat.

Onto the tournament, after never playing the course for a practice round we headed onto the first tee with no expectations. I proceeded to play some nice golf for a score of 71, along with 2 other 71s from the two americans and a 72 from Jack Bartlett put us in a tie for 2nd after day 1. We then headed out to a nice italian restaurant in the middle of Yale.

The next day the conditions were freezing and tough for us all to handle as we are used 25 degrees and sunny every day. We all proceeded to play awfully in the wind and rain and ended up finishing 7th a terrible finish for us. I shot a closing round 78 to finish around 25th, a very disappointing finish, i just didn't have it with me that day and was unable to post a good score.

We headed back to campus on 2 flights from Connecticut, on the way back we discussed what are goals should be for the next tournament which would be our tournament at PGA NATIONAL