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Since
my last update after The Tavistock Cup victory things
haven't quite followed the path I thought they would.
There has been a lot of travel with ups and downs along
the way which have seriously hampered my progress. Preparation
is what makes the difference and mine has been poor
over the past month. Illness, late visas and poor practice
facilities to name a few, however they are no excuses.
I am just back from China and Korea which were not easy
trips in any way. The Volvo China Open was held in Chengdu,
the home of the Panda, not that I got to see any as
I arrived late due to the visa agency making a massive
cock up with my passport. I enjoyed the Luxehills course
that we played although not the way it was set up. Slow
greens with mostly middle pins certainly did not set
up the course for the best golf to win. It became more
of a putting competition, which normally would be a
good thing for me, but unfortunately my putting is what
has cost me dearly on this Asian trip.
My swing was looking pretty good on video but that was
not translating to good swings on the course with my
woods, although my iron play was as good as it ever
has been which was a great sign. I got my self into
a good position after two rounds being only a few shots
back but the weekend was where my putting really struggled
and I slid the wrong way down the field ending near
the bottom of the pack. I left China in good spirits
swing-wise but lost with my putter which is something
that I had not had for a while.
We made our way to South Korea on the Monday with a
bizarre trip where we stopped off en route at an undisclosed
location. It was like something out of the movies. No
info on the boarding pass and only Chinese writing to
decipher a name. After de-boarding and making our way
to a holding gate to re board the same plane we were
no further along in guessing our location. Google maps
to the rescue told us we were somewhere near Hefei in
China which is near absolutely nowhere. After landing
and making a two hour trip to the Konjiman ski resort,
which was to be our home for the next week, there was
another hour ride to the course every day.
Tuesday was wiped out with heavy rain leaving only an
hour or two to work on the putting around the pro am.
There wasn't a driving range to do much swing work either
and I ended up warming up every day out of the rough
on a side hill lie. Not ideal prep at all, although
everyone was in the same boat.
My putting didn't improve until getting back home on
my putting green and figuring out that my hands were
not in the correct position. Something so simple really
ruined any chance to contend in both weeks. In truth
it was very poor on my part as it was a familiar fault
which I should have caught very early.
I am now heading to Barcelona where it really is time
to start moving in the right direction. I did some good
practice on Sunday with all areas of my game and I am
feeling good about things again. It is very up and down
at the moment but the truth is when you are making swing
changes that is what happens. Ideally you can do it
whilst playing as long as your short game pulls you
through. Unfortunately mine hasn't done that even though
it is my bread and butter.
I am still feeling remarkably positive about my game
even without the desired results and I genuinely feel
that I am very close. It is important to remind myself
that the season is still young and we don't start the
bigger tournaments for another couple of weeks. Every
week is a new chance in golf and things can turn around
very quickly which is exactly what I intend to do this
week.
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