The Motocaddy Masters at Frilford Heath GC on the 16thto 18thof May was my first full event on the EuroPro Tour. Sadly, I was not in control of my golf ball at any stage during the week, despite managing to ‘get it round’ well on day one for a 2 under par 70. I then went to practice that evening to try diagnose what was going wrong and how I could improve it by the morning but, unfortunately, I was unable to work this out and I hit it even worse on the second day, getting myself into too much trouble which made it impossible for me to score well, ending up with an 8 over par round of 80.
As I missed cut, I didn’t play on the final day so went instead to visit my coach to try to work out what the problem was. We also discussed how to self-diagnose better for future tournaments, something I feel better about now.
The was Matchroom Sport Championship at Harleyford GC at the end of the month was my first real experience of the step-up in standard between the professional and the amateur game. I didn’t play well again over the two days, but battled very well to keep myself in it, missing many good chances late on which ended up proving costly. Unfortunately my two scores of Level Par (72), which are not normally bad scores to shoot, fell 2 short of the cut-mark. This showed me that, even when not playing well, you still need to maximise your score or risk missing the cut. When I was an amateur, I can’t think of many cuts that fell below par, albeit the courses I am playing as a professional are designed more for better/more entertaining scores. Level Par was always a good score, whereas now, I need to be able to score better even when I’m not on my game.
Despite the month of May not being the best start to the EuroPro season for me in terms of results, both events offered good learning experiences for different reasons. They have also helped to make me more comfortable at this level, which bodes well for the rest of the season.