jamega Tour the caversham

After a long hard British winter and a manic week at work it was time to tee it up in my first Jamega Tour event and my first event as a Professional golfer. The Caversham was a new course to me and was a really good track, it is clearly new and was tough in places but, if you played well you could definitely shoot a number. The weekend started on Saturday with my first practice round conditions were great and Saturday was just about exploring the course and getting my first sight of it. After another practice round on Sunday it was time to get some rest ahead of the tournament starting. Unfortunately The Masters got in the way and I ended up not getting to bed as early as I wanted to. Monday morning was an early start teeing off just before 9 am. I was excited to see what the day brought given the block of work I had done in Florida the week before. Sadly the day started badly with a poor tee shot off the first and I was just too inconsistent. In hindsight I hadn’t done enough practice on the the things Grant and I had been working on in Florida and I made the mistake of trying to take that practice to the course. The end result was to many double bogeys or worse combined with poor chipping and putting leading to a number that is too big to mention out loud!!!!! I managed to get some good recovery in following the processes that Joe and I had put in place. A good nights sleep and I was ready and determined to take the learning from Monday into round 2. It was instantly a better start by virtue of the fact that I didn’t have to take a provisional off the first tee. The game felt in better shape but I was still inconsistent in places, that will get better. Overall I was pleased to improve on round 1 and felt that I maintained my focus despite an awful round one. I finished the tournament in 54th place and had finished so early I was home after a 2.5 hour drive to check the live scoring during the playoff. Despite such a poor performance I was still able to take loads of positives from the event. Firstly the strength and conditioning work I had done all winter with Joe had definitely paid off as I was hitting the ball further and wasn’t the shortest in my group on every shot as I was last year. My driving was much improved on round two and I hit lots of fairways. I felt confident and optimistic about my chances of competing as I blow the rust away during the season. As they say “if you aren’t earning you are learning” so what did I learn. My approach play needs some focussed work, I was striking the irons okay but kept missing in the wrong places, I short sided myself on 11 of the 36 holes, it is always going to be really hard in that position. My reflection is that it was all course management and knowing when to attack and when not. I was so keen to prove myself and go low that I was attacking when I shouldn’t have done. The other key area is the lack of work I have done on my chipping and putting, it was noticeable how poor I was. I have 4 weeks until I tee it up again at Old Fold Manor on the Clutch Tour and I have committed to a really focussed block of practice creating pressure in my practice which will hold me in better stead come the next event. I will also be reinvigorating my S&C work as that had lapsed a bit since just before Florida. Overall I have taken loads of positives from my first event as a pro and am confident that the work I have planned on my game combined with all the learning I have taken from this tournament will put me in a better place as I continue my journey into the world of Pro Golf.