THE OPEN!

As I watch the 150th Open Championships at the Home of Golf I am reflecting on my experience this year of regional qualifying. One of the beauties of The Open is that it is truly Open and that everyone can try and qualify. Think “phantom of the open” but with better golf on occasions.
So I headed to Moor Park for my first attempt to qualify for the worlds greatest tournament. It was a course I have played on numerous occasions and I really like the venue. The practice round was good and I felt refreshed and raring to go for my tee time in the morning. My round started really steady without being exceptional. I was level par through the first 5 courtesy of 5 straight pars, a dropped shot on 6 and another on 8 left me plus 2 at the turn. Nothing to worry about, there are plenty of birdie opportunities on the back nine and I still had a chance of going low enough to qualify.
Knowing that I needed to be at least 4 under on the back, on reflection I was chasing too hard and attacking too many pins. Combine that with holing hardly any putts and I ended up carding plus 6. With 10 spaces available for final qualifying I finished 60th out of a field of 130. So in summary a decent round steady round but I just frittered too many shots away over the day.
Lessons learned from my first time in the Open, I know the game is good enough, I will always carry on working on grooving a repeatable swing but the areas I will focus on over the next few weeks ahead of the next tournament will be sharpening my short game and really really working on my mindset. I need to develop a routine that leads me to being standing over the ball knowing I am world class and developing a level of cockiness about my game that means I don’t have internal doubts or imposter syndrome.
This whole year, my first as a pro has been about learning and I remain confident in my abilities and thanks to my team I am getting better and better all the time. The big breakthrough will come and I believe in myself. Thanks to those of you who read my ramblings and follow my journey it really does mean a lot.