Or maybe that word should be “in” not “on”. Mark Brown has shot a 3-over par 75 in the first round of the Mercedes Benz Championship in Cologne, Germany. After getting off to a poor start with three bogeys in the first six holes, Mark made birdie on the seventh and hung in with a string of pars until a bogey on seventeen on the demanding course. It will be a confidence boost to Brown in that in his poorest ball striking round of late his putting and short game kept him in the round which bodes well for the next three days. Click here for full scores.

Crans on Sunday

This weeks tournament is the Mercedes Benz Championship in Cologne, Germany. I played in this event last year and it is a really good tournament to play. It is a restricted field with only 78 players and no cut, which is a good thing with how I have been playing!! It is always a strong field with it being made up of the top players from this current year and the remainder from exemption categories. Being in the winners category, I get a start.

I had another disappointing week last week in Switzerland, missing the cut narrowly by two shots. I had one over par the first day, then got it going on day two being three under for the day with five holes remaining, two of those being reachable par fives. Then disaster, I hit a poor five iron on the 13th, a par three, it got caught by a wind gust which you get up in the mountains, and ended up on a bare lie under tree branches. From there I over hit into a greenside trap, then three putted for a triple bogey six. It seems like every time I hit a bad shot at the moment I get heavily punished, and when you are struggling with the putter it makes it even tougher. I made one more birdie but it wasn’t good enough and missed the cut. In my experience the toughest times in golf are when you are playing well but not getting rewarded. My tee to green stats have been very encouraging and it feels like I have had a lot of control with my driving and iron play, but it just shows how important the putting and short game becomes.

We had a great week though, Crans Sur Sierre was a spectacular place, right in the middle of the Swiss Alps. We stayed in a small village there, walking distance to the course and all of the restaurants, the place had a real buzz to it. If you are going to miss a cut, this was probably the best place to have a weekend off.

Occasionally on the European Tour there will be a Saturday pro-am for sponsor’s clients and they require pros who miss the cut to play. They pay you a little bit of money and it is a great chance to meet some good people and on this occasion there was a spectacular dinner on that night at the Hostelerie Du Pas de L’ours, one of the nicest hotels in Crans.

See you next week

Mark Brown’s costly triple bogey on the par three thirteenth in the second round in Switzerland means he will have yet another weekend without competition golf. At 3-under for the round he looked well placed to play another two rounds but his horrid error and only one following birdie in a round of one under par 70 means he is likeley to miss the cut by one or two shots. Click here for full scores.

It was a round of two halves for Mark Brown today as he shot a one over par 72 in the first round of the Omega European Masters in Switzerland. Brown started solidly and confidently on the back nine, getting to 2-under par with little trouble on the scenic course. However a bogey from the middle of the fairway and a missed green on two saw the first bogey of three on the front nine. The head stayed on until his drive went slightly left on the fourth and then Mark made hard work of the rest of the round, creating few chances and making bogey on six from a missed green with a wedge. Mark is currently 97th and will tee off tomorrow at 9:10am (7:10pm NZT). Click here for full scores.

Another frustrating performance at the Johnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles last week. For the second week in a row my long game was certainly in good enough shape to be competitive but a combination of a few poor shots, double bogies and extremely poor putting let me down.

The Gleneagles course was extremely wet after 2 weeks of solid rain, this meant we had a club length placing on fairways because of mud, and also made the greens very soft and after a days traffic, very bumpy. A lot of players complained last year about the state of the greens, some didn’t return this year because of them, but I just felt for the green staff and everyone involved with the event because after that much rain the greens were always going to be a bit bumpy, especially at the end of the day. You really had to take the attitude of trying as hard as you could on a putt, try and hit a good one and not worry about the result, good or bad. Easier said than done…

It’s funny, on the European Tour, no matter how hard the course, how bad the weather or how bobbly the greens are, the standard of golf is always high. I putted miserably for 2 days but had an 8 foot putt on the 18th hole to get to 2 over par and I thought make the cut. As it turned out the wind died in the afternoon, the standard of golf was good, and the cut was even par, 65 guys exactly. That meant a weekend off, normally we go home on a Sunday night and out tuesday morning but this time we booked to go direct from scotland to Geneva on Monday morning. This meant I managed to get some practice in on the saturday and then catch a few shows at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival on Sunday night. We had a great night, sometimes I need to be pushed a bit to get out and do things but events like this make it all worthwhile. Saw a guy named Stephen K Amos who was just brilliant, check him out on youtube if you get the chance.

So it was a 2 hour flight to Geneva, then a 2 hour train to Crans Si Sierre and a 30 minute car ride to the small mountain village where this weeks Omega European Open is held. Good to see a few of my Asian Tour mates here this week (event is co sanctioned with Asian Tour) and looking forward to a practice round tomorrow. Interesting playing this week at very high altitude so key this week will be judging how far the ball is flying, good short game with the domed greens, and of course holing some bloody putts!
See you next week.