Eight 3 putts for the week made it difficult to contend for the title but Mark was very steady tee to green, finishing with rounds of 71, 70, 71 and 69 for a 7 under par total.

Mark now has a week off and will be trying to back a few winners at the Royal Ascot race meeting held near his home Tuesday through to Saturday.  Next tournament is the BMW International Open in Munich the following week.

Mark has also failed to qualify for this years British Open Championship, he had rounds of 70 and 69 which wasn’t good enough at the International Final Qualifying held at the Sunningdale Golf Club.

He hopes for a better result at this weeks tournament in Portugal.

Last week we had the European Tour’s biggest event, the BMW PGA Championship at the famous Wentworth Golf Club.  I have played there for the last two years but it was effectively a new course for everyone after alterations made by Ernie Els.  There was a lot of media coverage on the new greens with a lot of the top players complaining or commenting on things that were not to their taste.  From what I gathered Ernie got a little frustrated that the players were going to the press instead of him and at the end of the week basically said that they were spoilt brats.  I agreed with him totally.  Here we are playing for the biggest prize fund of the year, on a fantastic course, the green surfaces were pristine and the course was in great condition.  Then you have the superstars complaining that the slopes are too radical or the course is now too difficult.  Sometimes I think people can lose a sense of reality and do become used to having everything done for them and everything being perfect all the time.  The reality is there are literally thousands of aspiring guys that would love to be playing that tourament, and the European Tour so really, get a grip.

I had a good week apart from 20 bad holes in the middle, making a double bogey 7 in the 2nd round to likely miss the cut.  Then found out late that it had just squeaked in on the number.  I followed that up with a poor 3rd round before finishing with a 69 to finish in a tie for 61st.  It really was an awesome week to be part of, great weather, great course and massive galleries from the greater London area.

From the high of Wentworth to missing the cut last week in the Madrid Masters.  To be honest I was probably a little flat and my play reflected that.  I played what felt like nice golf tee to green, sprinkled with the odd really poor shot.  For 2 rounds I had 3 double bogey’s and 1 triple so that showed to me there was a lot of poor concentration going on. 

Tomorrow I will be heading along the M4 to Newport for the Welsh Open, this will be held on the 2010 Ryder Cup course so looking forward to going back and getting stuck in.

Mark spends this week at home preparing for the European Tour’s flagship event next week, the BMW PGA Championship at the famous Wentworth Golf Club.  Mark is based only 10 minutes from the course so is looking forward to getting a few extra rounds in at the course which has been recently renovated by Ernie Els.  The course has 18 new greens and surrounds as well as other minor changes so although he has played there for the last 2 years it will be vital to come to grips with the new greens.  Mark will also look forward to playing in front of a few of his London friends as well as his mother who arrives from New Zealand on Monday.

The year so far has been reasonably encouraging, pretty steady tee to green and still working hard to improve the short game.  I had a pretty hectic flying schedule in Jan / Feb so thought it would be a good idea to take the two Asian tournaments off that are currently being played and concentrate on having two good weeks here in London.  The big part of the European Tour season will start next week with the Spanish Open and that really kicks off a great run of events for the summer.  Please go to my Tournaments page to see which ones I will be playing.

So the last 10 days have been spent here at my flat in Ascot, not far from London.  I really marked these two weeks as a time to get fully prepared and ready to go, as well as putting in some really hard work on some changes.  One of these was seeing my fitness trainer and starting a new programme, really focusing on fixing some poor muscular balance and tightness, particularly around the hips and glutes.  Once these get better it should help with what I am trying to do with my swing and from there I can then move on to some more strength based work.

I also took some time to see a specialised putting coach which was very interesting.  Spent time with the SAM putt system and really figured out key things that need to be improved.  There was a lot of set up and body movement issues there that should be able to be fixed and this will just take some time on the putting green with good drill work.  Finally tomorrow I am seeing a bio mechanist here in London.  This involves getting wired up and analysing exactly what the body is doing during the swing and seeing if there are any sequence issues and or weaknesses.  This works in perfectly with the fitness work as you will almost always see body issues affecting what you can or can’t do during the swing.  Sometimes it really is a case of your body just not allowing you to make a movement, or hold a position, so this is really helpful.

Apart from that I am keeping an eye out on the flying situation here, hoping that it clears for my flight to Spain on Monday, otherwise I better start walking now!   Managed to have a beer in London and see off a friend last Saturday night who is heading back to NZ, always good fun in the big smoke and good to catch up with a few mates.  Other than that it will be backside up for the next few days, working hard and then making that hole in the couch even bigger, I have been trying to catch a few Super 14 games here on tv and it was good to see the canes have a win at the weekend.The weather is starting to warm up a bit here so I think we must be due for a good summer, finally.

Hope everyone is doing well and thanks for your continued support.  Cheers, Browny