Mark’s Monday

I had a really positive week last week in Holland, even though the scores didn’t really show it, it was the best golf I have played in a very long time. After a four week break I quickly got into my stride, playing the first few holes of the tournament beautifully and that continued for the four days. Fairway and GIR stats were really good, the only disappointment was on the greens where I had 29, 33, 31 and 31 for the four days, way too many to be competitive and finished 47th. The golf course was fantastic, it’s a real shame that in Europe we don”t get to play many links courses apart from the British Open, so it was great to play one in Holland, the course got dry and was windy most days and I really enjoyed the challenge of playing lots of different shots. We had a nice time, staying on the beach at Zandvoort, the weeks are quite short in Europe, arriving Tuesday and flying home Sunday night, you don’t really get much time to look around but we do make the effort. Helen had a ladies day on Wednesday, doesn’t happen every week but it’s a good way of meeting people for both of us. And so on to this week, got home late Sunday night, had a glass of New Zealand wine, which is a little tradition on Sunday nights after a tournament, and put all of our clothes in the washing, ready to go again early Tuesday. Today I went to see my physical fitness trainer close by in Weybridge, I saw hime for the first time six weeks ago so was a good chance to see any progress and move on to the next phase. It is really interesting how closely weaknesses in your body are linked to your swing tendencies, in my case very weak and tight glutes which has a massive affect on how your body coils and resists. I also some did some putting practice, much needed! Gleneagles this week, I have heard it rained all last week in Scotland, the course is apparently very wet and muddy, so I hope we get some dry stuff this week. Important shots this week will be driving the ball well, taking some spin off iron shots, and staying patient on the greens that will no doubt be a bit bumpy because they are so soft.

This week we are staying in a castle in Crieff, not too far from the course so hopefully that will be nice, or at least novel. At the moment I am second reserve for the pro am and really hoping I get into it as I played last week’s one and had a good team of amateurs, plus it give me a chance to play another practice round.