It is great to be back in Singapore this week, even though I had forgotten how hot it gets here! It was a long flight out from Europe on Sunday and for the first time ever I arrived with a sore back from the travel. I have had a bit of treatment the last two days and I am fine, just a bit painful throughout the day.

We have a great field here this week, the Barclays Singapore Open alawys has a strong lineup, normally through a fair bit of appearance money but this year it is co-sanctioned with the European Tour and is also in the run up to Dubai, so as a result even more great players are here trying to get into the top 15 in Europe where the big bonus money kicks in.

The Serapong course is very demanding, a good test. I finished 8th here two years ago and really enjoy the course so I am looking forward to it. The key around here is to avoid the long rough off the tee and also to hit quality iron shots into the large sloping greens. The game feels pretty good, the last six weeks have been pretty good tee to green so hopefully the putts will start to drop soon.

After this week I am off to Shanghai for the WGC HSBC Champions followed by the Hong Kong Open. If I have a great few weeks I will be playing in the Dubai World Championship for the Top 60 players in Europe but otherwise I will be heading back to New Zealand for the first time since February. I can’t wait!

Mark tees off today at 8:20am (1:20pm NZT) playing with Niclas Fasth of Sweden and David Gleeson of Australia.

I managed to get home to London for two nights before flying back out to Portugal for this weeks tournament, the Portugal Masters.  It is a beautiful part of Europe here down in the Algarve, hot dry weather a good solid golf course at The Oceanica Victoria course.  It is good to be back here as I was here earlier in the year for some pre season practice.  A good friend of mine Alan Brown owns a sport and leisure club here, an awesome facility with a rugby / football field, two gyms, swimming pools, tennis courts, beach volleyball court and a fully kitted out sports bar and restaurant.  If you ever make it down this way, check out Browns Sport and Leisure Club at www.browns-club.com.  It makes a really nice change on tour when you can meet up with people you know, most weeks we are on our own in a strange city so it’s great to relax and  get to know a place a bit better.  I am really looking forward to a strong week and this will be my last event in Europe before flying out to Singapore next week for three tournaments in Asia, the Singapore Open, WGC HSBC in Shanghai and finally the Hong Kong Open.

 The Dunhill Links Championship was played over 3 fantastic links courses, St Andrews Old Course, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns.  It was a real thrill to play these famous old courses, two of them being on the Open rota.  We play so many tournaments and courses throughout the year that you just turn up, map the course and get your strategy and go play.  It was a really nice change to stand back and appreciate the quality of those courses, remember the holes you have seen on TV so often, and even take the odd photo during the practice rounds.  Standing on the 1st and 18th holes at St Andrews is like a dream come true.

 The format is a bit different in that you are paired with an amateur for the first three rounds, then the field is cut to top 65 pros and top 20 teams.  I was paired with legendary All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick.  We had a great few days but unfortunately our golf wasn’t too great as a team.  Sean played some fantastic golf though, especially on the first day at St Andrews, making two nett eagles.  My golf was very disappointing, again struggling with the putter which seemed to affect the rest of my game as the week went on.  From Scotland is was a seven hour car ride home to London and then a flight the next day to Madrid.  I am looking forward to playing some much better golf this week.

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

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.

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.

This week’s event: the KLM Open near Amsterdam.

It has been a bit of a strange time of year, I decided that after playing a lot of events leading up to the British Open that it would be a good chance to have a break of 4 weeks mid season, missing 2 regular ET events and also 2 events in America that I hadn’t qualified for anyway (Bridgestone and the USPGA).  Just a chance to freshen up, take a physical and mental break, even though I should be fresh given that I wasn’t playing a lot of weekends anyway!  I had been through a real rough patch missing 7 of 8 cuts, through the biggest stretch of European events so it was time for a bit of reflection.

I spent some time on fitness work with a trainer here in London, something that I had neglected for a while and that has been beneficial, doing a lot of core and glute work, just stuff that helps in the functioning of a golf swing.  I also tried to put a lot of time into my short game which I see as the biggest area I can improve on for the rest of the season.  It has also been a very difficult time emotionally making the decision to part with Mal (see story) so there has been an adjustment there as well.  Helen and I also managed to fit in holidays to Poland and Spain in which was much needed, in Spain I was introduced to the all inclusive hotel stay, not good for the waistline!

Coming back after a long break is interesting, I am definitely keen and ready to go, but I know from experience it will take a while to get back into action, just mental and scoring areas that need to get sharp.  I have heard the course this week is excellent, a links style course, demanding off the tee and with wind a factor, sounds great.  I am the type of player where if I get some confidence early on I am away, so I will be looking for a solid start, knock in a few putts and ease into it, can’t wait.

Talk to you next Monday

Browny