Welcome to my first blog from abroad!
I am currently at the Kensville G&CC in Ahmedabad, India, preparing for the first Challenge Tour event of the year. Having got here at 6:30am on Monday, after what seemed an eternity of travelling, I am feeling slightly tired but up for the scrap this week.
I have now seen all the course, having played 9 holes on Monday and the other 9 holes today. After all the snow at home (it is 30 degrees and cloudless here!)it is nice to see what a golf course actually looks like! The layout is fairly straight forward, although the rough and bouncy, firm greens make for a reasonably tricky challenge. Chipping around the greens is especially hard, with the rough making some shots come out either completely dead or loop up and run on with zero spin. So hitting greens will be key this week, and hitting them in the correct spots will also be of benefit. Some of the greens are very slopey and there is a fair bit of grain, not something I am totally used to.
My preparation isn't going completely to plan I have to admit, my swing feels a bit dodgy and having seen it in video, it looks dodgy too! But after a good session this evening on the range I tried to iron out a couple of glaring faults, mainly my set up. My alignment with feet, knees, hips and shoulders seemed to be a bit jumbled up, so with the use of my new (very useful) iPad I have addressed these issues and hopefully they improve my performance a bit!
This is my first trip to India and its been an experience so far, it's definitely not a world I am used to. When you see kids playing around the course in the dust and dirt, with nothing at all, it kind of opens your eyes. In some ways it's a shame we are enclosed in a nice resort, sheltered from the 'real' India. One thing i have never seen before is someones home that is built around the base of a tree that is 5 yards from the edge of the fairway, it was a strange sight.The people at the resort have been great with all the players, they can't help you enough and it's nice to see them all clearly buzzing about hosting this event.
I start the event on Thursday in the last group out at 1:20, until then I wil be working on getting things better on the practice ground!
A final thanks to the best invention ever, wifi! Being able to FaceTime at night is keeping me smiling and sane!
I will blog again when I can......I can't tweet as India seem to have banned it!
Thanks for reading, and follow the scores at www.europeantour.com
All my latest news and links also available at www.tommurraygolf.com
I am currently at the Kensville G&CC in Ahmedabad, India, preparing for the first Challenge Tour event of the year. Having got here at 6:30am on Monday, after what seemed an eternity of travelling, I am feeling slightly tired but up for the scrap this week.
I have now seen all the course, having played 9 holes on Monday and the other 9 holes today. After all the snow at home (it is 30 degrees and cloudless here!)it is nice to see what a golf course actually looks like! The layout is fairly straight forward, although the rough and bouncy, firm greens make for a reasonably tricky challenge. Chipping around the greens is especially hard, with the rough making some shots come out either completely dead or loop up and run on with zero spin. So hitting greens will be key this week, and hitting them in the correct spots will also be of benefit. Some of the greens are very slopey and there is a fair bit of grain, not something I am totally used to.
My preparation isn't going completely to plan I have to admit, my swing feels a bit dodgy and having seen it in video, it looks dodgy too! But after a good session this evening on the range I tried to iron out a couple of glaring faults, mainly my set up. My alignment with feet, knees, hips and shoulders seemed to be a bit jumbled up, so with the use of my new (very useful) iPad I have addressed these issues and hopefully they improve my performance a bit!
This is my first trip to India and its been an experience so far, it's definitely not a world I am used to. When you see kids playing around the course in the dust and dirt, with nothing at all, it kind of opens your eyes. In some ways it's a shame we are enclosed in a nice resort, sheltered from the 'real' India. One thing i have never seen before is someones home that is built around the base of a tree that is 5 yards from the edge of the fairway, it was a strange sight.The people at the resort have been great with all the players, they can't help you enough and it's nice to see them all clearly buzzing about hosting this event.
I start the event on Thursday in the last group out at 1:20, until then I wil be working on getting things better on the practice ground!
A final thanks to the best invention ever, wifi! Being able to FaceTime at night is keeping me smiling and sane!
I will blog again when I can......I can't tweet as India seem to have banned it!
Thanks for reading, and follow the scores at www.europeantour.com
All my latest news and links also available at www.tommurraygolf.com
