Barclays Kenya Open

I am back in the UK, at last, having just come back from my second Challenge Tour event in Kenya. After the disappointment of missing the cut in my first event, I was pretty determined not to do the same again! Thankfully I didn't repeat the poor performance of India, and managed to make the cut finishing in 45th place.

I can't say I am over moon about the finishing position, but making the cut is just another step forwards and again I have definitely come back a better player than when I went out there. 

I began the event with a really solid first round of -4 with a bogey free card, I was extremely pleased with that having struggled a bit the previous day in the pro-am. This left me in 2nd place just one shot behind, a great start! This might have been down to a last minute putting grip change, going from my normal '2 Thumb' style to a left hand below right grip...as my girlfriend pointed out it was a pretty bold and maybe stupid move on the first day of an event, but it seemed to work out and I felt really comfortable on the greens. 

Going out for the second round I didn't feel quite as good in the warm up and it showed on the course. At the first hole I hit my approach shot to no more than 2 inches for a birdie start but it was downhill from there! A run of 4 holes where I dropped 5 shots meant I went out in +5 for the front 9 holes, and suddenly the cut mark was looming! I was pleased with how I dug in on the back nine, getting it back to +3 for the round with 3 to go, and looking fine for making the cut. I did however proceed to make 2 silly bogeys down the 16th and 17th to shoot 76 +5 and leaving me a shot inside the cut line....job done, just!

It was really satisfying to be playing over the weekend, compared to India where it just felt horrible watching all the guys go out to compete while I was left on the range with the other miserable pro's! I suppose the experience must have helped, although it wasn't nice at the time, so that's another positive from the first two weeks of the year.

Over the weekend I didn't have my A game really but had 2 reasonably solid scores of +1 and Level par. The course at Karen Country Club was really nice, with narrow fairways and tough, horrible rough. It really put a premium on solid golf, as it was hard enough finding the ball in the rough, let alone reaching the green from it and stopping the ball on the firm fast greens. It has got to be good for my game playing in different climates and conditions, especially like this week at altitude where distance control was really tricky. 

Kenya as a country, what we saw if it, was really good. The people were really friendly and I got on really well with my local caddy Jessy, and the guy who looked after the range called David, who I gave a couple of lessons to. I also gave him a glove which he was over the moon with, they really appreciated even the smallest of gifts! Jessy was chuffed with his Srixon balls and was great all week, reading putts well, standing in the correct places, and even pointing out the odd bit of wildlife on the course, a monkey being the highlight! However I do blame him for me being in the left rough every day on the 3rd, as in the pro-am he informed me there was a leopard on the loose in the trees down the right!

Anyway, as I write this I'm on the last leg of my 18 hour journey from Kenya to Dubai, Dubai to Birmingham, Birmingham to home.....I'm ready for my own bed!

Thanks to the people who tweeted supportive messages this week, hopefully the experience I have gained from this week and India will lead to some positive results once the Challenge Tour kicks off in Europe, in April.

For now thanks to the people who read this, hopefully it isn't too boring and mundane!

Cheers

Tom

Disappointing Start...

Well, my first Challenge Tour event did not go to plan!

Having travelled half way across the world, to Ahmedabad in India, a missed cut feels horrible I can assure you. I feel embarrassed by the score I shot for 2 rounds, but as always, every round has its own story.

I started off on Thursday feeling OK about my game, having worked hard on Tuesday evening and Wednesday and thinking that I had found some sort of reliable swing feeling. As it turned out, this wouldn't be the problem! I played really nicely from the tee, hitting it as solid as I can, but the approaches to the greens halted my progress. The conditions out here are very different to anything I have played before, with the rough being so unpredictable and it provides you with little or no control over how the ball reacts (this is due to the type of grasses out here). The solution to this is obviously don't hit the ball in the rough, but when the fairways are so narrow, particularly on the back nine, and the ground is so firm and fast, sometimes a good tee shot can end up just a foot in the rough and it leaves you with little chance of hitting the green, let alone the correct section of it! I think I had 7 or 8 times where this happened, with the ball no more than a yard off the fairway. I recall on one hole, I hit a 9 iron 192 yards in total! Yet on another, I couldn't reach the hole from 120 yards away. (This is in rough 2 inches high!) The problems then continued around the greens, meaning my games best asset was missing. I just could not get used to how the ball was reacting, sometimes duffing it 2 feet in front of me and other times getting a flyer and watching the ball run 20 or 30 feet too far, frustrating! All of this plus 6 three putts in 2 rounds meant I was not in the best position! It is just the nature of the course though and its just tough luck.

It has been horrible having to stick around knowing that I'm out of a job for the weekend! I took it pretty hard yesterday, and maybe this is down to a couple of mistakes I've made. Coming into this week, and during the week, I haven't contemplated missing the cut to be honest. Reflecting on the experience, this might have been an error, but I'm sure to make more of these along the way!

All in all as hard as it is, I've just got to put this week down as a good experience and one that will make me a better player in the long run, sounds very cliched but it's just how it is.

Sorry to the people supporting me back home, I did try my best though.

I now move on to The Barclays Kenya Open starting on Feb 14th, hopefully I have a better week!

Tom

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