Well I haven't blogged for a while, mainly due to the lack of Challenge Tour events since India and Kenya. We had around 7 weeks off in between events, so last week in Madrid felt like the real start to the year on the Challenge Tour.
As everyone in the field, I was keen to get off to a good start but unfortunately that didn't happen! I have been working so much on my long game in recent weeks that its become maybe too much of a main focus and the scoring part of my game has suffered I feel, whereas normally my short game and course management is where I save my shots and how I manage to have the odd decent score! Mentally I have been very poor recently, due to a few things and I have felt quite detached from my golf and I've felt quite numb to it all when playing local competitive events...but I think I have ironed out a couple of issues and as write this I am en route to Italy feeling a lot more positive about things, I just hope my scores reflect my mindset!
The course last week in Madrid was not your average design, at 7,700 yards it was pretty long and also had the strangest greens I've ever played on! It hosted a European Tour event back in 2011 (where Lee Slattery won) so it is obviously a good venue for a tournament, but it just didn't quite suit my eye nor my game. I haven't heard anything about the course this week in Italy, but I will have it all mapped out over the next couple days in my practice rounds. I saw a friend of mine, Chris Hanson, tweet this week about hating practice rounds, and I have to say I totally agree! But they have to be done and it's all part of the preparation for what is hopefully a good week!
I have had quite a few people ask me what my schedule is looking like over the next few weeks, so here goes....
1st-4th May- Montecchia Open, Italy
Week Off (no event)
16th-19th May - Madeira Islands Open, Portugal (European Tour)
23rd-26th May - Telenet Trophy,Belgium
Week Off (Fred Olsen Challenge de España)
6th-9th June - D&D Real Czech Challenge Open, Czech Republic
13th-16th June - Najeti Hotels et Golfs Open, St Omer, France (European Tour)
20th-23rd June - Scottish Hydro Challenge, Scotland
That's where I am up to for now, and I will keep it updated every few weeks on here for anyone that is interested!
As always you can keep track of it all on www.europeantour.com and I'll be trying to give people that follow something better to look out for, rather than the drivel of last week!
One more thing....thanks Sophie, top sports psychologist!
Thanks for reading!
Tom
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