Last 3 weeks...

After a few hard months of travel and getting used to life on tour, at last I feel like I've started the year now. I've hardly been making the headlines but the last 2 weeks have meant I got some money on the board and put myself in a position now to kick on and have a strong second half to the year.

Having not made a cut since Kenya, it has been a bit of a struggle and a massive learning curve. The event in Czech Republic was a huge week for me, as I played some of the best golf I can play yet missed the cut due to some bad mental errors and a poor mindset. I really learned a lot from the week and I don't think it was a coincidence that I went on to make the cut the next week at the European Tour event in France. My mindset was much improved and I was much more relaxed and positive on each shot, proved by a birdie on my last hole to make it on the mark!

I then went on to Aviemore, Scotland for the Scottish Hydro Challenge...and managed to clock up my first top ten of the year. I was right in contention after 2 rounds and played some really controlled, solid golf for -10 and just 2 behind. On the Saturday I think my inexperience caught up with me and I had to settle for a 1 under par 70...on a day that I felt my par was around 68. But no disaster and a good last round would leave me with my best finish so far. As it happened the final day was halted several times due to some brutal weather but I ground it out really well to finish off with a level par 71 and that left me in 10th place. I needed a last hole birdie to creep into the top 10, a target set by my girlfriend Sophie before the round...my top psychologist! Anything to keep her happy!

As much as I wanted to do better over the weekend, I have got to take away a lot of confidence from the week and really push on now for the rest of the year.

I had quite a few tweets during last week so thank you to those who continue to support me, it makes a difference trust me.

For now it's onwards and upwards....starting in Germany next week

A quick and big thanks to my dad and brother who have caddied the last 2 weeks, they were a big help and I hope I wasn't too bad to caddy for.

Thanks again,

Tom

Patience!

Since my last blog I have continued on an annoyingly downward spiral, resulting in missed cuts and plenty of weekends off to think about where it is going wrong!

I could rant for a long time about numerous things that are doing my head in, but I won't and I'll give you the short story. For years now I have been fairly weak with my long game but generally very sharp around the greens and tidy with the putter, meaning my scores were probably better than I played. This is a great trait to have and I enjoyed out-scoring opponents who out-played me. However, the tables seem to have turned and the scoring aspect of my game has gone awol. I have been 3 putting for fun and not holing anything of any note for a good couple of months now. So where I should probably be shooting around 2 or 3 under I'm actually shooting 2 or 3 over. The difference is obviously huge, yet the margins are so miniscule. It really has started to test my patience and made me question everything I am doing in search for better scores! One thing that I have changed fairly dramatically is my putter. For the last 5 or so years I have used the same putter, with a 2 thumb grip, and it has been my biggest strength by a long way. This year however has been a different story, as I mentioned earlier. So a change of putter and putting technique it is. After hours of trial and error I have found what I think is my best bet to holing more putts, and it is completely out of my comfort zone.

Before my next Challenge Tour event, this week in Czech Republic, I wanted to put the new technique into play so I entered an 1836 Tour at Caldy GC last Thursday. The greens weren't great at all but I could still get a good idea of how I was feeling with the putter, and I was fairly tidy. I did have a 3 putt and also missed a short birdie attempt from around 3 feet however. I managed to shoot 70 -2 and I missed out on winning by 1 shot. Overall it was quite encouraging but the real test will be this week, I've only travelled with the one putter so it better work!

I'm currently writing this on board the flight to Prague and feeling like I just need a couple of long-ish putts to drop this week and the whole thing is turned on its head...if it doesn't happen then it won't be from a lack of effort!

I do hope to give the people that follow me something to cheer about soon. If everyone could will the ball into the hole for me this week that would be greatly appreciated!

Enjoy the sun and hopefully my scores,

Cheers

Tom