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
All my latest news and links also available at www.tommurraygolf.com
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
All my latest news and links also available at www.tommurraygolf.com
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