Verdict Ridge Open

Hi everyone,

This week was the Verdict Ridge Open (Egolf event) in Denver, North Carolina. The course was pretty nice, quite strategic from the tee with a few holes requiring less than driver. The par 3's were pretty tricky, 3 of them around 200 yards and significantly downhill.

Round 1 started off a little slow, I hit a drive a bit right off the 10th (my first hole) but got away with it and made a par. Then a poor 5 iron into the the 11th followed by a poor chip, led to a bogey and +1 through 2. But then my round got going in the right direction.....I hit a lovely 7 iron into the 12th which gave me a good feeling in my swing. I rolled in a nice 15 foot birdie putt at the par 3 13th to get back to even. Then birdied 16 & 18 (both par 5's) before making the turn. Then I made one of only a couple of bad swings all day on the 2nd (my 11th). I hit my 6 iron right of the green and after a nasty kick into the hazard I walked away with a double. I bounced back well with a birdie at the 3rd, only to give it straight back at the 4th! After some solid golf I approached the par 4 9th at Even par. I hit a lovely wedge to about 10 feet and converted to finish my round at -1 (71).

With scoring being low on the first day, I was quite a way back but knew if I kept the ball in the fairway, my putter could get hot anytime in Round 2.

I got off to the perfect start, birdieing the first after curling in a 10-foot left-to-righter. I hit some really good shots in the first 6 holes, and after birdieing the par 5 6th got to -2. Then on the 7th I hit a bad shot from a really tough lie in the rough. I managed to save a really good bogey after finding the hazard. Then, on 8, I 3-putted for another bogey and fell back to Even on the day and -1 overall. I knew I had to play some stellar golf on the back 9 if I was going to make the cut. My good long game continued but I couldn't get anything to drop until the 16th. -2 overall with 2 to go and I knew I needed to birdie 2 more. I scrambled for a great par save on 17, so it was going to take something special on the par 5 18th. After playing over-aggressively, I got myself into trouble and ended with a bit of a silly bogey and could only post an even par 72 for the day, which wasn't enough to make it to the final round unfortunately.

Although that part of it is disappointing, overall I played some good golf this week. My swing felt a lot better for the 2 rounds and my confidence is growing all the time. As I said before the work I am continuing to do with my coach has been great. I am looking forward to what is in store for me for the rest of the season.

My next event will be the Wyndham pre qualifier on the 13th. Let's see if we can get in to the field and make a significant step in the right direction, it's about time. I am due!

Thank you all for following.