Top 10 in sight – then disaster

Oct 9 2007 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

Thursday, September 13: Day one of the Oki Mahou Challenge de Espana on the European Challenge Tour and a late time for me.

Playing at2.50pm with Shaun Webster from England and Tomas Jesus Munoz from Spain, I immediately felt comfortable with my playing partners. We all hit the ball pretty straight and the same distance, which helps keep the game moving at a nice pace.

Starting at the 10th tee, I was off and running with birdies at 10 and 12 before a good par save at 13. On the 14th tee the rumblings of thunder that could be heard in the distance crept ever nearer and the referee had no option but to halt play for the dangerous conditions.

The delay lasted for around two hours. The hard part is keeping occupied but I was quite enjoying the banter with the lads while watching the golf on TV from Germany.

Play resumed at 6pm and with only a couple of hours of daylight left, it was clear that we would not complete the first round.

I carried on from where I left off with birdies at 15, 16 and 1 (my 10th) before good par saves at 2 and 3. Play was suspended while we were on the fourth tee due to darkness.

I had time for a quick shower and dinner at the hotel before going to bed feeling positive about a good day’s work.

Friday, September 14: An early start to complete round one as play was scheduled to re-start at 8.30. The fourth tee (my 13th hole and starting point) was about two miles from the clubhouse and after starting to walk I managed to flag down a greenkeeper to take me the rest of the way.

I had a fairly rusty start before making a good birdie at the par three 7th to go six under for the round. Good par saves on 8 and 9 had me in the clubhouse in 66 strokes, that was tied for third place after round one.

With only 20 minutes to ‘turn around’ for round two, I only had chance for a quick sandwich before I teed up at the first hole.

After a great birdie, birdie start I struggled for the rest of the day, making some good par saves before finishing with a couple of birdies in my last four holes to score a respectable 71 (one under).

At the halfway stage I was seven under for the tournament in fifth place.

Saturday, September 15: Saturday is often called ‘moving day’ as it provides players with a chance to ‘jostle’ for positions before the final round.

After a pretty steady day, I was round in a two under 70 that had me slip to ninth place at nine under. The scoring is quite well bunched but I will have to go low to catch the leaders on 15 under.

Sunday, September 16: Pay day and I was looking for a fast start and got just that….

After a drive and a six iron to the par five first, I holed a 40-foot putt for an eagle to go straight to 11 under. The perfect start!

Sadly, the story takes a turn for the worst with dropped shots at 3, 7, 9, 13, 14 and 17 and double bogies at 5 and 13 left me standing on the 18th tee at plus eight for the round and in danger of not breaking 80! Not where I thought I would be just a few hours earlier. The good news is I managed to birdie the difficult 18th to salvage some positives in an otherwise difficult day.

The final day score of 79 dropped me way down into 42nd place, thousands of euros away from the top 10 position I was in at the start of play. Still, there were lots of positives to take away from this week on the Challenge Tour and I refuse to let a few bad holes cloud over the many good things that I achieved during the week. Next time, I will learn from this experience and do a lot better.