Hi Fellow Addicts,
Well, firstly congrats to Dan Hendry, I think he was playing a different course to me, mine was fairway lined, a reverse to the norm.
Things started well, I got paired up with a couple of great lads from Al-Ain, “Sandy” and Jason, as we introduced ourselves to each other and proceeded to the range it was with the full excitement of the coming event. Then we hit the range proper, it was one of those mornings, I normally play the round with what I hit on the range, so if I draw it, I’ll play that and vice versa. Well, the first 20 shots or so led me to believe I would be playing with a fade, hook, draw, push low runner. I tell you that looks right impressive…not.
Round one gets underway and I hit the first 4 fairways, was level par, the 5th, short par 4 no real trouble here, unless you swing like me and well, miss the fairway. I had a good lie, 87 yards to go, then the old wedge decides “87 is just far too short” so 120 is its preferred distance…a nice bogey there….suffice to say not happy.
Anyway, I made the turn at 5 over, not to displeased, then on to the back 9, the bogey express arrived with a few passengers. Double and triple for a great 89 first round, early tee time expected!!! Well to my surprise it was not too bad, believe it or not, that was a middle of the pack round that gave me a 9.20 tee time but 10 am is still eluding me!!
Round 2, started off steady, 5 pars in a row, my ball had an aversion to going in the hole at first request during this spell, then, wham bam, double bogey, from a perfect lie in the fairway, quality! Another was to follow one hole later and the turn was made in 40. With a little bit of anger on the 10th tee, I nailed it, middle of the fairway, 8 iron in, that ‘scared of going in the hole first-time ball’ was still with me at this point though. Then, Mr. double reappeared, followed by Mr. Bogey, fortunately, the next 3 holes after resulted in pars and then the wheels fell off. 46 back 9, 86 overall, so, more practice required and lots of it.
I must say though, the course was in awesome condition, greens were perfect, weather great, company was great for two rounds, the staff bubbly and the tournament organization spot on. A great job by Al-Hamra, look forward to going back a playing again, was my first time down there and really enjoyed it, if you have not played there, I highly recommend it.
I have also signed up for the Shaikh Rashid Trophy in November, so better get my skates on and up the practice frequency, will let you know how that goes before the event.
I look forward to trying to better these scores, shouldn’t be too hard I hear you say, but remember, my swing resembles that of an octopus in a phone box playing left handed with a pair of welders goggles on…
Cheers
Mark Holmans