I guess having a little girl will probably explain that!

Last year was pretty crazy having a baby, trying to play full time golf. It’s certainly a life changer and difficult to juggle things and giving enough time to all areas of your life but one I’m enjoying and hopefully managing to do!

The golf hasn’t taken a back seat as such but I’m having to manage my time far more carefully and make the most of afternoons to practice. 

So I had the opportunity to go and qualify for the PGA China Tour, it’s something like I felt I needed to do in order to try and keep making progress and test myself on a level I’d really not played at since 2012 which was actually the last time I played a 4 round golf tournament on the Challenge Tour. I must take this opportunity to say thank you to Dean Williams from www.williamswealthconsultancy.co.uk. I met Dean towards the end of the summer last year and he’s been fantastic in helping me and has now become a good friend too.

So my trip to Thailand for qualifying started off with a flight to to Bangkok, I won’t bore you with all the details but it took me 3 days to get there! Two cancelled flights and a 10 hour wait at Bangkok airport wasn’t the ideal preparation but nevertheless I arrived early hours on March 2nd. I’d originally played to have 5 days before it started to climatise, get used to the different grasses, work out the grainy greens and see off potential jet leg! It was around 40+ degrees everyday with 75% humidity which was pretty hot! I managed to get out for 9 holes on Sunday evening to get a feel for the course, I managed to get a great caddie who was fantastic at reading the greens and actually really good company, so thank you number 23 for your company during the week!

I played very nicely in practice and felt very comfortable with things, the games not been great the last few months but I’ve been managing to get it round in under par. I walked another 9 holes Monday and practiced, I was very aware of trying to stay as fresh as I could with been prepared at the same time.

The golf course itself was very tight in places with oob and water lining both sides of the fairway on around 12 of the holes, very undulating grainy greens and thick rough just off the fringe of the greens. A premium on getting your ball in the fairway and then controlling your flight and spin and hitting in the correct part of the greens were essential to scoring well.

I played lovely the first 14 holes and was cruising at -2, a few poor swings coming in and I finished +2, any remotely waywood shots were punished servely but that’s how golf should be played. I really lost the feelings in my swing coming in and sadely never got them back!  +5 in round 2 saw me make the cut but another poor 3rd round left me a few too many shots away from qualifying. A really disappointing week but some valuable lessons learnt and very clear as to where and what needs to be worked on. I have an option to take up membership of PGA Tour China but will have to pre qualify for the first 6 tournaments then if enough money is earnt I will be eligible for a re rank so all is not lost. Golf rarely takes you smoothly down your chosen route so we’ll see where it takes me now! Time to knuckle down and work hard and I’m sure I’ll end up smiling at the end of it.

Click on the images in the gallery below to view them full size

Sam