Silver Linings

This is a post I’ve been anticipating doing and have had some motivation to talk about it as it’s something a lot of people have said it’s something they would like to hear. This post is about my trip to the Holy Grail of Golf.

Let me start with an opportunity I was given in January, by England Golf. A trip to Australia for five weeks to compete four times and get my competitive juices flowing. I spent 5 weeks in the company of three incredible men, Alfie Plant, Marco Penge and Brad Moore. I’m sure I can speak for everyone there when I say it is a trip we will never forget. The whole trip I had one aim, to get a win early, get in the position to get under pressure and feel the nerves of a putt that means something, a tee shot that has to get in play. I wanted to try and simulate the feeling I would have four months later at Augusta National and I got the opportunity I was after in the last week. After three weeks of frustration, feeling like I was close to being great but couldn’t get things in the right place. Then I had the chance, Marco and myself battled it out for the NSW Amateur and we had a great battle. Everything I wanted happened, I had a lead, lost it, had to regroup, holed a putt that had to go in. I hit a tee shot that had to get in play and then I got the job done. For me, it was confirmation I was heading in the right direction.

The next time I would tee it up competitively would be at Augusta for The Masters, and I spent the four months leading to that day getting myself ready. I done what I could with what I had. If I was in the financial position to do so I would have spent all three months in America competing as much as I could, but that wasn’t possible. I spent every daylight hour I could hitting balls on a driving range, putting on Huxley Putting Green and playing the occasional nine holes. I was frustrated I will not lie, I knew what I had to do to be competitive but I didn’t have the opportunity to do so. March came and I had arranged to stay with a friend in Georgia and practice and this is when I played all my golf, two weeks playing to get ready for the hardest test in golf…

I won the Georgia Cup on this trip, a match between Curtis Luck and myself. A massive high of the year beating the world number one. However, I knew I was rusty, I didn’t feel as great on some of the tee shots and putts as I had in Australia, I had my work cut out. I prepared for the next week at the most incredible place I have ever seen, the best course I have ever played, Augusta National. I gradually felt more and more comfortable with my game, playing with some of the best in the world and not looking out of place, I couldn’t wait to tee it up. Now anyone who has asked me I have said this to, Thursday morning, the first tee shot, what was it like??

Well, imagine sprinting for 300 yards and then standing on the first tee in the club championships with everyone watching… That’s how I felt, along with a little sick and the shakes. I was bricking it, it’s the tee shot I have dreamed of all my golfing life and the only thing I have thought about for eight months. I had spent all this time imagining aiming in the left rough and hitting a 10 yard cut to the centre of the fairway. My name was called and that was it, my heart sunk and I looked to my right where my fan club stood. I see my brother Aaron and his girlfriend Cherish, my mum Anita and family friends Mike and Pete. Then my girlfriend Sian, who smiles at me with the smile I have loved for three years now. But then the person I saw last? My dad Mike. He’s the man who introduced me to the game, the one who drove me everywhere, supported me when I played bad and good. He gave me everything he could to help me achieve and seeing him in the crowd made me settle, I knew he would be proud no matter what.

I went through my usual routine, pictured the shot and set up to the ball. One look down the fairway before pulling the trigger. That first tee shot on Thursday morning is the best shot I hit this year, it was the exact shot I wanted. I knew I was off and running, but the golfing gods dealt me a blow on the very next shot. I had indecision on my club choice and went with the bigger one, pitching pin high to a back right pin and bouncing into a spectator long of the green. To give you an idea of what that chip shot back up is like, when you are down there you can only see half of the flag, a steep slope with sticky fringe up to a green that runs away from you in front. Too soft and you have the same shot, too hard and you have fifty feet for par. To hit it close would be like standing ten feet from a golf cart and trying to flop a ball onto the roof and have it stay on top.

Knowing this was the case, and that this was my first Masters Tournament and first hole I opted for a bump and run up the hill. Error number two of the week, I didn’t give it enough and had the ball come back to me. After that I took my medicine and chipped to fifty feet, which is sometimes a great shot on this magnificent course. Three tentative putts later I made triple bogey seven. Not the start I wanted, but this is the round of golf that I was going to learn more than ever before. I lost the feel for my swing and putting for a few holes, almost guiding the ball round and struggled my way to a score I wasn’t very happy about.

The next day I genuinely believed I could make the cut, especially when I saw the wind was still strong, a good few clubs in places. Perfect for what I had been used to when playing at home, I knew I had good control of trajectory and felt great. When I made eagle on hole two I felt even better about my chances, the noise from the crowd gives me Goosebumps thinking about it. I battled hard but in the end, would settle for one over par and a missed cut.

This tournament would teach me a lesson that was going to prove invaluable for the rest of the year. I missed the cut, I underperformed in many areas and had a lot of work to do, but I was second in the putting stats behind Rickie Fowler, pretty good for someone who only practiced on an artificial green. I drove the ball well, which is something that I had worked hard on all winter so I knew I was getting close.

The rest of 2017 I would experience many things, from great rounds to bad ones. My goal for the season was to play as good as I could with the reward being the Walker Cup, but my aim was to give it my best. I will admit I struggled after The Masters, I struggled to get motivated to play at Lytham where I missed the cut by one shot, I had built my game to suit Augusta and then had to adjust to these conditions and I struggled. I didn’t have control of the ball very well and miss clubbed many times having spent the previous three weeks hitting 180-90 yard 7 irons and then going to 3 woods from the same distance. I knew that I had to get better at adapting and understanding that this was going to be a strange year in terms of schedule. But then I had a carrot dangled in front of me, The Walker Cup team dinner. Almost instantly my drive returned and I knew I had a job to do. Adapt quickly, make my game suit the course and get a result. I wanted a spot on that team more than ever after being around the atmosphere in that room.

I knew what I wanted now and that is what led to such a successful year in 2016. I had goals and things I gave my heart and soul to, in a way, that dinner saved my year and re focussed me. I struggled at many events this year, but with different things at each, I couldn’t get my game together on the same week but I knew I was close. I knew if I kept working I could do something and I probably found my game at the right time. The last five events of the season I had some of my best rounds, course record setting rounds and low rounds to get me in the mix. I hadn’t won but I felt I had shown what I was capable of to the selectors for GB&I.

The reward? A spot in the Walker Cup Team next month at LA Country Club. I’ve achieved a lot in the last 15 months, but this is the most satisfied I have been, the most pride I have felt. I wanted this so bad that to get a spot in the team meant everything to me and I can’t wait to get out there and give it my all.

What did I learn? Well, I learned that Golf isn’t a game you can expect to go perfectly. In fact, in one round you can have incredible lows and incredible highs and I am a better Golfer now because of those experiences. I learned that in the same respect, life is going to be cruel to you, I’ve had things off the course that have gone great and terrible. I feel like I have lived a whole life in just one year and I’ve come out at the end of it with an overwhelming sense of achievement. I can’t wait to see what the future holds 😊