Since my last column, I’ve played in the Italian Open, had two weeks off, and then played the BMW International in Germany followed by The French Open. The results haven’t been particularly good in those three events, but I am very encouraged with my game the past few weeks.
In Italy my game wasn’t great to be honest. I felt as though my body was in poor shape in terms of flexibility and movement. I just felt like I was unable to swing it how I wanted. Fortunately, I had booked some time with my trainer, Kenny, and physio Karen in my two-week break. My back especially had really stiffened up. Kenny and Karen always amaze me. They can pretty much tell how I’m swinging the club just by looking at my body. I tell them what shots I’ve been hitting and how it feels and they can tell me exactly why and how to fix it. I’m lucky to have the two of them on my team. After a painful massage and correction session my body was as good as new!
Feeling fresh after two weeks off, I headed to Germany for the BMW. My game didn’t feel particularly good but my short game and putting were incredible and I found myself in a tie for the lead after three rounds. Unfortunately, the putts dried up on the last day and I dropped all the way down to 26th. Normally that would have felt like a decent week, but not in this case.
The encouraging part was that I was leading a European Tour event after three days playing with my C game. That’s something I have never done before. I then headed to France feeling really optimistic. I still have no idea how I missed that cut! My game felt really good but I hit a couple of poor drives and made some bad decisions – something you can’t afford to do on that course, it really is brutal. It will be much nicer to play matchplay around there and it will make for an amazing Ryder Cup venue!
Up next are the Irish Open and Scottish Open. I love links golf so it’s a great chance for me to start knocking in some good results again.
