First stage of Q-school.

I just finished the first stage of Q-school. It was an interesting week, a lot of pressure and lot of good golf. I was playing in Nebraska, so I was expecting cold and windy conditions, that was not quit what we got. The weather the first two days were warm and dead calm. The third day was pretty windy but still very pleasant temperature. The final day was really cold in the morning, but when we got to our 9th hole it was warm again. 

 

The first round.

I was playing really well during the first round, I was hitting the ball very well and I hit 16 greens, didn’t have much stress during the round because I was hitting a lot a greens and I was always on the good side of the pin, so I left myself with the best possible birdie chance. It was a very slow round for me. I was one under through 12 holes, but on 13 things started happening. I had 215 meters to the pin on a par 5 and hit a good 4 iron, the ball ended up 5 feet from the hole = eagle. Now I was 3 under par and ready for a strong finish. The next hole I had a 6 foot put for birdie and it lipped out. I thought 3 under with four to play, I have a pretty good chance at making a solid first round. The 15 hole is a long par 3. I hot my 4 iron to 20 feet and three putted….. Had good birdie opportunities on 16 and 17, but didn’t manage to make any of them. On 18 the pin was in a difficult spot and I hit it to 15 feet for birdie. Something happened and I walked away with 6. Finished the round at even par. I was not very pleased with the way I finished the round with the putter, but I just had to focus on the good playing I had done.

 

The second round.

 

I played my best golf tee to green during the second round. I hit 17 greens, didn’t have a put over 25 feet all day. I was so pleased with the way I got around the course. Unfortunately for me I continued to struggle on the greens and managed to have 4 three putts. My problem on the greens was that I had a hard time with the speed. The greens were so fast and I hadn’t played on fast green in a while because of the greens speed we have had in El Paso. That is one thing I need to be better at, I need to be able to adapt to fast greens faster than I did in the tournament. I finished off strong, 2 under on the last 3 holes. Shot 70, 2 under par. It put me in a position where I was still very much in the tournament, but needed two solid rounds to get through to the 2nd stage.

 

Round three.

Round nr. Three was the windiest day of the four days. It was blowing hard and made it tuff to hit it close. I played very solid and hit 16 greens. I was struggling on the greens yet again. The round was very tough mentally because I had so many chances and got nothing out of it. But I managed to stay patient and finished off strong, again 2 under on the last three holes. Shot 70 again and I was in good shape for the last round.

 

Round four.

Round nr. Four was a difficult day, my game was not nearly as sharp as it had been the first three rounds, but I had worked hard on my putting the day before and I paid off. I hit 15 greens, but didn’t hit them close to the pin, so lag putting was very important. I had my best putting day by far.

After 15 holes I was even for the day, I didn’t think that would be enough to get through to the next stage, so when I was on the fairway on 16, a par five, I told myself that now is the time to hit a great shot. I knew I could pull the shot off and went for it. I hot my 2 iron to 5 feet and made eagle. Now I was 2 under for the day and knew it would be enough to secure a spot at 2nd stage. I finished par, par and shot another 70. Finished 6 under par for the tournament.

 

I can take a lot of positive things away from the tournament, the way I handled myself I was very pleased with. It was tough mentally because of the lack of made putts, but I pulled through and came out strong with the putter in the last round when I really needed it. I am very exited about 2nd stage, which will be played November.

I will come back with an update after the tournament.

 

This week I am going to Nike to try out their new equipment, which should be very interesting. I am sure it will make me even better. 

 

Thank you for reading the blog.

 

Best, Martin