2024 Tournament Play: Part 1

Tournament play is in full swing (pun intended) and while I'm probably not going to be playing in as many as I did last season, I'm still planning to improve on years past. So far this year my golf game has been going less than ideal... So when I was preparing for the Open Championship at my home course I had to make sure I had a solid plan. I planned out my practice, stuck to it, and played the best tournament golf of my life.

If you've been following along you'll know that I've been fighting the shanks this season - particularly with the wedges. So I focused on that every day during the week leading up to the Open Championship. When I couldn't make it to the range I would set up my divot board in the backyard and use that to focus on my swing path and impact location. After some hard work, I was able to get some more consistent (read as "less shanky") shots with the wedges. I incorporated some ideas from an episode of The Sweet Spot with Joseph Mayo where he explain how getting steeper with your wedges can help with the short game. So, I focused on trying to hit more of a cut swing with my wedges to get my swing path a lot more steep, leading to fewer hosel shots. My distance control wasn't where I'd like it to be but they were going straight - consistently. And that was a big improvement.

In the days leading up to the Open Championship, I played 2 18-hole rounds and 2 9-hole rounds on top of multiple range sessions. I didn't score very well in those 2 18 hole rounds - an 85 and 94. The 9-hole rounds were more respectable with a 42 and a 40 the day before the tournament.

Open Championship: Day 1

I wasn't sure what to expect going into that first tournament, so I made sure to give myself plenty of time to warm up. After 3/4 of a bucket on the range and about 20 minutes of chipping and putting, I was feeling good headed to the first tee. I managed to make a nice, safe opening par for a good start. Then hole two happened - my least favourite hole - and some terrible chipping led to a double. One more double and three bogeys led to a 43 for the front. Not amazing but I'm usually good for a few strokes less on the back so I was happy to make it through shooting slightly better than bogey golf. A nice, 293-yard 3-iron off the tee on the 9th for a finishing par had me feeling confident heading to the back.

The par-4 10th at my course was redesigned 3 years ago. What was once an easy, short hole is now a little longer and a lot tougher. A well-guarded green with heavy bush on the right and a bunker on the front left. A bogey here always feels like a par. So walking away with my par on the hole kept my confidence going. A birdie on the par-5 11th was almost derailed by some sand trouble and a double-bogey on the 12th. But a good drive into a headwind landed on the 13th green on a short par 4 and a birdie got me back on track. The rest of the way in was pretty smooth. A little tree trouble for a bogey on 14 and a great sand save for a birdie on 16 led to an even-par 36 on the back.

My first ever tournament round in the 70s. I couldn't have expected anything better.

But now I was in the championship flight for the first time and would need to turn in a respectable Sunday round to keep my place at 4th in the men's division.

Open Championship: Day 2

Sunday morning came and I tried to do my best to duplicate everything I had done the day before. The same breakfast, same coffee and same warmup before the round started. I ended up shooting the same score of 43 on the front, with only 1 double that day. After how the previous day went, I was feeling pretty good. But the back didn't start as smoothly on the second day.

Off the 10th tee, I pulled my tee shot into the trees and had to take a drop. What was a par yesterday was a double today. There was some more time playing in the trees on 12 and I took a bogey. For 13 the wind was running in the opposite direction as the prior day so I decided to hit the 3-iron which ended up leaving me with a 12-foot eagle putt. Unfortunately, I just missed to the left of the hole but tapped in for my second birdie in as many days on that hole.

A bogey on 15, another birdie on 16 and a terrible missed short putt for par on 18 to finish off a 39 on the back on day 2 and a score of 82 overall. Not bad at all for me, but not good enough to move up the leaderboard.

After a frustrating start to the season, I couldn't have been happier to turn in my best-ever single tournament round score on Saturday and complete my best 2-day tournament score of 161. A fourth overall finish was also my best-ever result for an individual tournament to date.

I left the course that day feeling the best I had felt about my golf game in quite some time. But I also knew there was much more work to be done to really start Droppin' Strokes.