US Open 2020!

After securing numerous travel waivers, health checks, and co-ordination of a lot of logistics, we officially arrived in New York on Saturday to compete in my first ever Major golf tournament…the 120^th US Open at Winged Foot Golf Club!

It’s been six months since I was last on American soil but thanks to all the hard work from the USGA Officials, it genuinely feels just as safe to be playing on this side of the ocean as it did back in Europe. I’ll also admit that after all my college years spent in Chicago, I still truly get excited about each of my trips back to the States!

We are just over 20 miles North West of Manhattan this week, playing on a course that has already hosted 5 previous stagings of this iconic Major event. And to give you an idea of just how tough the challenge ahead of us is…only two players in the whole of US Open history have shot under par scores after 72 holes at this venue!

But in all honesty, I can’t see that the USGA had to implement too many extra tactics in order to ensure that it was going to be a tough test of golf for us out here! There is a big tick in every box that helps determine exactly what a US Open venue should be here at Winged Foot. To begin with, you’ll hear the same murmurs of excessively penal rough that seem to frequent every edition of this Championship! It is up to six inches deep in some places here and surrounds each and every one of the long, narrow and undulating fairways we will be contending with. In addition to that, there are consistently small, heavily bunkered and contoured greens distributed across the entire course which hold some impressively complex surfaces for us to navigate round too!

To translate what this all means…birdies are not going to be easy to come by so avoidance of bogeys is the number one strategy here in New York! The course is playing almost 7500 yards so although being long and powerful will be a huge advantage off the tee… that definitely won’t be the case if it comes at the expense of even an inch of accuracy!

There’s no doubt about it, Winged Foot will be a test of every area of our game as well as mental tenacity!

We have been very lucky with enjoyably sunny weather so far this week and four more dry days have been forecast to take us all the way through the weekend…although temperatures look like they will struggle to get higher than 20 degrees at any point and the weather gods have also thrown a couple of strong breezes into the mix for us to deal with in the mornings too!

Its been a brilliant few days of practice and preparation here so far and I can’t wait to get things started now. Off at 7.34am tomorrow morning alongside Erik Van Rooyen & Tyler Duncan. Shame not to have any spectators at tournaments yet… especially such a momentous one like this but hopefully you’ll get the chance to tune in on television at some point instead! Thanks in advance for the support of everyone watching!!

Adventures in Andalucia

The UK Swing has finally come to a close and it has definitely been a brilliant re-start back to tournament life for me! As you may well have already seen, with my second place finishes at Forest of Arden and Celtic Manor last month, I managed to secure a place into the 2020 US Open at Winged Foot GC in New York. This will be the first Major tournament I’ve ever played in and obviously can’t wait to get out there! 

As part of the European Tour's 'Golf For Good' initiative that ran throughout the Swing, my 4^th place finish on the mini Order of Merit meant I was also able to choose a couple of local charities to make a considerable donation to. It was a fantastic scheme set up by the Tour and my selected charities were Un Monde Meilleur and Epic Foundation

Once I knew I had confirmed my position in the field in the US I decided to take a couple of weeks off and had a short but amazing trip to the Swiss mountains which successfully recharged my batteries & prepared me to get back into action! To give you an update on my schedule, I have very gratefully been offered a start in the PGA Tour event in Punta Cana the week directly after the US Open so I will play those two consecutive tournaments before returning to Europe again for the Scottish Open and BMW PGA Championship which have been confirmed as Rolex events again this season. 

But before all that begins though, I am teeing it up this week in Spain first at the rescheduled Andalucia Masters! There are a whole range of mixed opinions on this Golf Course but I have always been a big fan of Valderrama and the challenge that it presents! 

It is one of Europe’s most famous courses for a reason…not only as a previous Ryder Cup host venue but notoriety also comes from the tough test it presents to players from tee to green - all year round! It is a relatively short Cork tree lined course with a combination of narrow fairways and small, fast and sloping greens! Avoiding the lush and heavy rough is essential too! Because of this you need a consistent strategy, with emphasis on accuracy both off the tee and with each approach shot too. Most crucially, you need to keep mistakes to a minimum in order not to be punished.

No complaints about the weather here in Spain since we have been forecast a full week's worth of sun. However, there are 15-20 mph winds predicted across all four tournament days too which will significantly add to the challenge!

Off at 8.45am tomorrow alongside British Masters winner Renato Paratore and Pablo Larrazabal who never fails to make a round of golf fun! Shame to still not have any spectators at events since I have so many great memories of being here with family and friends last year but nevertheless, looking forward to another Valderrama adventure - lets get the birdies going!

Celtic Manor Memories!

Didn’t finish up the tournament last week at Hanbury Manor how I wanted to unfortunately after a very disappointing day on the golf course on Sunday. I can only put it down to feeling some exhaustion kick in after playing four events in the past five weeks but every tournament is a great opportunity for all of us right now and I’m still really enjoying playing (most of the time!). So with that in mind, after a very relaxing day off on Monday to fully recharge my batteries, we have decided to continue the journey and head over to Wales for the Celtic Classic this week! 

As you will no doubt already know, this week and next, the European Tour are scheduled to play back to back events at the Twenty Ten Course at Celtic Manor, just outside of Cardiff. As a matter of fact I already have some incredible memories from this venue! In September 2010, as an amateur, I qualified to play in the Junior Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, and fresh after playing in that event, the whole junior squad travelled down to Celtic Manor to meet our golfing heroes and watch them bring home another European Ryder Cup victory! The Junior Ryder Cup is still, and probably will forever be, one of my favourite golfing memories. Getting to play on the amazing Centenary Course as well as being captained by the legendary Tommy Horton and Gary Stangl (for those of you who don't know who Mr Horton is, I suggest you take a quick look online to read about his amazing career and involvement in the game of golf in Europe!).

Although Celtic Manor has hosted numerous other editions of the Wales Open on European Tour since then, it is my first time back in ten years and I am really looking forward to getting started! It’s another parkland resort style course here in Wales with vast lakes a feature on at least half of the holes. However, most notably, the course is a lot longer than last week and therefore going to be a very different challenge to Hanbury Manor. Having been designed to host large scale events, this 2010 course is situated on a large area of land which therefore features some wide open fairways as well as a pretty exposed layout. Because of this, the weather could potentially be a big factor since we would be vulnerable to any strong winds coming through. 

Fortunately the breezes are not forecast to get past 10-15 mph speeds on any of the four days…although there are some thundery showers predicted for the opening rounds of play which means the course will likely get soaked with rain at some point!  The rest of the week looks like it will be filled with clear dry skies though!

One final day of practice and preparation here today before my first round tee time tomorrow at 13.02pm. Birdies will probably be a little harder to come by than last week but my intentions remain to go as low as we can nonetheless! Always nice to have Pieters back in the field and playing with us again too!

Ready to Reload!

What an amazing experience last week at Forest of Arden. Of course, it goes with out saying that I walked off the 18^th green on Sunday very disappointed with myself for that last putt…but it was hard to feel defeated for too long given the circumstances. I truly felt like I was playing some really solid golf out there on Sunday and that second place finish ended up moving me to 91st in the Official World Rankings…my highest ever position and first time inside the Top 100! I also moved nicely up to 4th place on the UK Swing Order of Merit which can help potentially bring some more opportunities too. The Top 10 not otherwise exempt players after the fifth tournament on this UK Swing will gain spots into this year’s US Open Championship at Winged Foot! Definitely another goal we are all keeping in the back of our minds…

I also want to say a quick thank you to everyone for their messages of support and congratulations over the weekend too. It feels really great to be surrounded by so many people encouraging me and rooting for me to succeed! I also received an amazing piece of advice from Justin Rose on Monday morning who told me not to be too downhearted by missing out on the win. He said that sometimes these things can be a blessing in disguise and you never know if picking up a trophy at this point would have perhaps allowed me to relax a bit instead of staying hungry and ambitious for each of the huge opportunities coming my way this summer. It's honestly amazing to get bits of advice like this from other professional athletes, especially ones you’ve grown up watching and respecting since childhood. So thanks again Justin for that extra boost of motivation - it was much appreciated! Definitely an added bonus of being part of Team Excel Sports too.

There is not too much insider knowledge to give you this week about Hanbury Manor since it is actually very similar in nature to last week’s venue at Forest of Arden. It’s another beautiful resort style parkland Golf Course with plenty of water and bunker hazards throughout. On this occasion, the front nine is the newer of the two and is generally more exposed whereas the back nine is where the tree lined fairways are the striking feature!

We also have another week of amazing weather lined up for us in Hertfordshire! Sunny with just gentle breezes for all four days.

I am off at 1.00pm alongside Brandon Stone and Oli Fisher tomorrow afternoon. Good vibes this week and ready to get things going!

Onto the next stop...

Not the start I was hoping to get off to last week in Newcastle! I’m not going to make any excuses and I was actually a big fan of the Golf Club at Close House but honestly, on reflection, I just truly struggled to get anything going out there. As you might have seen, I missed a number of short putts on the greens which definitely killed my momentum a bit. But more than that, I think I also let myself get affected by the drastic changes to my usual tournament habits. I am so used to having my fitness trainer with me at events, fitting in light/heavy work outs, stretching as well as pre tournament warm ups...or my coach Jerome to help me with little issues on the range. But times are a little stricter right now and if I want to make the most of these next events then I need to adapt and be more rigorous in setting myself some routines. We are very lucky to have these tournaments up on the schedule right now and I know there’s some great opportunities to take advantage of over these next few weeks!

Moving forward and I arrived on site yesterday afternoon to the Forest of Arden Golf Resort for this week’s Hero Open. I walked the course in the early evening with my caddy and was genuinely really impressed! As a matter of fact, this venue has actually already hosted a number of British Masters and English Opens over the years and they’ve maintained a brilliant level of condition since then.
It’s a Parkland style course here which displays a bit of variety between the front and back nine layouts. The front boasts heavily tree lined fairways, countless bunkers as well as having pretty much all of the water hazards to contend with! In comparison, the back nine is surrounded by heavy heathland with wider, more generous and forgiving fairways.
Regardless of this divide, there are large greens dispersed across the entire course and each of the 18 holes will be another test of strategic navigation with some solid approaches into the greens necessary again to give ourselves the best chances of some low scoring!
Practice is all complete. Now just keeping my fingers crossed that my putter can get as hot as the temperatures forecasted for us this week so I can have a good chance of making an impact on the leaderboard !

Off at 9.15am tomorrow. Looking forward to the next challenge!

The UK Swing Begins!

This week represents the first of six consecutive tournaments that will be played on British Soil. You can usually almost always rely on there being a significant number of animated fans at any regular event hosted in the UK!...but, unfortunately, in order to put a priority on safety at the moment, we are playing behind closed doors again..and until further notice too!
The good news for people at home though is that this week, there will be plenty of coverage of the event on your TV's.

As you can imagine, things are looking a little bit different on site now to how they were when we last played in the Middle East back in March. As a matter of fact, the European Tour are having to operate a tournament bubble for each of the competitions that they host right now which involves us players undertaking regular COVID testing as well as a number of other rules and procedures to make sure that everyone can stay protected . For example, visits to restaurants and shops are strictly prohibited so there are some long nights of room service, reading and Netflix ahead!

Although this sounds pretty strict, I know everyone here is more than happy to respect all the rules we need to in order to be back out and competing again.
Moving onto the tournament itself and this is the second time that the British Masters has been played at this venue, Close House Golf Club. Due to schedule conflicts, I didn't get the chance to play the event when it last came here in 2017 so this is the first time that I have ever visited and I am already a big fan of the place!

It's a parkland style set up this week with a number of lavishly tree lined holes but some generously wide fairways out there too. There are also a decent amount of bunkers to contend with, and most notably, some dramatic elevation changes as well! Its fair to say that a key factor this week will be a solid short game and hot putter though. The putting surfaces are pretty undulating so finding some good strategies to navigate shots in from the fairways will be a definite help too!

In terms of the forecast, unfortunately it doesn't feel like the height of summer her in Newcastle this week! Temperatures are around 17/18 degrees but with clouds and a definite chill factor. Only light showers are predicted before the weekend though so hopefully we will manage to stay dry as long as possible

Unusually it is a Wednesday start this week so its time to get out there into the Northumberland Hills this morning and start making some birdies already!
My first round tee time begins at 13.20pm today. Looking forward to getting the UK Swing off to a strong start!

The Waiting Game is Over!

And so…seventeen weeks after flying back from my last tournament…the European Tour is finally back in action!

I have to be honest, I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed an enforced break from normal life there for a while! After years of consistent and repetitive travelling, it was truly refreshing to stay in one place for a long period and really have a chance to appreciate some time with my family and friends.

As you might have seen, I spent the lockdown period on the Cornish Coast in South West England. I didn’t touch a club for 7 weeks except for a bit of fun practicing bunker shots in the sun on the beach!

Needless to say though, as soon as golf was allowed again, I was straight back out on the course!  I decided to play in a small Pro Am event at the end of June which was hosted by Andy Sullivan and Paul Waring. It was a brilliantly organised day and I really loved playing Worplsdeon Golf Club too. I even managed to pick up a sneaky win in the end which was definitely an extra bonus! I then returned to Belgium to play in our annual Bank Delen Corporate Days with Thomas Pieters...these are always good fun too!

On a separate note, at the conclusion of the Qatar Masters I made a decision to change caddies. Ryan was genuinely a great guy and fantastic at his job, however, it was time for something new…and for that reason, we now find ourselves at the dual sanctioned European/Challenge Tour event this week in order to get in a good first feel of how things are with new caddie Mike on the bag!

The European Tour have done an amazing job at putting the updated 2020 schedule together. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to liaise with so many different governments and their ever-changing policies under such pressure. It is going to feel different for a while, travelling without any coaches/managers/families or friends, but regardless, I will take my schedule week by week and just stay grateful for everybody’s efforts in getting things running again with such a strong health strategy in place.

So down to business now and this week’s Austrian Open will be my first event back! Its a brilliant track here at Diamond Country Club (about an hours drive from Vienna). The European Tour has hosted many tournaments already at this venue but the last time I was here in 2017 for the Lyoness Open. The course is a great test of golf with water on 17 of the 18 holes we play! This includes down both sides of the 18th hole as well as two island green par 3’s to add a little extra intensity too! Furthermore, I am playing the first two rounds this week with Jiménez who re-designed some of the holes on this course himself a few years back!

And so that brings us to today. A full day of play and practice is complete and I feel officially ready to get back into event action once again! I was lucky enough to receive an amazing drop of new season Hugo Boss items earlier this month as well as the new GFore MG4 Plus shoes...so hopefully my game comes back out as strong as my new clothing set up!

Off at 8.10am local time tomorrow. Hoping Miguel will help to get some good vibes going early! More updates to follow...

Sun's up in Saudi!

For those of you who managed to find time to watch coverage last weekend, you will have seen that playing conditions in Dubai became a little trickier than expected! In fact, as the tournament reached its climax on Sunday, most of us were subjected to playing in winds of up to 30kmh as well as sporadic rain showers which resulted in some pretty significant movement on the leaderboard! I was really happy with my battle out there though and managed to shoot level par on the final day to secure a solid finish.

I am now preparing to play in my fourth event in a row which means adopting a slightly different approach to training in order to conserve my energy levels. To be honest, I am really happy with how my game is feeling at the moment and despite no outstanding results, I think there have been a lot of positives to take from each week I’ve played so far in 2020.

With that said, we return to Royal Greens Golf & Country Club this week in Jeddah for the 2^nd edition of the Saudi International! Although immersed in its fair share of political controversy last year, the inaugural edition was honestly a thoroughly enjoyable and well organised event and it feels great to be back. Its also worth noting that It’s an intimidatingly strong field this week since many of the Top 50 (including Dustin Johnson, Mickleson & Kopeka) have taken time off the PGA Tour to join us!

Once again, the course is in brilliant condition and given that the Club was only completed in 2017, the hospitality and facilities are still in immaculate shape too. As you might already know, the course here is entirely carved out of a desert landscape and runs along the Red Sea Coastline which results in us getting to enjoy some unequivocally stunning views once again! Its a relatively short layout featuring only two par 5's as well as light rough... but there are still plenty of hazards to avoid with endless amounts of sand and 4 sizeable lakes to contend with too! However, this should be another low scoring week for us and if I can get my putter hot then I should be in with a good chance of another strong finish!

Really happy with my grouping this week! I play alongside Erik Van Rooyen and Matthias Schwab who both had quite inspirational seasons last year and are great guys to spend time with! First round tee time tomorrow is 7.45am…another early alarm clock but practice is all complete and Im ready to get back into action!