My 4 iron tee shot found the centre of the fairway about 140m away after my opponent’s opening drive was pulled left into the tree line, about 160m away. His 2nd was a low runner that bounced and bobbled its way, toward the green, ultimately finishing in the front greenside trap. When I got to my ball, I was disappointed to find it sitting down in an old unfilled divot. My 9 iron 2nd was subsequently caught thin and flew low and hard, pitching on the green, but bounced off the back, finishing about 20m from the pin, in some cabbage. My pitch to the green was a good one I thought, leaving me with about 15 feet for par. His effort from the trap was a gem, finishing only 6 inches short. After conceding him that for his par, my par attempt looked good, but would finish about a foot past the hole.

His tee shot from the 2nd wasn’t a good one, blocked right it hit wood and dropped straight down, only about 70m from the tee box and hard up against the trunk of a tree. Would block my tee shot right towards the trees as well, but higher and straighter it carried the trees and finished in the centre of the adjacent 3rd fairway, about 160m from the green. He was forced to recover sideways and his 3rd shot was not a good one either and only finished marginally in front of me, though on the correct fairway. This meant I could pitch my ball across and recover to the correct fairway, rather than trying to shape a shot over the trees towards the green. After I’d played my 2nd shot, a low running shot along the ground back to the 2nd fairway, I was lying 2 about 100m away and he was lying 3 about 140m away. From there I would win the hole with him conceding my tap in bogey after my 20 foot par attempt sat on the lip.

The 3rd hole was halved in regulation par 5’s with both of us conceding par putts of less than 2 feet.

My regulation par 3 on the 4th was enough to win the hole, when, after a poor tee shot, he missed the green with his 2nd shot and his par attempt from just off the green slid well by.

Got lucky with my tee shot on the 5th hole pitching in the shallow fairway bunker but luckily hopping forward with enough pace to roll out and finish on the fairway. He also found the fairway and we would ultimately halve this hole with regulation par 4’s.

Coming to the short par 4 6th hole, again we would both find the green in regulation, his birdie attempt from about 20 feet was never on line and after conceding him his par, I would roll my 10 foot birdie attempt in to take the hole.

A disappointing bogey 6 was enough to halve the par 5 7th. Disappointing because I was I was only 20m short of the front edge in the centre of the fairway for 2 and would badly duff my attempt at my pitch shot 3rd.

The 8th was halved in 2 putt bogey 4’s after we both missed the green pin high right. And my regulation par 4 on the 9th hole was enough for me to take a 3up lead into the back 9 after he found the trees from the tee.

6 iron from the 10th tee would find the green, only about 15 feet from the flag and this would be close enough for me to win the NTP for the day. He missed the green, but knocked his chip to about a foot away. After conceding him his par I rolled my birdie attempt 3 feet past and would miss the putt back to lose the hole.

Recovered well enough after finding the trees off the 11th tee, making bogey 5. However, it was not enough to win the hole, losing it to a par 4. Back to 1 up though 11.

A second poor tee shot in a row saw me top my 3 iron off the 12th tee only some 50m or so down the fairway. Thankfully I recovered well enough to again make bogey 5 and this was enough to win the hole after he had again found trouble in the trees from the tee.

Thankfully, my tee shot on the par 5 13th was a good one and I would go on to par the par the hole, winning it after his par attempt from 25 feet stopped well short of the hole.

We halved the 14th hole in 2 putt bogey 5’s and a 2 putt bogey 5 was enough for me to win the 15th hole and take the match 4 & 3 after he again found trouble off the tee.

Played out the last 3 holes bogey, bogey, par to finish the back 9 with 42 off the bat, giving me 81 for the round. A season PB and a place in one of the semi finals in 2 weeks time.

As always, thanks for reading.
Cheers