Asian Tour Q School Dec 2024 - Thailand

The long journey began from Gatwick setting off at 10pm on Monday 2nd Dec UK time, we arrived in Bangkok around 16:30 on Tuesday 3rd Dec. A further 3 hour drive to our apartment in Hua Hin, it made our total travel time about 24 hours with the time difference. I maybe got 2 hours sleep on the plane so was certainly very tired. Immediately arriving in Bangkok it felt very hot and I got in to my apartment, dragging my luggage sweating as if I've ran about 10km, I knew I needed to adjust to this quickly.

Wednesday 4th December

Our first practice day at Springfield Royal which is where the first stage of our Asian Tour Q School is. We decided to have a light practice day as we were all tired from the travelling and we were figuring out everything. Shops for food, how to get taxis to and from the golf club and then adjusting to the heat which was 34 degrees, feeling like 40! The golf club was around 20 mins from our apartment and when we arrived, I was very excited to play it. I was feeling tired and my body was tight from the long journey so this session was just about to get the feels going again.

I spent a good amount of time on putting and short game, trying to adjust to the grass type, green firmness and speed.

Thursday 5th December

I had booked in advance our first practice round at Springfield for 7:50am so we would get out before the weather got too hot throughout the day.

My alarm was set for 5:30am with our taxi picking us up at 6:15am. However I can only put down to the jet lag, I did not wake up until 6:35am! I had several missed calls on my phone from the others and I missed the taxi to the golf club. Not the ideal start! I quickly got myself sorted and ordered a taxi to the golf club. With no warm up and a quick breakfast, I got to the golf club at 7:45am, signed in, got my caddie and rushed down to the 1st tee.

It was a perfect morning for golf, clear skies but already super humid of around 30 degrees. Because it was a busy morning, the others had teed off the 1st so I joined them in the first fairway.

All that kept me going was the buzz of excitement playing my first round in Asia. Attempting to take it all in, getting a feel for the course, grass type and green conditions, the sun was sucking all my remaining low energy out of me. I enjoyed the course, two slightly different 9 holes that had their own challenges. The front 9 gave more birdie opportunities, the back 9 with a bit more water and tighter off the tee seemed to present more of a challenge.

I played solid considering my jet lag and no warm up but I did struggle towards the end of the round with the lack of energy. This was to become a big factor in the tournament.

Monday 9th December - Practice Day

I managed to get over the jet lag after around 3 days and the heat of Thailand was becoming a bit more bearable. The last few days we did a mixture of practice and played another round at Springfield, I was beginning to get a good feel for the course.

We arrived at the course at about 8am ahead of our final practice day before the tournament. Caddies are mandatory for the tournament either using a local one or bringing your own. I had a great caddie from our first round we played last Wednesday, her name was Oui and I secured her for the tournament this week. The caddie situation was a little but unknown but I'm glad I had a good one.

The course had changed quite a lot since our first look at it, the greens becoming a lot faster and firmer. This made it important to get the ball in the fairway in order to control the approach shot, I noticed when missing the fairway, the control out of the semi rough was much more unpredictable. The greens are tricky at Springfield, undulating in places with run off area's but I felt with my approach play skill, this wouldn't be too much of an issue, just something to be aware of.

We got warmed up and then head out on to the course. The majority of tee shots required driver but if you got driver in play, there are a lot of wedge shots into the par 4s which created some good chances. One noticeable difference from playing in the UK compared to Thailand was how far the ball travelled because of the heat. This is more evident with the longer clubs as the ball essentially stays in the air much longer. We played 3 rounds now and I felt like I was getting a good sense for the different style of golf in Asia.

Tuesday 10th December - Round 1

7:30am was my tee time to start my Asian Tour Q School on hole 10. It was another beautiful morning for golf, little wind and sunny skies. I felt calm, in control and excited to get going. Over the practice days, I met some amazing people from Finland that were staying at Springfield on a golf holiday, we became friends and they kindly came to watch me for a few holes to start so it was nice to have a little support. Big thanks to Jenni, Jesse and Aira for coming to watch!

I got off to a perfect start, making birdie at the par 5 11th and then hitting a close wedge shot to 4ft on hole 12. My first mistake came at the par 3 13th which is 200 yards with water on the right and I pushed my tee shot in to the hazard to make a double. But I did not panic and responded with a birdie on the par 5 14th.

I kept everything in control and made two more good birdies on the 2nd and 3rd holes to get me to -3 for the day. The heat was really kicking in towards the end of my round and on the par 5 7th, I pushed my drive down the right and up against a tree. I had to take a drop and chip out. I still had 215 yards into the green where I hit a 5 iron long and failed to get up and down, I walked off with a double. Again, I felt calm but further tee shots out of position on the 8th and 9th holes, my 17th and 18th for the round cost me another 2 shots. I finished at +1 which felt a little frustrating because I did some great stuff, all be it a couple of moments leading to two doubles.

Wednesday 11th December - Round 2

A later tee time for round 2 of 11:30am which gave me a bit better recovery and after recognising my drop in energy levels in found 1, I made sure to stock up on fluids and energy gels for this round, especially playing in the middle of day. It was however a slightly more overcast day so the heat from the sun was not as intense but we had a little more wind to handle.

I got off to another good start, making birdie at the 1st after holing a 40ft putt!

Again feeling in good control of my game during the round hitting a lot of good shots. My first three putt of the tournament came at the par 3 6th to make bogey and then I made a good bogey on the par 4 8th after hitting my drive in the fairway but blocked by the tree. Again, I responded well by making birdie on the 9th and was level for the round. I really got things going on the back 9, making birdie at the par 5 11th and then on the par 3 13th and par 5 14th to get to -3 for the round. I hit a great wedge shot on the par 4 17th to tap in distance to get to -4 but made bogey on the 18th. I finished -3 for the round and moved up the leaderboard to T26 with 2 rounds to go

Thursday 12th December - Round 3

Another late morning tee time of 11:30am and it was cool to be paired with my mate Dan who I travelled out with as we were on the same score. The weather was similar to day 2, a bit overcast and a breeze but the greens were noticeably firmer and faster. The Asian Tour have the green stimp reading information on the tee, the greens were 10 on the stimp for round 1, and by round 3 they got up to 11. This made it even more crucial to get the approach shots right and speed control on the greens more precise.

Starting on the 10th hole again, I got off to another good start making birdie at the11th and 12th again. I appeared to score better on this 9, I kept things really solid and made the turn at -1 for the round.

I hit another great wedge shot to tap in distance on the 1st (my 10th) to get to -2 for the round and feeling good. I then made a couple of silly bogeys on the par 4 3rd and par 3 4th holes after not great tee shots. I was at level for the round and keeping things tidy until my last hole of the day, the 9th. I pushed my drive 5 yards offline and under some trees. I had a shot out but my ball was on a upslope and I had to keep it under the trees. I went for the shot, but it popped up and hit the tree to drop straight down. I walked off with a double. After what felt like a good grind, I was frustrated to finish on +2 but I knew that for the most part, I played really good.

This left me in 39th position and 5 shots off top 20 which is the cut off to progress to final stage. I needed a low round on the final day.

Friday 13th December - Round 4

There was a cut for the top 60 players to play the final and I was teeing off at 7:30am again. We had a thunderstorm during the night which took the edge off the temperature slightly as it was another overcast morning. We arrived at the course at 6:15am and it was still dark, so my warm up began under the floodlights. I started on hole 10 again and I felt in a good mindset to go and execute this final round.

However unlike the previous rounds, I got off a poor start. On the par 5 11th, I three putted from 14ft after a misjudgement of the speed, hitting it 6ft past the hole. Another bogey at the par 3 13th but a positive response on the par 5 14th, hitting the green in two and making birdie. However I was really fighting my speed control on the greens, which I've not struggled with that much over the first three rounds. After dropping another shot on the par 3 16th, I made the turn at +2 and I knew I needed something very special to have a chance at getting through. I birdied the par 5 2nd from hitting a close chip shot. But I frustratingly gave the shot straight back on the 3rd. A tee shot I've struggled a little on the previous two days, I flushed one down there. I had a 120 wedge shot in and I was caught a little in-between what shot to play. This resulted in a slightly heavy strike, coming up short then I failed to get up and down. For the first time I got annoyed at this as normally I'm very good within that 120 yards range. I then dropped more shots coming in to finish at +6 as the adrenaline and energy was sucked out of me. It was a disappointing finish because I felt like I did so many good things and to finish in this way was not me.

Summary

I felt like the style of golf in Asia was different to what I've experienced before, which is no surprise. The main thing is the type of grass, you have to hit it in the fairway to have any control of your approach shot in to the green. With the greens being firm and fast, this was key but because of the warmer climate, you can hit the ball a lot further which allows shorter irons for the second shot. For large parts of Q school I played some really good golf but like anything, it's about how costly the mistakes are. For the first two rounds, driver cost me 4 penalty shots then for the last two rounds, I had 4 three putts. I struggled on the par 3s, playing these accumulative +8 for the four days which certainly highlighted a bit of a weakness for me.

I'm super excited to continue working on my game as my next event is on EPT in Portugal early Jan 2025.

A massive thank you to those who have made this Asian Tour Q School possible.

If you would like to join the RHG to gain more insight to my journey, improve your golf and meet other RHG members, use the code RHG24 on sign up to receive your discount for the 2025 season. This expires on 31st of December 2024.

Many thanks

Ryan