Clutch Pro Tour - Event 7 Studley Wood

Tuesday 9th July - Round 1

A slightly different approach for me this week in terms of preparation as I did not have a practice round for this event because I was caddying for the Queenwood Cup on the practice day. This is where all the top pro's are in town ahead of the Scottish Open and The Open. The biggest names I managed to watch were Rory Mcilroy, Jon Rahm and Sahith Theegala which was pretty cool. However I caddied for Robert Rock, one of the best swings in golf and I can confirm, it was a delight to watch for 18 holes. Rob is also a great guy and we had fun day, he gave me a few things to help with my game which would prove useful this week.

12:40pm was my tee time to kick off this event, I've played Studley a few times on Europro before and with five par 5s and most par 4s that were driver and wedge into the green, it was going to be a who can make the most birdies. The weather was not very good, drizzle and windy but actually it was better than what the forecast was suggesting.

I started very well making solid pars but after pushing my drive into the bushes on hole 5, I lost my ball and made a double bogey. However I managed to stay patient and I felt like I was hitting the ball well enough, that birdies would come... and they did. I made a couple of frustrating pars on the reachable par 5s 9th and 10th but my patience was rewarded when I holed a 15ft birdie on 12. I kept on hitting solid shots and I finished birdie, birdie on the par 5s 17th and 18th to finish the round at -2, 6 shots off the lead.

This was a big positive to turn that round into something under par considering I was +2 through 5 holes.

Wednesday 10th July- Round 2

Second group out at 7:40am was an early alarm but it does mean we get the fresh greens in the morning. Yesterday afternoon, with all the traffic and damp weather, they were spiking up a bit. It was a drier day than round 1 but the wind was forecast to pick up, again another positive to playing early as we would miss the worst of it. I started on the 10th, and after a good tee shot, I did not make a birdie which was a little annoying. I rolled in another nice putt on the 12th for birdie which was almost identical to the 1st round. My round really got going on the 16th, par 3 that was 206 yards downhill, wind helping, I hit 7 iron to 11ft and rolled that in, I was starting to build confidence in my putting.

I made a good birdie on the 17th and on the 18th after hitting a 5 wood from 240 yards to 50ft into the wind, which my by this point was really picking up. I stuck my wedge shot on the 1st hole (my 10th) to 1ft from 62 yards to make it 4 consecutive birdies. Then on the 2nd, I rolled in a 24ft to make it 5 birdies in a row, which I believe is the first time I've done this in a tournament. I was in a great mindset but holes 4, 5 and 6 were playing totally different with the wind against and I managed to scramble pars on those tricky holes. After hitting two very good pitches into the par 5s 7th and 9th I finished the round at -7 and climbed the leaderboard to T10 and 5 shots off the lead. This would be my lowest round of the season so far.

Thursday 11th July - Round 3

By far the best day for weather with an 8:20am tee time and the greens were rolling very nice and actually started to dry out a bit. I knew being 5 back on this course required a super special round, which was definitely achievable.

I got off to a nice start, hitting a wedge shot from 100 yards on the 2nd to 3ft to open my birdie account. However, for the next few holes it became a little scrappy, I struggled a little off the tee which I had to rely on my short game to save me, and it did for the most part. I made a silly bogey on hole 5 but again, I stayed patient and didn't force anything. You could say I stole a birdie on hole 7, I hit a poor drive, layup and wedge shot really to only 30ft but I holed it! Sometimes, golf is funny like that.

I managed to bring things under control a bit more on the back 9, I hit a great 8 iron into the par 3 11th to 3ft, then birdied my favourite hole of the week again... hole 12!

The closing few holes was a little scrappy again but I scrambled well when I needed to and I finished with a nice two putt birdie on the 18th to score -4 for the day.

Another week that had a lot of positives, especially on the greens which is where I've struggled the most recently but this week I've gained strokes on the greens 2 out of 3 rounds which is very encouraging.

A quick turn around for Slaley Hall next week in Newcastle.

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Ryan