Clutch Pro Tour - Frilford Heath Blue

Tuesday 20th August - Practice Day

Frilford is just under a 2 hour drive from home and we started the practice round at 12:50pm on the blue course. The last time I played here was back in 2019 on Europro where I finished 2nd so it was nice to have some of those memories come back to me from that week.

It was a windy day which would be the theme for the week so control of your golf ball would be vital. After some rain in the area, the course was playing fairly soft, more in the middle or soft / firm scale which is quite rare. It's either one or the other.

We kept our fun practice round matches going with a little better ball match, with bonus of £1 for birdies. We had a good match with a lot of birdie, but me and my partner manged to win... again! The only downside was the round took 5 and half hours which wasn't ideal as we had a quick turn around before our round 1 tee time.

Wednesday 21st August - Round 1

8:50am tee time to start and it was a pretty calm morning but the wind was due to pick up a bit.

I got off to the worst possible start. Just about making a bogey at the 1st. Followed by my tee shot out of bounds on the par 5 4th then another bogey on the par 3 6th, +4 after 6 holes! I just did not hit any good golf shots but I managed to gather myself and I hit a 2iron from 255yards on the par 5 8th to 18ft, almost making eagle but the birdie was needed. I played really solid after that, really trying to be in the process and feeling each shot and I birdied the 10th to get back to +2. On the back 9, I set up some good chances but I just couldn't convert. Then frustratingly bogeyed the 18th to finish +3 but after the horror start, it wasn't too bad.

Thursday 23rd August - Round 2

A later tee time today of 1:50pm and the weather was not great at all. More wind than day 1 and a bit of rain around so I knew I needed to play well to have a chance at making the cut. I decided to get go and practice a little earlier to work on some feels and this helped for the day. I started really well in the most challenging conditions of wind and rain. After starting on the 10th, I managed to eagle the par 5 15th to really get things going. I kept hitting really good approach shots but just could not quite convert them on the greens. I birdie the 1st hole after holing a 25ft which was possibly playing one of the hardest holes of the day, wind into off the right! To keep the momentum going I made a very good par on the par 3 3rd with water left and right, wind against off the left. But frustratingly the 4th hole would cost me again. I pushed my drive right on to the other fairway, not a bad position but I had to lay up over some trees. I did this but my worst swing of the day and I layed up into thick rough. I hacked it out but in a poor position behind another try and scrambled my bogey. I didn't panic and got up on the next tee and flushed my drive by the green to make a bounce back birdie. I knew I needed one more birdie to make the cut.

I missed a good chance on the 7th then on the par 5 8th, I hit a perfect drive and had 230 to a back right pin but my ball was a severe downslope. I hit a great 5 iron but it just cut too much off the downslope which left me with a short sided chip, I hit to 20ft but could not convert.

I finished the round at -3 and missed the cut by 1. It was frustrating to miss the cut but equally I was pleased with how I performed especially in round 2.

This gives me good confidence going in to Q school next week.

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Ryan