Clutch Pro Tour - Harleyford

Monday 9th September - Practice

After a quick turn around after Q school, it was time to get back on Clutch to try and finish the season strong. I have played Harleyford a few times back on Europro so I felt comfortable with my strategy on each hole, today was a case of getting the feels for course conditions and greens.

We had our usual fourball match going during the practice and as it was our final match of the season and it was by far the best match we've had all year! It had everything, from chip ins, long putts, a shank and even a hole out from 114 yards by myself. Me and my partner were -11 better ball but lost one down! It was great fun and we still managed to get a good amount of prep done. The course was playing soft after the amount of rain we've had so it was to be a low scoring week.

Tuesday 10th September - Round 1

An 8:50am tee time to start this week, it was a colder morning with the wind forecast to pick up quite a lot as the day progressed. I got off to a little slow start, missing two short putts for par on the bumpy greens to be +2 after 3 holes but I stayed patient. I birdied the 4th and 5th to get back to level par. I birdied the par 5 9th, then after a great 4 iron from 207 yards uphill into the wind to 6ft, I made an eagle on the par 5 10th. I backed this up with a birdie on 11 to get to -4 and was gathering momentum. By this point in my round, the wind was really picking up and I finished with birdies on 17 and 18 to score -5 and be in T5 after the 1st round. I was feeling confident in my game with good control.

We spent the afternoon / evening in London as we were celebrating our mate's victory last week at Kedleston Park with a Chinese meal in Chinatown, it was delicious!

Wednesday 11th September - Round 2

A 1pm tee time today so I had time to digest the Chinese indulgence from last night! The weather was even colder and still a stiff North Westbreeze, so it was going to be a test out there. I decided to get to the club a little early for some extra practice and this seemed to pay off. I made a couple of silly bogeys in round 1 so I wanted to make sure I didn't do that today.

I got off to a better start, hitting a good wedge to 8ft on the 2nd to set up my first birdie of the day. Followed by a 7 iron from 204 yards out the rough, to 15ft on the par 5, 5th. I made my second eagle of the tournament. I felt in great control and we had a couple of heavy rain showers to deal with. I made another run of birdies on 9, 10 and 11 to move to -6 for the round. I noticed another heavy rain cloud approaching so I knew I needed to hit my tee shot on the tricky par 3 12th before this arrived! I managed to hit a good shot but it just spun off the front because of how wet the greens were, which left me a 50ft up the slope. By the time we got to the green, the rain started and we had heavy hail and play was suspended. We had the option to finish the hole we were on or we could mark our ball and head to the clubhouse. Other greens were flooded but ours was not so I decided to finish the hole. I hit a good putt to about 5ft which left a tricky par putt. I managed to hole this to keep the bogey free round going. We then went back to the clubhouse, to which by this point was near 6pm so we knew that was pretty much no more golf today. Clutch confirmed that there would be no further golf until tomorrow morning, we had to be in position to finish our round at 8:45am with the final round starting at 1pm shotgun.

Thursday 12th September - Round 2/ 3

Fortunately it wasn't a super early of starts with an 8:45am restart but it was still set to be a long day. It was a cold, crisp morning with the wind light so it would be another day of low scoring. I resumed my 2nd round on hole 13 and we were down to a two ball as one of the players in my group was struggling so he decided to go home after the suspension yesterday. I finished my round with some very solid shots but the greens were incredibly soft, as you would expect after the amount of rain. So any wedge shot into the green, made it difficult to control especially to a back pin location as the ball would spin back 20ft each time. I missed good birdie chances on 16 and 17 but finished with all pars, my first bogey free round of the season and -6 for round 2. I would be at -11 for the tournament and 3 shots off the leader going into the final round.

Round 3

We had a 13:15 shotgun start and being in the second to last group, I would start on hole 2 which was good. I got off to a perfect start, holing a nice 10ft birdie putt.

As you would expect, they set the course up a little trickier with more tucked pin locations.

After pushing my tee shot on the par 5 5th, I didn't make birdie and then a poor tee shot on the par 3 6th, I had a 6ft par putt for par which I did not convert. I stayed patient and on the par 5 9th, I hit two solid shots to the front of the green to leave around 40ft for eagle. The greens were getting bumpier by the hole with the traffic on them, I hit a decent first putt to 3ft but then lipped out my birdie putt, a real missed opportunity. However I made birdie on hole 10 then set up another great birdie putt on 11 from 4ft. Another lipout and I felt like I've wasted two great opportunities. I didn't force anything but I knew I needed to make some sort of run if I was going to win this. I made a good birdie on the short par 4 14th, holing a solid 5ft putt. Then on the par 4 15th, my wedge shot from 120 yards pitched inches from the hole but spun back 20ft as it was on a top tier. I made par. Another slightly off iron shot on the par 3 16th saw my drop me second shot of the day. Followed by another short 6ft birdie putt missed on the par 5 17th, I know this tournament had slipped away a little. However I wanted to finish strong and managed to hole a nice 18ft for birdie on the 18th.

I finished -2 for the round and 3 shots off the winner. With the opportunities that I missed, I truly feel like I had the chance to win this week which I haven't been able to say too much this season. It's been a huge set forward and I want to finish the season strong at the Tour champs in Norwich next week.

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Many thanks for your support.

Ryan