Clutch Pro Tour - Manning's Heath

Wednesday 14th August - Round 1

After a fantastic pro am day on Tuesday, the course was playing bouncy which made it very important to hit the ball in the right sections into the greens. I had a 11.48am tee time and the conditions were about as good it could get. Very little windy and sun so scoring would be low. I got off to a perfect start, my drive just short of the green and hit my chip to 1ft to start with a birdie.

I played very solid, hitting in the right areas and after holing my longest putt of the season of 70ft on the 11th, I was cruising at -3... I felt confident to finish the round strong but on the par 5 13th, I pulled my drive into the trees to lose my ball and walk off with a 7. I didn't panic and reset myself to finish the round at -1, so not completely out of the tournament but with some work to being 6 shots back.

Thursday 15th August - Round 2

7:30am was my tee time for round 2, it was another glorious morning for golf, sun and no wind but the wind was due to pick up throughout the day. Again, I started the round really solid and made some key saves on holes 4 & 5. My first birdie came at the 8th and then frustratingly three putted the 10th hole par 3. I managed to keep calm to hole another long birdie putt on the 11th from 36ft which was nice. With the wind really picking up, I kept things steady coming in, I hit 2 good approach shots into the 14th and 16th to set up birdies and finish the round at -3. I was -4 for the tournament, again 7 shots behind the leaders so a low round was needed on the final day to climb the leaderboard.

Friday 16th August - Round 3

Another early tee time of 8am for the final round. The wind had dropped and after some overnight rain, the course was really there for the taking.

I got off to a hot start. Birdie at 2, nearly holing my wedge shot on 3 and hitting my iron shot close into 5 helped me be -3 through 5. I was confident that I can push further and maybe get up the leaderboard. On the par 5 8th, I pushed my drive in the long rough, had to basically chip out sideways and then managed to scramble a par, which really was a chance wasted. I made solid pars on 9 and 10 but then a tee shot out of position led to a bogey. I managed to bounce back on 12 and thought here we go. Another tee shot out of position on 13 though led to a par. And making silly bogeys on 16 and 17, really frustrated me to finish the round at -1.

Overall this week's performance has been solid but I simply did not play the par 5s well enough. I was only level par for them this week, which you cannot do.

I finished -5 for the tournament to place T31

Next week is Frilford Heath, blue course where I've had previous success at on Europro so I'm excited to see what we can do.

For more insights to my journey and to help your game, come join our growing RHG community.

Ryan