Clutch Pro Tour - Season Opener Heythrop Park

Monday 29th of April - Practice Day

I arrived at Heythrop first thing to get out for the practice round, another cold and windy day... just ideal UK spring weather!

I have played here a few times before so I was pretty happy with how to play certain holes. This year, I want to be a little more detailed and clear with my intentions on each hole during the practice rounds as previously I have perhaps not used these rounds as effectively as I could have. I recorded all my shots with yardages, club that I used and where I hit it on the hole. This really helps me dial in my distance control, knowing exactly how far my shots go. On the greens there was dots on the greens for the first 2 rounds so I was practicing how the putts were breaking around those holes.

I hit a lot of good shots during the practice round and felt very comfortable with my game plan for each hole. After the round, I did some range work and then putting for my final bits of preparation before round 1.

Tuesday 30th April - Round 1

A 9am tee time to start the season which normally would be a welcome time however at our Airbnb we had a bit of an experience. Around 9:30pm on Monday evening, the house security and fire alarms started going off and we had no way of stopping them! We were trying to contact the company and owner and could not find out what the code was to stop it... not ideal especially for Corey who was teeing off at 8am so he had an even earlier start.

It got to 10:30pm and they offered us somewhere else to move to 30 mins away but this would mean even less sleep! So we decided to try to sleep with the alarm going off the whole night... I was very tired from an early start on Monday and the practice round which helped and I managed to sleep somewhat alright considering but I wasn't going to let that be an excuse.

It was a sunny but very windy day at Heythrop which demanded a lot of quality shots on every hole. I started on hole 10 and I felt very calm and in control of my game. For the most part I executed a lot of the shots in the situations, I just had 4 moments of where I missed judged the wind and didn't fully execute the shot.

One area that I was most pleased with was putting, I had a few lag putts that I judged perfectly and I holed out well when I needed to which on a day like that is key.

1 poor drive cost me a double on hole 3 but I stayed patient, committing to my process on each hole and I managed to finish the round with 2 birdies to shoot +3 and in T62 after the completion of day 1.

Wednesday 1st May - Round 2

A 2pm tee time today and I can confirm that we sorted the house alarm so a good night's sleep was had! The golf course was totally different from round 1, hardly any wind so a score was needed as I was hovering around the cut number. I got to the course a little earlier to get some extra practice done which felt very good. My driver was a little off today and this showed from the 1st where I pushed my tee shot way right, luckily I had a shot over the tree and managed a par but this would set the tone for the day with driver. After a birdie at the par 5 4th, annoyingly I pushed my tee shot on 5 into the trees and lost my ball. I stayed calm though and reduced the damage by making birdie with my 2nd ball and walk off with a bogey. I was playing solid, a couple of really good shots set me up some birdie chances which I made on 6 and 12. Annoyingly I also threw in a couple of poor shots to make bogeys on 9 and 13.

Two key moments coming up, the first being on 16 which was drivable today, I hit a solid drive but I slightly pulled it and it was by the green but behind a tree and completely blocked out. The best I could do was to chip it over the front bunker and I did this but the ball got caught up in the rough on the downslope of the bunker, this left me a very interesting chip down two tiers to the back flag. I spent a couple of minutes really visualising and feeling this downhill left to right chip shot. I hit this thing and it came out perfectly where it checked on the top of the slope at perfect speed and it rolled down to about 6ft, almost going in. I made the putt for par.

I was level for the day and standing on the

18th tee - a 596 yard par 5 if you don't know, a dead straight hole.

I had to make birdie to have a chance to make the cut on the number. I hit a very good drive down the middle, then hit a 3 wood from 298yards 40 yards short on the approach. My work wasn't done, I had to navigate this pitch shot across the tier and again taking my time I assessed it perfectly. I landed it exactly where I wanted to and the ball finished 3ft from the hole. Birdie finish and I made the cut on the number!

Thursday 2nd May - Final round

A 6am alarm and it was pouring outside with thunder and it wasn't before long that my tee time from 8:30am was delayed to 10am. I was in the first group out of the day which was a great opportunity to shoot a score to try climb the leaderboard. I did exactly that. My ball striking and tee to green game was back to it's normal level, only missing 3 greens in regulation all day. It was a super controlled round, every area of my game was very solid. Rolling some putts in was very nice. I finished -3 for the round and climbed up to T33 for the tournament. A couple of small bits to tidy up on but all in all a very solid performance in the first event of the season and a great platform to build on.

Next week is at Brocket Hall.

Thank you for following my journey.

Ryan

Scorecard Summary