Clutch Pro Tour - Tour Champs Royal Norwich

Monday 23nd September - Practice Day

As Norwich is a 3 hour drive, I decided to travel up on Sunday afternoon to stay fresh ahead of this week and today's practice round. Rather than driving and trying to play a practice round, would have been very tiring.

I haven't played the course before but the lads I was staying with knew the course so they could give me some sense of direction on the holes.

We teed off mid morning and I was super impressed by the set up of Royal Norwich. Amazing short game area, good range and putting green. The course was playing dry, with firm greens that were undulating with run off area's. It was a proper test and I loved the lay out of the holes. You have to hit it straight off the tee, then be precise with your approach play into the tricky greens. We played a little birdie game which was good fun while we got our prep done to set up for the final event of the season on the Clutch.

Tuesday 24th September - Round 1

I was off at 10:20am and we had a decent day of weather but the temperature had dropped a bit from yesterday. I got off to a really good start, making birdie on the par 3 2nd, followed by a birdie at the par 5 3rd.

I made a couple of silly bogeys on holes 5 and 7 but managed to make birdie on 6 and be -1 through 9. Going into the back 9, the wind was picking up and I made two more mistakes on 10 and 11 to make back to back bogeys. I knew I had to dig in a bit to keep things steady which I did. At the drivable par 4 14th, I hit a solid drive to the front of the green and managed to secure my birdie to get back to level. I finished well to make birdie on the par 5 18th to complete the round at -1 and in T27. So a solid position.

Wednesday 25th September - Round 2

An afternoon tee time of 1pm, so I spent the morning doing a little workout in the gym at the golf club followed by some extra practice, which was feeling good.

I got off to another good start, hitting my wedge shot on the 1st to 2ft and make birdie. The wind was still up a little but it switched direction from round 1 so this was something to be aware of. I felt in good control and was keeping things really steady. After a lose drive on 5, I made bogey but managed to make a good birdie from the greenside bunker on hole 9, the par 5 to be -1 through 9.

I was close to making birdie on the 600 yard par 5 12th, hitting a good greenside bunker shot to 7ft, just couldn't convert the putt. I then hit a great tee on the 14th to 30ft to set up a eagle chance, comfortably two putting for birdie. However, I gave this shot back on the long par 4 15th after three putting from 50ft. Then my first big mistake of the day came on the 18th. It was getting dark and I just pushed my tee shot into the trees and had to take an unplayable. I managed to get it out, but I missed the green with my approach shot from 190 yards out the rough, and failed to get up and down. Just like that, I walked off with a double bogey and at level par for the tournament. It was a frustrating finish after keeping it very solid for the day.

Thursday 26th September - Round 3

The final round on the Clutch Pro Tour season and I would start at 9:50am. It was going to be a breezy day with thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon so it would be good to dodge those. My start to round 3 was quite contrary to my first 2 rounds. I pushed my drive and lost my ball to start with a double bogey which is not the start I was after. However I remained composed and got my first birdie at the par 5 3rd. I started to play some of my best stretch of golf for the whole week and made a birdie at the par 4 8th after hitting my wedge shot from 140 yards to 2ft. I then backed this up with a birdie at the par 5 9th and started to feel really good. I missed good birdie chances on the 10th and the 11th and my momentum was killed a little after making bogey on the par 5 12th. I hit my tee shot out of position and was unable to fully recover it. I made a good par save on the 16th and we got to the par 3 17th and saw the rain clouds building in. I hit a decent shot to 45ft, the pin was tucked over the water on the left side of the green so I wasn't going to take it on. However I three putted which was frustrating and I dropped back to +1 for the round. It was now a bit of a race to finish the 18th before the rain. I hit a good drive and an almost amazing 5 wood into the green but it just fell off the side of the green to leave a tricky chip up the slope. I didn't quite execute the chip and walked off with a par. As we were doing the scores in the clubhouse, play was suspended due to lightning so it was fortunate to finish before that.

It wasn't quite the finish I was looking for but overall I played some very good stuff all week. I will do a full season review very soon but thank you for following my journey all year.

Many thanks for your support.

Ryan