European Players Tour - Gleneagles 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Monday 15th of April - Round 1

After a 4am alarm to catch the first flight to Edinburgh, I arrived at Gleneagles just before 10am. What a stunning venue set within the hills and we got super lucky with the weather in terms of rain but we still had 25mph winds to handle.

The first round was on the PGA course which hosted the Ryder Cup in 2014. Unfortunately due to the amount of rain recently, the course was soaking wet, a lot of plugged balls in the fairways and rough combined with greens that had maintenance on just 2 weeks ago slightly lowered the experience but you could tell that in good condition, the PGA course is very good!

I shot+2 with a triple bogey on my 8th hole after a lost ball from my drive but I was pleased with how many chances I gave myself, especially on the back 9. The greens were difficult to putt on as all of us in the group were laughing at how the balls were not staying on the intended lines. Putting became a lottery.

I was lying T4 and 4 shots behind going into the final day which included 2014 Ryder Cup hero Jamie Donaldson!

Tuesday 16th April - Round 2

Today was the King's course which compared to the PGA was in much better condition, fairways and rough were perfectly dry and the greens were slightly better. The sun was still shining with a brisk breeze of 20mph which made certain holes play long.

A different style of golf to the PGA, the King's had a bit more of traditional Scottish links feel to it which made it fun hitting particular shots.

I found it tricky to judge my distance control on certain shots which led to some longer putts than I would have wanted. Teeing off late in the day, soft bumpy greens were not ideal when putting and I had 5 three putts on my way to shooting +6.

I've not had 5 three putts this year let alone in one round so this was a freak day because I felt like I did a lot of what I could control very well.

I was playing with Gary Wolstenholme and he was very complimentary of my game, stating that everything looks in a very good place, the green conditions is something I cannot control. It's not ideal but I won't be getting too caught up on my putting performance this week.

This dropped me down to 12th place so not exactly the result I wanted but I was very pleased with how I played for large parts of the 2 days. The work continues ahead of North Hants next week.

Many thanks for following, if you want to gain further insights I would love for you to join the RHG team!

Ryan