Exam, The Drift and Guernsey....

Just back from Guernsey. Had a great time. It really is a very beautiful island and is so relaxed and chilled out!! More on that in due course...

Well I've had one very busy week!! Tuesday saw me travelling up to Birmingham for my equipment technology retake, hopefully my final piece for my PGA course!! Yep, if I pass this I realise 3 years of extremely hard work and achieve my PGA qualification! This will be the proudest achievement of my life!!
I think the exam went well. I had to do 2 technology jobs. One of them was to build a club from components ie mine was to build a sand iron with a regular flex that was an inch shorter than standard and had to have 3 layers of grip tape. Then I had to adjust the loft and lie of a golf club. Both of these jobs went well I think and now I can only wait for my results. Fingers crossed, I was extremely nervous but think I coped well.

On thursday I had the south region assistants championships at The Drift. I shot 83 (+10) and 79 (+6) for a +16 total. This was disappointing but I take many positives from the second round particularly. In the morning I didn't play poorly but I scored poorly. There were a lot of sloppy errors, mainly with my shortgame and I putted woefully. It was an 83 that probably should have been 76 ish.
My afternoon round could have been an enormous breakthrough in my confidence. Bearing in mind this is a tough course and is very treelined I was -1 through my first 7 holes and was playing beautifully. I made bogey on my 8th which was a tough hole but then on my 9th I was in a greenside bunker for two on a par 5 and managed to take 4 from there. From then on I had 2 3-putts and another bogey to be stood the par 5 8th (my 17th) at +4. After splitting the fairway I only had two iron and proceeded to block it way right in the trees. This was my only truly bad swing in the whole afternoon round. I felt even worse when I hit my provisional ball to about 20 feet.
I found my first ball in the trees and could only hack out back to the fairway. Even so, my shot smacked a tree and proceeded most unfortunately to roll under a tree root. From there I could only chip out and made double bogey on what should have been a birdie hole. I parred the last and signed off my 79 feeling very short changed in what had been my best tournament round for 2 years. Sometimes the score really doesn't justify how the person had played. But I played well and enjoyed the day.

Anyways, on the friday we set off for Guernsey. I've never been a good flier and was very nervous, particularly when I saw the Dash-8 aircraft we were due to fly on. However both flights were fairly uneventful and I had a great time in Guernsey. I swam in the sea twice which was brilliant. I haven't done this for years and wish I did it more often. I'd love to go back. It would be a great place to live as it is so relaxed. However the lack of golf courses and the fact that it is so quiet means that it may remain as a holiday possibility.

Anyways, after a hectic week all is back to normal now. Back to work tomorrow.....