A trip up to Manchester was next up on the schedule for the NW Tour and a Major!!

Again practice had gone well in the week and I was looking forward to playing. I drove up on the morning as I had a late tee time of 14.40. I arrived in plenty of time and took a quick look around the course, the course itself was short and looked like it would present a lot of chances if you were positive off the tee and drove it well. I opened up with 2 birdies on the opening par 5's but followed them up with two poor bogeys on 6 and 7. Pars followed on the next two holes. It really was a case of staying patient and not getting frustrated as every hole seemed like a chance, the greens were very slow which made holing putts a little more difficult!! I got to 10 and saw that -2 was leading which was very surprising as I felt I had left a lot out there, a birdie at 10 and another at 13 saw me tied for the lead. A poor tee shot on the next which had no commitment and I made double bogey, the most pleasing thing about the day for me was the reaction to that. I hit a great committed 3 wood into the next to 30 ft and holed that for eagle and I was only 1 behind with 3 to play, 3 birdies followed that for an eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie finish to win by 2 and a nice 66. It was obviously a great day to win but also for the patience and the finish too. It's a win that boosted me up the order of merit and with some great prizes up for grabs for the top 3 its all to play for in the remaining 7 events. A couple of weeks off before the next NW event but I will probably try and play a few things before then.