So my golfing season is already under way, I have been in Spain the last 3 weeks practicing and finishing the trip with a 3 day pro am.
I was very fortunate to be able to stay in a friends house near the golf resort of Las Collinas, a venue to the European Tour stage two qualifying.
I spent the first week of the trip just purely playing and working on the range with some technical bits in the swing, the second week I switched my attention more to target work on the range mixed with playing and some putting games to incorparate a little more like tournament feel practice ready for my 3 day event.
The event itself was over three golf courses, the first test was at Roda Golf Club with winds of 45 mph and gusting way over 55mph, I must say it was pretty unplayable with balls moving on the green and struggling to stand up at times when putting, so a nice introduction back to competitive golf after a 5 month lay off!! I actually played as well as you can in them conditions and found myself tied for the lead after round 1, the next day we moved to La Romero, a golf course I had never played before so was looking forward to the challenge and hopefully a little less wind! Well it was less windy, only blowing around 35mph!! The course itself was a great test and not your usual Spanish course, the opening 4 holes into the wind were brutal with oob all the way down the left tight and water on the right, again I played pretty nicely but struggled with the putter in the winds as I did the day before. It’s so difficult putting in winds as high as this as you never really have control of the stroke or know the effect the wind will have on the roll of the ball. Again I battled nicely and got my rewards opening up a 2 stroke lead going into the final round at Las Collinas. I felt pretty comfortable playing Collinas it’s a course I’ve played lots over the last few years and gradually better the more I have played it. The winds were still there although we got a little rest bight on the opening 7 holes before it started blowing again. I managed my game the best I had all week and played beautifully in tough conditions to shoot 3 under and won by 11. I really felt that I got better each round, more sharper, less mistakes and better mentally. I had a great week and met some fantastic guys who were great company.
On to some exciting off course news, I am over the moon to announce that I am now affiliated to the new clothing company backspin golf ( www.backspingolf.co.uk). Great looking clothing combining style and fitting and I can’t wait to receive it and get wearing it. Keep a look out on my Twitter page ( samrobinsongolf) and on here for updates and pictures.
My next event will be on the Eagle Tour at Stableford Park on March 9th, blog and results to follow.
Sam