The Barclays Singapore Open proved to be a disappointing week considering I had performed well there last year. I like the course and after finishing second last year I was hopeful of a good performance again this year. However I never got anything going all week and finished in a tie for 38th. I was hoping to come out this week and kick start my Race for Dubai but it didn’t work out. I found the course much tougher than last year when I played it in practice as they grew the rough in and made it heavier. Last year the course played much better in my opinion, the greens were firm and the rough was penal enough, whereas this year the rough was very heavy and the greens softer.
I struggled all week with a left to right cut; I had it in practice and hoped that it would be gone by the time the tournament started. However it never quite went away. It wasn’t as bad as the practice days, but it was still there and enough to make me think about it which meant that I wasn’t focusing on my target properly and I was never quite confident enough to take on pins. It makes it hard to score when you don’t feel that you can take on pins and then as a result you end up with long birdie putts. It was one of those weeks for me where I wasn’t quite on my game and then I couldn’t make anything happen. On top of that I had a couple of three putts and a number of bad chip shots during the week. All in all my game just wasn’t quite there and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t make birdies. I found the course very tough whereas a lot of players found it easy to make birdies. A good example of this is the back nine. I just couldn’t really see birdies on the back nine but a lot of guys were making three or four birdies on it. This was the story of the week for me; I just couldn’t see the birdies and the others could.
It was a long week for us as there were thunder storms nearly every day. We were up early nearly every morning and sometimes playing more than 18 holes, which in the Singapore heat is very tough! It was tough week due to the weather and the fact that I wasn’t playing very well.
Even though I didn’t play great it was still a very enjoyable week. Barclays always put on a great event and this was no exception. The most disappointing thing for me with regards to this week was nothing to do with my golf it was actually what happened to Gary Murphy. He finished on Friday evening on two over par which was making the cut comfortably at that stage. Half the field had to finish on Saturday morning but the cut was looking like going to three over par when I looked at it on Friday night but then when I got up on Saturday the cut had moved to one over par and Gary missed. No one could believe the cut had moved, but it could end up being the difference between Gary keeping his card.
I’m off to Shanghai for the HSBC Champions tournament now; hopefully I can sort out my slice before Thursday!
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