Tsuruya Open Round 1

Freezing conditions greeted us this morning and because of the frost tee times were delayed by half an hour. Wow it was cold out there early! By the time I teed off at 8am it had warmed up a little and it wasn’t too bad.

I had certainly warmed up by the 13th hole, my fourth, when I got an absolute stinker of a lie in a fairway bunker on the left side. It is a really narrow driving hole but the bunkers are usually fine although mine on this occasion was ordinary with a very awkward stance. I got it up to the green but another horrendous lie in the rough meant time to take the medicine and make a bogie. After an early bogie from a misread on a putt on the 11th it was starting to look like last week.

I knew I was hitting it well and thought I just need to get through the tough 14th and then the course eases up a little, a little. Par up 14 and then 3 wood into the 15th, a par 5, and it looked to be all over the flag. Unfortunately it came up short and buried into the face of the bunker 1 foot short!! Great luck in the bunkers today!! I played an incredible bunker shot to even get it on the green but had to settle for par.

From there it was a case of what could have been, I played really nice all the way for the remaining 12 holes, racking up 12 pars in a row and just couldn’t buy a putt despite hitting some pure putts. I was probably guilty of hitting it pin high today, normally a good thing but with the pin locations today it meant I had alot of 15-25 foot putts for birdie that had 3-8feet of break in them. Tough to hole those although I hit a couple of cracking putts.

Birdie at the 8th, my 17th and then a par on the monster 489yard par four 9th meant 1 over for the day. Not great but not bad either. Two missed 4 and a half foot putts didn’t help but both were misread, not mis-putted. All in all not a bad day, I would have loved 5 under but it wasn’t to be. Tomorrow is the day!!

The highlight of my day was my first real taste of crowds over here. The 18th hole grandstand was nearly full when I played through there and it was cool fun to hit a good shot in there and have a 20 foot birdie putt. It was a really quick putt with plenty of borrow on it and so it was a nice experience to hit a great putt and hear the crowd getting louder as it crept to the hole and then the big sigh of “Ohh” when it lipped out. A nice warm round of applause as I tapped in….good fun. Walking off the green I spotted a little Japanese kid with his Dad so I went over and gave him signed ball, his face lit up and he yelled out a big “Arigato!!!” (thank you in Japanese) Awesome stuff.

Ok it’s time for some rest and relaxation before I watch the Lions cause a big upset at the Gabba!!! And a nice low round tomorrow!!

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