Greetings golfers,

This week saw myself and Stevenage golf club member Gordon Farmer in action at the PGA National Pro Am regional final at Sandy Lodge.

I've been looking forward to playing this event since myself and Gordon went on a  'recce' at Sandy Lodge last month to see what type of course we would be playing as neither of us had played there before.

We had a nice tee time of 8.40am and, although early, we decided to meet at the course at 7.15am which also meant getting on the road before the rush hour kicked in. A pleasant bacon roll and a couple cups of coffee later, we were ready to get our warm up under way. It's always slightly disappointing when you look forward to a day like this and the weather doesn't meet your expectations and we arrived to the practice tee to damp and overcast weather as well as a fairly chilly breeze; however we weren't about to let the weather dampen our preparation as a trip to Portugal was the prize for the winning pair.

The results from the other regional finals were displayed and were between -5 and -11 so we set ourselves a target of -7. After a fairly steady start and some good opportunities for birdies over the first 3 holes we were at 1 under. Standing in the middle of the 4th fairway the heavens opened which began a dash to get the waterproofs on and bravely put the umbrellas up in the strong wind. Somehow we made another birdie and were -2 through 4. If we could keep this up and birdie every other hole we would be in with a chance. 
A blemish at the 5th came as the wind and rain were bashing us about. Then a birdie 2 from me at 8 and a nett birdie 2 at 9 from Gordon saw us make the turn in -3, considering the conditions I thought we were doing well. If we could match the front 9 I thought -6 may have a chance.

The back 9 was very uneventful and we just couldn't get anything going. Pars at 10 and 11 were followed by a dropped shot 12. I then 3 putted for par at 13 after driving the 330 yard par 4, which pretty much summed up the back 9 - We just couldn't get anything going. With 3 holes to play and still at -3 we knew we had to make something happen and trying to chase birdies isn't great, but we went all in! Unfortunately the course called our bluff and gave us 2 bogeys to finish with! We finished at -1 and when we got in -6 was leading; the score we wanted to get to! After all the pairs were in -9 in fact won, which considering the conditions was a very good score.

Thanks to Gordon for a great day, we tried our best but couldn't quite get going on the back 9. A nice bit of lunch and then we were loading up the cars and heading home.

I'll be looking forward to taking another member of Stevenage Golf Club to the Regional Finals next year!