Posted on: 28 October
It’s been three weeks since the Senior French Open and I am keen to play the last two events in continental Europe before I head back to Australia. At the end of November there are two more tournaments on the schedule in the Seychelles and Mauritius, which use the current 2022 money list to fill the field.
So I pack my bags and leave my base in France and start the journey to Murcia, Spain. First it is a train trip to Toulouse and then a bus to the airport. The flight to the south of Spain was uneventful but the 90 min drive to Murcia was through a torrential thunderstorm which reduced speed on the 6 lane highway to 30 kmph. Glad I wasn’t on the golf course that day!
The Farmfoods European Senior Masters hosted by Peter Baker is at La Manga Golf Resort. It’s a sprawling community that is aimed at the British market and a favourite spot for the British to come and play golf, take in the sunshine, and relax and enjoy all that the Spanish culture and lifestyle has to offer.
The weather was beautiful; hot and not much wind. This gave the green light to players to attack the course. The par 5’s (unusually the course has 5 par 5s) were all reachable so it was important to take advantage of that. Pleasingly, I shot 3 rounds under par. The first round I played the par 3’s poorly but from then on my game came together and in the final round I shot a 4 under 69 to move up the leaderboard.
No time to sit back and rest after a nice final round. Golf clubs and suitcase packed; I head straight to the airport for my evening flight to Rome. Thankfully the flight was on time and once I got my luggage (which all arrived – yay!!) I grabbed a taxi and was finally able to get to bed around 1am. A long day……. but that’s life on tour.
After a sleep-in it was time to pick up my rental car and head 2 hours up the Tuscany coast to the Italian Senior Open at Monte Argentario Golf Resort and Spa. It is a beautiful part of the world and my Airbnb apartment overlooked the port of Stefano. Simply stunning. Unfortunately, Port Stefano became famous for its association with the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster in 2012.
The Monte Argentario Golf course is a new course that has numerous olive trees. The fairways are narrow, the greenssmall and there are quite a few water hazards around the course. To make things more difficult the last two rounds were played in strong winds (30-40 kmph) that swirled around the hills and trees surrounding the course. Picking the right club and trusting your decision was important. Double bogeys, triple bogeys and “others” littered the players’ scorecards over the three days. One of my double bogeys came in a strange way. In the second round after missing a putt for par I went up to tap in my ball that was literally two centimetres from the hole. With both hands on the club, I took the club back and hit the ground behind the ball which caused me to miss the ball. No one saw it but I felt like an idiot when I had to explain to my marker how I turned a bogey into a double bogey. I’m not sure if this has happened to any of you but it just shows that every attempt (shot) counts – so take care! In the third round I was able to bounce back and put that disappointing round behind me and shoot the lowest round of the day. A great way to finish.
So now I’m in Rome airport waiting for my flight back. Having positioned myself on the money list to gain an automatic start in the Tour Championship I can reflect on a solid if not spectacular season. When back in Perth I will practicing hard in between lessons to prepare for the Seychelles and Mauritius tournaments. I look forward to seeing you at Wembley.
