I’m back home after a very disappointing couple of weeks; the final round in Houston wasn’t so bad but missing the cut at the Masters was extremely disappointing.
It is never nice missing a cut but to miss at a major championship generally feels a lot worse than a regular tournament. It’s probably because there are only four of them in the year so missing one means that you have to wait a while before you get the chance to play the next. I now have to wait till the US Open at Pebble Beach in June for the next major.
I missed the cut because I just didn’t play well, particularly on Thursday. I struggled right from the first on day one when I hit my drive into the bunker.
I made par but I never felt comfortable, then I continued to hit poor tee shots which meant I struggled to make pars. No matter how much I tried I just couldn’t get comfortable - I was battling hitting a bad shot every time I stood over the ball.
It is hard to play golf when you are feeling like this, although I did manage to hole some good putts during the round to keep myself in it, but only just as the scoring was very good.
I made several bogies and a double bogey on the seventh but I also managed to make a few birdies.
I was one over playing the 18th and hoping to get it back to level but my drive hit a tree and dropped down behind a bush. I was only able to chip it out sideways which was towards the second green and leave myself about 300 yards out. I hit a 3 wood up to 60 yards short of the green and got it up and down for a bogey to finish on two over. Considering how I played it was actually a good 74.
The second day was a much tougher day as the pin positions were much harder. Over night the cut was looking like level par but with the tougher pins it was always going to move out.
I played a good bit better than Thursday but I wasn’t able to improve my scoring and this time I shot three over par for the round. I stood on the last four over par for the tournament thinking that it might have a chance of making the cut if it got a bit windier in the afternoon. In the end it didn’t matter as I bogeyed it to finish on five over and two outside the cut.
I stayed on for the weekend to practice and try and iron out the problems I had during the week. I knew that I had a couple of things that needed work but I didn’t want to get technical during the tournament as I never play well when I am working on my swing.
I practiced on the new practice ground as it is a great facility and the weather was perfect. I definitely got some good work done, so much so that I left feeling much better about myself, still disappointed but feeling much more positive than I was on Friday. I have two weeks off now so I will see Bob Torrance and we will do a bit of work on my swing. The main thing is for me to be ready to play and feeling good about my game before I head to Quail Hollow.
I did watch the golf on Sunday; it was a great final day. I was disappointed for Lee as he played very well but just came up against a hot Phil. With all Phil and his family have been through in the last year it was a great win and I don’t think there would be anyone that begrudges him winning his fourth major.
All in all it was a great tournament. I would love to have been involved on Sunday afternoon but there is nothing that I can do about that now. I know what I have to work on for the next two weeks so as to be ready for my next run of events.
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