Well it was Royal St Georges this week for the 'The Open Championship' and surely the greatest golf tournament there is.
I have been to a lot of golf events over the years but I always get excited about going to the Open. There is something special about the atmosphere and the whole experience. The golf course, the sea air, the weather, the fans, the way the players embrace the tournament. It all adds to making it the best week of the year.
This week I arrived on the Sunday to meet up and walk a few holes with Henrik Stenson, as I hadn't seen much of him this year what with his schedule being mainly in the US. The sun was shining and the links was looking great. Henrik was hitting it well and looking good on the greens. He will be my outside bet this year.
On the Monday the sun was shining once again. In the morning I met up with Henrik to do some work on the putting green. In the afternoon I met up with Thomas Bjorn and we spent some time working on Thomas's stroke on the green, keeping tabs on his alignment as he has the tendency of aiming right which means he has to pull the ball on line. This can lead to inconsistency for Thomas.
On the Tuesday it was time to catch up with the other students who were playing this week which were Darren Clarke, Joost Luiten and Simon Khan.
On the Tuesday afternoon I walked 18 holes with Darren Clarke who played with Lee Westwood. The wind was pumping really strong which made the golf course an extremely difficult test. The 7th hole had a 230 yard carry which both Darren and Lee were not able to make. While the Par 3 11th was 227 to the front edge which again could not be reached by Darren or Lee's driver. If the wind keeps up the R & A will surely have to push some of the tees up otherwise the some of the holes will be unplayable.
On the Wednesday morning I walked 18 holes with Thomas Bjorn, Thorbjorn Olesen and Anders Hansen. I have been helping Thorbjorn recently so it was good that Thomas was playing with him, so I could get to see how he goes about things on the course. Again the conditions were tough with strong winds making it hard work.
On a final note it was great to see a recent student Adam Wootton at Royal St Georges. Adam who plays regional events and on the 3rd Tier Jamega Tour had visited the studio for the first time a few weeks back, as he had been struggling with his putting for a while.
With a bit of luck the stuff we worked on paid dividends very quickly, as he went away and sailed trough both qualifying stages with some great putting displays by all accounts.
I was really pleased to be able to see Adam compete at the Open after making the effort to turn a weakness into a strength. Just rewards.
