Montrose Matchplay Round 2 (Last 16)

Today I didn’t really do myself justice in my last 16 match at Montrose. I eventually lost 6&5, but I made it very easy for my opponent. 7 bogeys, 5 pars and 1 birdie is not going to get anywhere against a +2 handicapper, who reached final qualifying for the Open Championship this year, and is a past runner up of the Montrose 5 Day Open. Of the 7 bogeys, 6 were avoidable, I just couldn’t do much right from the very start. Having halved the first, I then hit two poor 5 irons go to 2 down quickly. On the 6th, I was in the middle of the fairway whilst my opponent was in a fairway bunker, and I ended up losing the hole to a par 5. Another missed green, this time from 124 yards, saw me 4 down after 7. So 5 down at the turn, and although I managed a brief ray of sunshine with a birdie at the 10th, 3-putts at 11 and 13 saw the end of the match.

Although disappointed with my performance today, it is by no means the largest defeat handed out this week (there was a 9&7 today), and I’m cheered up by several facts; I would have had to be under par just to be level after 13 holes; I reached my target for the week; and I did better than 179 of the other competitors.

A break from golf is required tomorrow, before I get back into the swing of things with an early morning game at Monifieth on Saturday in preparation for their 18 Hole Open on Sunday.