Some great performances

The 49th Bahrain Open Golf Championship took place at Awali Golf Club on Friday and Saturday. Congratulations to Andrew Marshall who lifted the trophy for the fourth time in five attempts thanks to a wonderful display of control in traditionally difficult conditions.
 
The prize-winning scores of this year’s championship were considerably higher than in previous years due to winds blowing up to 30 knots over the weekend.

When it is particularly windy at Awali Golf Club, the course changes from difficult golf course into a real beast!
As with any golf course, the harsh wind conditions make it very difficult to predict how far the ball will fly, and therefore make it tough to select the correct club to manage your way around the course sensibly.
 
However, at Awali, even when you do manage to get the ball onto the brown, you have to decide if gravity or the wind will be the dominant force that moves the ball. For example, on the 11th brown, I had a six foot putt that (in calm conditions) would have moved two inches from right to left due to the slope of the green. However, because the wind was blowing so strongly up the brown and much of the sand had been blown away, I aimed one inch left of the hole and the ball broke up the slope and into the hole!

Naturally, when relying on the wind, it is only a matter of time until mistakes are made.

Despite the conditions, many of the club’s members put in fantastic performances. Firstly, president Andy ‘Ace’ McAlpine defied the conditions in the first round to shoot a truly excellent score of gross 80 (nett 69).

Andy, who was been working extremely hard on all aspects of his game over the past year, was rewarded with the best nett prize this year. In addition, Graham Tole and David Spittal each demonstrated their superb golf and competitive nature by battling to a two round total of 168 to finish 21st and 22nd respectively.

On a personal note, I was very disappointed with my performance over the weekend as I have put a lot of effort into my practice since November.

Over the past four months I have been having lessons with Royal Golf Club Head Professional Chris Kelby and I have made a significant change to my swing. The change will help me hit the ball far better in the long run but has taken some time to feel ‘normal’.

Unfortunately, the strong winds really exposed the fact that I am not completely comfortable with the change yet and I still have plenty of work to do! Additionally, I think I spent too much time in my preparation hitting balls on the driving range as opposed to practicing on the course.

Prior to both rounds, my warm-up sessions on the driving range were excellent, I was very comfortable and I hit the ball really well. However, when I got onto the golf course with different wind directions I felt very much out of my comfort zone.

On reflection, although I have worked hard and improved my ability to hit the golf ball over the past months, I didn’t spend enough time playing golf. I guess I had forgotten that distinction!  However, there were a number of times over the weekend (and the corporate day Pro-Am) where I really committed to my new swing and hit quality shots that I simply could not have hit five months ago. Despite all the poor shots I did hit, the quality shots are the ones that I will be focusing on as they act as my motivation to persevere with the change.

As a golfer, it is very important to have a selective memory!

I would like to express my sincere thanks to the kind volunteers who braved the harsh conditions to help as scorers, ball spotters, crowd supervisors and scorers. The event simply could not take place without your efforts.

Finally, as a member of the Awali Golf Club committee I would like to thank all the sponsors for their support and contribution to what is the biggest event of the year.