Monday was the Newcastle School Sport Partnership Golf Festival at Matfen Hall. It was a great day apart from the poor weather but everyone still enjoyed the day. I gave a clinic alongside my coach John Harrison and then the teaching pros from Matfen, John, JJ, Andy and Paul took the kids for group lessons. All of the kids had a short and long game lesson, then I got grilled for half an hour with a Q and A... some of them will make great journalists! The day ended with a competition on the Par 3 course.

Tuesday was a day of traveling to Paris, the flight was shorter than the taxi ride to the hotel! But atleast me and my baggage got there together which makes a change at the moment.

Wednesday was an early start with an 8am shotgun Pro-Am, thankfully we are staying on site this week so not to far to travel. The course is in good shape and I played quite nicely.

Thursday was another early start 7.50am with Carl Sunneson and Emanuelle Cannonica. Mannie is always good fun to play with and I enjoyed his company. The weather was a bit cold and windy which made the course play tough due to the tight fairways and thick rough. I played well and got off to a good start with a twenty footer for birdie on my second, (I started on 10). I three putted my 6th and 9th holes to go out in +1. I had good chances from inside ten feet on the next four holes. Unfortunately I hit it in the water hazard on my 16th but made a good bogey. I ended the day with a 73 (+2) which wasn't too bad. I'm still waiting to get some reward on the greens for my good iron play.

Friday was a blustery day, with several light showers in the afternoon. Most of the talk was about the difference in weather conditions for those on opposite sides of the draw. The wind dropped Thursday afternoon and picked up Friday afternoon, which made late early the best side of the draw by far. I was early then late! I started with three putts on the 1st and 5th to get off to a bad start. A couple of birdies at four and ten got me back on track. I followed this with a couple of good par saves on 13 and 15. I missed the fairway on 17 and got a horrible lie and was forced to lay up, I hit it to fifteen feet and another three putt led to a double! A par at the last left me missing the cut by a single shot. It's so disappointing to be doing all the right things and not get rewarded for them, but I'll keep plodding on and hope something happens soon! Just quickly, Congratulations to Graeme Storm for winning the event and flying the flag for the North East.

I travelled to London on Saturday morning as Monday is International Qualifying for The Open at Sunningdale. There are usually around ten places available for players to qualify for the Open. This is a route I have used to qualify a couple times before so I hope I am one of those ten this year. I will head over to the K-Club on Tuesday for the European Open, which is always a great week. I will let you know how it goes...

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