Settling into Competition

It’s been a nice couple days back in the UK to rest and reset ahead of a big 5 week stretch of events in Sweden.

The last two weeks saw me play in Italy and Spain for the first time, where the courses and weather did not disappoint! I got off to a great start in Italy with a score of 4-under par but, this was unfortunately followed by a second round of 6-over which led me to miss the cut by 4 shots. I was so down and mentally in a bad place after one of my better starts to an event and it was a tough pill to swallow.

Italy was a tough event mentally for many reasons and I was unsure whether to share this or not but it is something that is very real in my eyes now. After feeling very down following day 2 just when I was starting to get over what had happened that week I received a very tough phone call. The phone call was to inform me that one of the men I had played with in the first two rounds that week had tested positive for COVID. Even though I knew I hadn’t been in close contact with him or really associated with him other than walking the fairways for the first 2 rounds it was a very scary time and I immediately broke down in tears. Not knowing what may happen for my golf and whether I could play in Spain the following week was extremely emotional with nobody around me to support me or help me through it.

It’s so easy to think that COVID-19 is starting to disappear and for myself I would say I never really experienced the pandemic until this moment. I was aware of what was happening around the world and seeing so many nations go through one of the hardest years of their lives but for me it was something that had never truly sunk in I guess.

Thankfully after 2 COVID tests and a discussion with the LETAS and their on-call Italian doctor I was cleared to fly to Spain where I would have to undergo more testing throughout the week but with no limitations on my ability to play. Arriving in Spain I definitely had a sigh of relief. All of a sudden the routine COVID tests that weren’t too worrying at first were leaving me on the edge of my seat until I could clearly see it came back negative.

An extremely hot week of weather in Spain meant that the rest and recovery was extra important. I had a really good couple days of prep for the event and fell in love with the feel of the course straight away. Following on from last week it was nice to continue some good form and was great to see some of my statistics improve. A T24 finish on +1 after rounds of 71, 72, 74 left me feeling very happy with an extremely consistent week of golf.

After the last two events I am so excited for this next stretch in Sweden and look forward to a different style event with the Swedish Matchplay Championship which starts Thursday. I am so excited to be back playing in Sweden again!