Asain Tour School update

Hi all.

Thanks again for coming in and reading my blog!
I've been playing in Asia for the past three weeks, more specifically in a town called Hau Hin, situated in Thailand.
I decided to give the Asian Tour school a go since it's winter here in the States and more importantly because my game is at it's best its been!

Quick review of what it's all about: There are two stages and after 600 golfers from all around the world compete in a eliminations process the final 40 golfers receive Asian Tour cards for the 2012 golfing season.
I was assigned to a course called Imperial Lake View and finished in a tie for 18th after the first stage with the top 28 advancing. It was a good week looking back and I had to fight pretty hard to come back from a major setback in the first round to play some good consistent golf and in the end, qualify for final stage quite comfortably.

The final stage was the following week, there were 240 golfers competing for 40 cards and played at Springfield Golf Club which is a tricky Jack Nicklaus design. The fact that the final stage was the following week left little room for any rest but luckily I'm in a great shape thanks to Chris Kendrick from Diverge Fitness Gym and was able to pace myself nicely throughout the two grueling week process.

I was able to get off to a good start the first day shooting a pretty comfortable 68 (-4) which put me in the top 10 after the first day. I was happy with this start because I was scheduled to play in the afternoon on the first day and to say we had windy conditions was an understatement. It's always nice to get off to a good start, since I was fighting from the back of the field during the first stage so giving myself the opportunity to build on a solid foundation was nice.

The second day was a early start and I got off to a quick start, made a couple birdies through the first four holes and was cruising at -6, controlling the golf ball and making good decisions.
It was on the fifth hole that I had a unlucky bounce and found my ball nestled in a tiny shrub on the right of the fairway- I took my punishment and chipped it out... from then onwards my wrist which got injured after the club got stuck in the shrub was unable to control the club and I proceeded to have a roller coaster round making a 12 foot putt on the seventeenth and a 10 foot slider on eighteenth to make the cut.

The next two rounds were preceded with physio-therapy, pain killers etc. Sadly I was not able to control my golf ball for the last two days and saw my hopes of earning a Asian Tour card slip.
Why did it happen? No idea.
There are times that you wish these unfortunate circumstance would rather happen during a regular season instead of a pretty important q school.

I did learn that it was not meant to be my time to earn an Asian Tour card for the 2012 season. Gods Will!

The most important thing that I learned from this trip was that for a week and a half I competed with some pretty good golfers and was close to the lead and my game held up! I'm good enough to play with anyone!

My time will come and when it does I'll be able to draw on all my experiences that I've been blessed with and play my best!

Last thing. Don't loose your passport when you are traveling abroad- it's never a good idea.

I'll be updating my blog at the end of next week to let you know my finalized plans and schedule for the 2012 season.

Thanks for all your support and God Bless.

Christian