To say that those two days were tough would be a massive understatement. Brutal, full of shots I have never hit before, uncompromising and just plain tough.
It's hard to put into words how difficult it has been but to give you some idea to start with how about this. We arrived on Sunday and it was windy, it blew all night whistling under the doors and windows. On Monday it blew hard all day and then all night, no stopping.....every day and night has been the same, it hasn't stopped blowing at all, 24hrs a day since Sunday and apparently it has been like that from last Wednesday!! I have never experienced weather like it, normally it dies down at night but not here!!
So imagine playing golf on a very tight course that doesn't allow offline shots in 40-50km/h wind with gusts up to 70!! Every shot is difficult, even some 1 foot tap ins! Your game is tested in every way and then some. You are required to hit every shot in your kit bag and even invent a number of new one. The time spent working on your distances with your clubs is kind of thrown out the window, today for example I hit a 9 iron from 81m and also 176m, a club I normally hit from the 130m mark!! I also had a second shot on a par five cross wind hole where the number one priority was to keep your ball from getting up in the air giving the ripping wind a chance to send the ball into the bushes or out of bounds. I chose a driver and literally wound have been happy to hit it off the deck along the ground!! I actually ripped it 4 feet in the air and dead straight in what was the coolest shot I've hit in a very long time!!
Score wise, I shot 6 over yesterday and arrived to the first tee today and was welcomed by the starter. He said "Hi Matthew, great round yesterday!" I had to laugh and say to him, "Wow, nobody has ever said that to me after I've shot 6 over before!" Today I managed 3 better so I'm wondering what greeting I will receive tomorrow!!
To give you a true indication of what the difficulty levels are this week, my 9 over par through two rounds has me not only seeing weekend action but I am tied 13th. The leader, Matt Kuchar is at 2 over par, incredible golf under the conditions. Tomorrow I get to do battle out there again, this time playing with a major winner for the third time in my life and local hero Vijah Singh. Looking forward to the day and hopefully learning a thing or two off the former world number 1! Oh and by the way the cut was 14 over!!