I played some scratchy golf to be out in 2 over around the front nine before hitting it a little better on the back nine and coming home in 2 under. Even par isn't really what I wanted on day one but having had a couple of days without having to walk on this troublesome foot of mine, I certainly knew all about it as it gave me no end of complaints especially as the round went on. The difficulty here is the up and down nature of the courses meaning sometimes I have no option but to put my weight into my left heal.
Today was one of the more difficult days of golf I have played. The wind was unbelievable and sometimes I actually wished I was back in Fiji, such was the strength of the gusts. Some of the gusts today literally blew you off balance and would have been nearly 80-100km/h. The worst part about it, other than it being very cold, was that it was gusting, it wasn't a constant wind that you knew was blowing at a certain strength from a certain direction. On one par three our group hit four different clubs from 7 iron to 4 iron and all with different wind reactions and results...so tough. On another hole when we were waiting for the group in front to putt out I had to laugh as one guy who was trying to putt was surrounded by leaves in a mini tornado and every time he would move a leaf another 10 would arrive!! The wind had the last laugh though because when I picked up a leaf from my line and threw it up into the breeze if flew away from me for about 5-6m before circling back like a boomerang and landing back on my line!!
Today I felt I did a better job of most things but finishing bogey, bogey hurt and I had to settle for a 3 over par round. I am only 1 shot off the cutline with 2 rounds to go but more importantly 4 shots outside the crucial top 35 I need to be by the end of it. The possible bigger problem I have is that my walk slowed to a limp on the back nine this arvy and I am struggling to turn through the ball onto my left side without pain. I have unstrapped my foot to give it some time to breath and hopefully heal a little before I try and do battle again tomorrow. My processes were really good today and that is all we are focussing on tomorrow, pick good shots, do a good job of preparing and pull the trigger. I was in a similar position last year so here's hoping I can fire up for the last few days of golf in 2015 for me.