It is the cruelest week of the year by far, it recently happened in Europe and will soon happen in America and even in Australia soon too. Q School finals are brutal, everything to play for and everything to lose. This week, like Europe is a 6 round event with a 4 round cut taking place after Sunday's round. From there it will be the final 90 players and ties who push for the 35 spots up for grabs on the Japanese Tour next year. The starting count is around 180 so half the field will head home on Sunday wondering what's next on the agenda for them.
I have already found this week tough going, my foot continues to be a massive pain although a couple of days of light activity has been great. The harder part for the week for me has been actually just being away from home this week. It's week 3 and part of week 4 for me this week and a significant week at home. My job takes me away from my beautiful family and this week is a particularly tough one. I can take it ok when it's my birthday but when it is significant moments in my kids lives is where I find it really brutal. My awesome boys have both had their awards night at school this week and received multiple awards as well as Jack graduating from primary school! On top of that Eden finished prep and heads to grade 1 next year and Jonte dominated in his school swimming carnival today winning age champion! Man it hurts to be away for all of that type of stuff, the worst part of my job by far. I long for the day I am doing well enough to have my family with me and also maybe long for the day when I don't' have to do it at all, but can be there for them always!
This week we get to attack the Queen and King course here in Japan just south of Nagoya. I have played this week of the year all too often for my liking and as bad as that is, I guess it is a positive knowing the courses well. We have been pleasantly surprised by the weather this week as so far the freezing temperatures we normally experience this week haven't arrived......yet. It is a long week and one that needs patience, endurance and composure. It needs all of your best golf and also the ability to manage the times throughout the 6 rounds where you aren't actually playing that well too. I would love to say that I will flush it for 6 days straight but there is human error to my game and I'm the human making those errors so I need to be able to deal with them well. I will give myself plenty of opportunities this week so here's hoping I can convert enough of them to finish on the right side of the numbers game this week.
Unfortunately the other negative of the week this week is that I am here and not paling in the Australian PGA champs on the Gold Coast. It is our biggest event of the year on our tour so to miss it is a real shame. Not only is it cool to play an event just down the road in my home town with home support but whilst you are playing well in this game you would love to be able keep on playing! With a solid year behind me on the tour this year my order of merit position is in real risk of sliding due to the fact that I won't be adding any more money to my tally for the season. That is ok on one hand as I have my card secured in Australia for next year but the higher I finish the better my chances are of getting into a big event in Europe next year. There is nothing I can do about it though so I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens come Sunday night. I will certainly be barracking for the 60 Europeans and Sth Africans that have ventured to the Gold Coast this week along with a few other big name players......take the cash lads!!!
That's it for me for today, hopefully giving you an little look inside the mind of a tour player striving to get himself into the best position possible for the following season and also the difficulties we face! Hopefully I will be reporting back tomorrow with some positives from round one.