The Tour Championship is back at its home in Shishido Hills this week. It is one of the true tests on the yearly calendar and requires exceptional golf all 18 holes. There are no let ups at all due to the incredible rough here.
The rough is insane in places bringing a lost ball just off the fairway or green right into play. Hopefully they have plenty of spotters out there today to find the stray shot that might miss the target.
My trip has been a little different this week thanks to an odd start. I am a good flyer without nerves usually. On Sunday as our flight was heading to the runway to take off I had a really bad feeling come over me. So much so that I decided to message my wife Rachel to tell her I loved her dearly. I wanted her to have a nice message from me if something bad did happen. After sending the text I was pondering what would happen should I ask to get off the plane. Before I could decide the Captain comes over the speaker saying there was a problem and that we would be returning to the terminal for engineers to check it over before we fly. Wow, now I was really nervy. After 45mins of engineers inspecting a crack in a window just 3 seats up from me they decided to err on the side of caution and ground the plane! I was relieved as something inside me was telling me there was a problem and although this would disrupt my preparation I was happy to leave the plane.
So after a rescheduled flight I made it to Japan a day later but in one piece. A practice round on Tuesday went well and I reacquainted myself with the challenging layout. The rough is up that's for sure and in the photo I have added, see if you can spot my ball, this just a metre off the green.
I putted left handed again in the practice round and that is the only way I have been putting for the last few weeks since I was last up here. My routines are way better and the confidence is growing all the time. I am looking forward to rolling some putts in this week.
There is nothing easy about this course so it will be head down bum up today when I hit the course. I'm looking forward to the challenge of the day and week!! Hope you enjoy following along!