Unfortunately it's that time of year again for me, q school. Why that's unfortunate is that it means I haven't played well enough though out my year on the Japanese Tour to keep my card and thus I find myself back here trying to get it again.
This is a week I would rather avoid obviously but as I am here and have worked hard to get here I plan on giving my all this week to get myself back on this world tour for 2015. It is a grueling week in many ways. Firstly it isn't your regular 4 round event, this one goes for 6 providing you make the 4 round cut. Secondly there are just over 200 players trying to finish in the top 35 and thirdly it's winter here! That means it's freezing cold and golf this week will be played with many layers on!
The practice rounds have been very cold and to top it off there has been an incredibly strong wind blowing with gusts up to 80km/h. It has made practice difficult but the positive is that it shouldn't be much harder than that this week....I hope.
We have two courses to learn this week, the Queen and the King. The format for the week is alternating courses for the first two days and then if you manage to make the top 90 and ties after 4 days then it's two more on the Queen course. The King course is a little longer and usually produces the higher scores but in the past I have tended to play that course slightly better. I am in a great place mentally and also physically at the moment.....touchwood. My kidney stone in my right kidney is behaving at the moment and my plantar fasciitis in my left foot which has been troubling me for months is also semi behaving. I have two solid weeks of golf remaining in my year so I am simply praying I can get through without any dramas.
Tomorrow is round one, round one of a marathon and a half. It will all be about following the game plan, staying patient and waiting for the spark to ignite and then get out of the way and let the fire burn. I will have a few great strategies in place to break down this marathon into kilometers. I'm looking forward to the challenge and as usual I am greatful in advance for all the support and prayers for this week. Thanks team!