I have to say I have never experienced conditions like we did in the 2nd round here ever before. My early Friday round was nice and cool, expected after the overnight cold front coming through. What we didn't expect was the cold winds seriously increasing after just 5 holes and progressing into some incredible weather.
The photo you see here is of the Remarkables here in Queenstown and what is remarkable about the photo is the snow on top of the mountain just below the clouds. That snow wasn't there before we teed off and not only that mountain but mountains all around us had snow dumped on them during a crazy hr of weather at the end of our round. The on course temperature was cold to start with but when that weather front hit the course at ground level the rain was freezing!! It was brutal and I was very happy to just hang on in my closing holes and get into the warmth of the clubhouse at 3 under par. What an incredible day, never have I played where it has snowed around us whilst we played!!
Today was moving day at if someone had watched me play from tee to green they would have thought that I might have shot 5-6 under or more. Unfortunately I thinking had my worst day on the greens in a long time. I just couldn't get a line right or when I did I couldn't hit it on that line. My day was made worse with two bogies on the back nine, one of them a three putt. On the 16th tee I said to my caddy, "well mate, I just need to make 10 birdies in 21 holes to get to 10 under for the tournament." He agreed and I went on to hit my 8 iron on the par 3 to 5 foot. Walking down to the green with zero confidence I had to find a way to make the putt, I simply willed the ball in the hole. I followed that with a great birdie on 17 and just missed on 18. So despite a very disappointing day on the greens I shot 1 over but importantly only need 8 birdies from the last 18 holes to hit the target!!
Looking forward to the challenge tomorrow!!! I'm going to hole everything!!