2018 Season

It's been a balancing act juggling 2 part-time jobs alongside playing this year but I've managed to play about 14 events this year, 5 of which were only 1 day, 1 round events, so not a huge amount of tournament rounds really but more than last year!
When I went to Mark Pearson for my first lesson in February he asked what I wanted to achieve this year, I said to enjoy my golf and travelling and competing in tournaments, and I have done that.  I've loved being back out on the circuit with girls I've been friends with for years and meeting new, and playing and competing on new golf courses in different parts of the world.

I'm pleased with the progress I have made this year, I would be pulling my hair out in frustration earlier in the year and really struggled with the driving 'yips' but I have worked through that and learnt to accept the shots that I hit now, good and bad.  I have put some great rounds together and a lot of good part rounds together and made a few mistakes that I have not been able to recover from.
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Swedish Golf Tour
The Tegelberga Open in Southern Sweden.
I used this event to get me back into golf tournament mode after over a year out of the habit.
Very rusty from a scoring point of view and really struggled off the tee, an issue I've been battling for a little while.
I was fortunate enough to stay with the Knutsson family who looked after me like I was at my home away from home.

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My second outing of the year was to the Lavaux Ladies Open in Switzerland

I was very anxious prior to round 1 despite 2 great days of practice and consequently started my tournament off poorly but after the first 3 holes I settled down and played some good golf.
Second day I went out and tried to have a little more confidence in my ability and got round in a respectable +2.
We were right on the edge of lake Geneva so had some stunning views off the course this week.

​Spain for the Spanish LET Access Series Tournament
First round a very tidy 5 birdies 5 bogies and 8 pars for level par

A different position to what I have been in for a while, being in the top 25 after round 1 and being in contention of making the cut after the first round instead of being so far down the leaderboard to come back from.
With a bit of added pressure and a long wait between rounds having tee'd off early round 1 and late round 2 I struggled after hitting a few poor shots and getting myself wrapped up in it all trying harder and harder to hit better shots

Back to Sweden to Johannesburg Golf
Really nice golf course
Stayed on site in their hostel’ hotel, a bit of an experience

A handful of bad swings culminated in too many high scores on my scorecard and a missed cut.
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PGL Pro am at Le National
I got a last minute phone call 3 days before so even with very short notice I couldn’t miss the opportunity to play at the Ryder Cup venue a couple of months before the main event.  
My team Paul, Gary & Carl were great company for the 3 days and we improved each day as a team at a really challenging venue.
The course is brutal, as I'm sure many of you saw when watching the golf last weekend, there's no escaping trouble if you hit a poor shot.
I actually played some good golf throughout the 3 days but some of the bad shots I hit destroyed hopes of a good 3 round tournament. However, I finished birdie par on the last day so that will stay with me for a good while!! :) 
A great trip, and some more competitive golf under my belt!

Bossey Ladies Open on the LET Access Series and presented by Team Pitch & Play
A really lovely golf course, I played some of the best golf I have in a good while tee to green but annoyingly struggled with my short game on and around the greens!
Beautiful views over lake Geneva, from the opposite direction to where we were at Lavaux earlier in the year.

​Swedish Golf Tour and LET Access Series event at 
Allerum Golf Club
We had really tough conditions in round 1, it was very very wet but the course held up well.  However, I did slip coming off the 9th tee and jarred myself, thankfully there was a physio on site who released all the stress in my back after round 2.  We had a bit of a challenge leaving the golf course at 7pm and going back to a small apartment for 5 of us and getting everything dry before our 8am tee times the following day- "life on tour" at its finest!
After a little chat with myself to stop doubting my ability I played some solid golf in round 2 and shot -1, I played very steady golf and didn’t put myself in much difficulty, 15 pars 2 birdies and a bogey.
Really pleased, a solid round under my belt to build from!

Pro-ams
The Oaks Junior Pro-am
10 years after playing in the pro-am as a junior with 2 fellow Yorkshire Girls teammates, this year I took my own team of girls from Fulford GC. 
We had a great day, despite hit and miss weather and a thunder and lightning delay, the girls played great and  won a prize for the best girls team, and we beat the Fulford boys team so good day all round!



East Yorkshire Ladies Winter Golf Alliance 
Pro-am at Easingwold Golf Club with Lady Captain Gillie, Lady Vice Janet and another of Fulford's lady members Alison.
We had a great day despite the weather and the ladies played great as a team, and I helped out with quite a few birdies.
We did well enough for us to win the event on a better back 9 score.
I also won the lady pros longest drive, and had a respectable individual score in the conditions we had.



Welwyn Garden City Charity Pro-am
What a great event to have been a part of, an all female professional pro-am.  40 mph winds made it quite the challenge on this compact tricky golf course but it certainly didn't spoil the day.
My team consisted of 3 male members from Welwyn, Colin Callander who I have known many years from playing junior golf, and Roy and Ian.  
I played steady just too many bogies and not enough birdies for +6 but finished tied 5th in the pro individual event, on a tough day.  The men dove-tailed nicely and finished strong for us to finish in 2nd place as a team.
Thoroughly enjoyed the day and looking forward to returning next year!

Nøtterøy Open Swedish Golf Tour
What a beautiful part of the world and such a welcoming golf club! 
Unfortunately golf being golf I had a poor few days scoring, I played some reasonable golf but a mental error combined with a bad swing on the 11th round 1 sent me on a whirlwind for the remainder of the round!
It's always valuable to learn at each event I go to and I did exactly that, after a trip to the range post-round 1 I got some confidence back and hit the ball a little better over the next couple days.  Using the last 2 rounds as practice for the remaining events I have.
The Swedish Tour have run some great events this year, really well organised on some nice golf courses.

The remainder of 2018 will be working towards Ladies European Tour School in December in Morocco, I will probably take a trip to Spain for a competition or 2 between now and then to keep my game as sharp as I can coming into winter.
In order to go to tour school I could do with some financial help though and if you or anyone you might know is in the position to help me I would greatly appreciate it.  I have set up a gofundme page if you would like to pay it a visit ​www.gofundme.com/helping-me-get-to-let-tour-school