After a great nights rest, I was really excited to play today.  I was calm and just taking it all in my stride, acting as if I belonged there.  Trish was on the bag, I picked her up and she is very good at making me focus on other things, we chatted about all  things but golf – so all was good.  I had a few putts and oh boy – the greens were twice as fast as the practice round.  I decided to spend a bit more time on the putting green getting used to the pace, I hit a few warm up balls in the nets and before I knew it we were on the tee.

As it came closer to my turn to hit off my heart was beating faster and faster, louder and louder.  I was breathing as deeply as I could, so deeply in fact I started feeling a bit light-headed, then those words came “Sharon Thompson – Amateur, NSW”  I got a few more claps than I did last year which was good.  I took about 5  v-e-r-y s-l-o-w practice swings, still could only feel or focus on the thumping in my chest, but I hit it solid and down the middle which is all Trish asked of me the whole day.  We were off, pulled my approach left and had a delicate bunker shot which I did well (thanks Ben) and sunk the putt – Yee Hah!  I think I might have got a bit excited a bit too early, as the adrenalin kicked in and I managed to hit my 3 hybrid over the green on 2, not where you want to be and I had a bad shot and a 3 putt.  Oopsy daisy, confident Shazzy was gone, after a hooked drive on the next tee – I focussed so hard on smooth, slow soft swings and that was all I did all day and most of the time it worked.  My heart slowed down, I started having fun and I played really well.  I don’t think that  have ever concentrated this hard.  When nervous I get very thirsty, I drank a lot of water – I think I set a record today for using every port-a-loo on the coarse.

I was very lucky as my group of players and caddies were great and the pace of play was excellent.  We played with Fabienne in-Albon who is Swiss and plays the European Tour, she is such a nice lady and player.  On her bag was Matt Stieger, who is the NSW/ACT PGA Rookie of the Year.  What a great team they were – I learned so much from them, how they analysed the putts and the swing thoughts that he gave her before each shot.  Also in our group was Portsea Trainee pro, Sienna Lambert and on Sienna’s bag was Mitch – the trainee pro from NSW Golf Club. What an opportunity to just be there, playing in that company.

Trish was great, no comedy stories this year – she managed to remember the bag all 18 holes.  All in all a great day and one I will remember for a while.  Bring on tomorrow, early start at 7:10am and with rookie Jan on the bag.

Oh, my score was 5 over, I am in 90th place out of 117.  I shot in the 70’s which was my target, all we need to do tomorrow is more of the same and cut out the three putts.  To see all the scores go here.

Well done to Chloe who was 4 over which is a valiant effort.

Categories: Golf Tournaments NSW Open 2014

Shaz Thompson

Mad about golf, enthusiastic about life, totally in love with my husband and just having fun.