The first event of the year is always exciting to attend because you’re always wondering how your year is going to begin. You spend weeks hitting balls and working on your game in the hope you’re ready to hit that first tee shot and that you hit the fairway!
The Murhof Group Legends is played at Murhof Golf Club located around 2 hours south of Vienna, and about 20 minutes outside of Graz. It’s beautiful! The tournament is run by Gary Stangl and his team from the Murhof Group and what an incredible job they do to look after the Players. The Course, the Clubhouse, the Food & Beverages, the Staff… everything is absolutely first class.
Pro-Am Team photo of partners Friedrick, Me, Harald and Michael.
Day 1 - Well it was a fairly quiet, uneventful affair, I played with Simon Brown and Jean-Francois Remesy and I shot level par 72 with 3 birdies, 3 bogeys and 12 pars. I struck the ball pretty well and felt that 72 was the worst score I could post.
Day 2 - I was paired with Simon Brown again and the American, Clark Dennis. Teeing off at the 1st, I opened up birdie, par, birdie, par, par, par, birdie (-3 through 7 holes) and was flushing it nicely. From the middle of the 8th fairway, I had a 70 yard LW shot to a front pin. A smooth swing and a perfectly struck shot right down the banner looked like I was about to go -4 for the day but all of a sudden, the ball struck the flagstick and rebounded my ball 20ft off the green. Gutted and slightly shocked at the result, I proceeded to hit my first putt from short of the green to 4 feet and then I missed my par putt. Gutted!
Having parred the 9th, I stood on the 10th tee (an easy par 5) thinking this is my chance to get back to -3. A slightly spun out swing saw my drive head towards the out of bounds line on the right of the hole. (The driving range was right of the tenth hole with the only separator between the two being 10 yards of rough and a painted white line signifying the OOB). It looked dodgy, so I reloaded with a provisional and this time, I pulled the drive left.
My original tee shot was a foot out of bounds and suddenly, my really good feelings took flight from the 6 inches between my ears! What was happening? I then found my provisional ball under a bush, I took a penalty shot for an unplayable lie and proceeded to miss the green from 230 yards short and right. Once I got down there, I found an awful lie, hit a dreadfully poor chip to 20 feet and proceeded to 3 whack for a 9! WTF???
I smiled to myself, took a few deep breathes and let it go and played the last 8 holes in level par. A second round 74 was indeed, the very worst score I could have shot. When I got back to my room that evening, I ran the replay of the day in my head and believe it or not, felt pretty good about the way I played. I had one shocker of a hole but other than that, it was pretty good.
Day 3 - For the final round, I was paired with former Ryder Cup player Steve Richardson and the Spaniard, Santiago Luna. We started at the 10th hole (the hole I made a 9 at the previous day) and you couldn’t believe what happened to me…. Once again I blocked the tee shot but felt it was well in bounds this time. I get down there, find a Callaway a couple of yards in bounds and proceeded to hit my second into the green side bunker. A sweet bunker shot to 3 feet left me with (what I thought was) a simple putt for birdie but when I marked my ball, the nightmare began. It was a Callaway range ball…I’d played the wrong ball! I walked the 230 yards back down the hole and found my original…I made a 4 but with it but with the added 2 shot penalty, I made 6…thanks!
I birdied 12, 14 and 16 to -2 for the day (level par for the tournament) and with 9 holes (the front 9) to play. All I was playing for was pride because I was laying around 45th at the time and a long way away from the leaders! I parred the 1st and then birdied 2, 3, 4 and 5 to get to -6 for the day and -4 for the tournament.
The 6th was one of the toughest holes on the course, so I played safe off the tee with a rescue club, hit the fairway but my 6 iron approach found the left green side trap. Moments later, a perfectly executed flop shot left me with 15 inches for par. Then…3 putts later, I left the green with my head in my hands wondering how that had just happened. A double bogey from nowhere!
Determined to keep going, and enjoying the way I was hitting the ball, I birdied the par 5, 7th, parred the 8th and birdied the par 5, 9th to shoot 66 and finish T29th on a -4 total.
Over the 3 rounds, I felt like I played a lot of good golf. I made 16 birdies in 3 rounds (which is pretty good by anyone’s estimation) but a few simple mistakes (and one large one on the 2nd day cost me a top 10 finish. I travelled home remarkably calm, relatively happy with my game knowing that if I can maintain the quality of my ball striking and sharpen up a little, I feel I could have a good season.
The Tournament was eventually won by Adilson Da Silva from Brazil after shooting 67, 68, 66 (-15) and then beating Keith Horne (South Africa) in a Play-Off.
Next up, The Jersey Legends at La Moye GC - June 9-11.