10th of January: After staying 3 months in Bristol, my second and last part of my gap year started. Golfing for 5 months in Howey-In-The-Hills, Florida at the Gary Gilchrist Golf Academy. Waking up at 6 a.m. was not really nice, but I was facing an amazing trip! First a flight to Atlanta and, after waiting for an hour, flying to Orlando. But holy shit, I had so much stress when I stepped out of the airplane...... My flight to Orlando would depart in 45 minutes. Sprinting to my luggage, but first through the border control which had a huge queue. Apparently, there was no queue for transfer flights. Stress, stress and stress. 10 minutes before my flight would depart, I finally got through the border control, got my luggage, but in some way I couldn't find my golfbag. It was at the 'special' luggage..... WIth 5 minutes left, sprinting through the airport, a person who gives information about your transfer flight asked me: " Hello Sir, what is your next flight?" Me who almost couldn't breath anymore answered: " I've to go to Orlando, and my flight is leaving in 5 minutes! So I'm in a hurry! Apparently, the time I was looking at was the boarding time and so I would still have 50 more minutes..... But what I entered after all of this, cannot be compared to my airport Schiphol in Amsterdam.
A huge hall with an enormous American flag and as it look like a big hotel. That is not everything, there were even big shuttles which brought you to your gate.
After the stress I had, I arrived on the time for my connecting flight and after a flight of an hour I arrived in Orlando where I would be picked up by one the houseparents. But as unlucky as I am, my golfbag was 'lost' again. After searching and waiting for half an hour I went to the luggage service and they told me that my golfbag has missed the flight..... But luckily this flight departed 15 min later, so the wait wasn't that long anymore! So I met one of the houseparents and my new housemate Jacques. He is from South-Africa and has been here before two years ago for 2 months. After half an hour I arrived at the Housing which looked amazing! But we couldn't settle for a few days, the next day directly to the office to do some mental tests and some information about what the Post-Graduate program is about. My coach is Tony and he takes care of my game this Spring semester (5 months). 5 days after all of this Alvaro from Argentina joined our group! In addition, I already trained with a guy from Singapore and a girl from Indonesia!
From left to right: Nick, Alvaro, Gavrilla, Me, Jacques
This picture was taken during the PGA Merchandise show a few weeks ago! Every day starts at 9 AM, so we will be picked up at 8.30 AM and the days finishes at 5:30 PM. A training day can contain putting / chipping, pitching/ bunker play or full swing. De first week was, as i said, more about tests, so the second week we started with doing drills. From Monday till Thursday, we eat at Sanctuary Ridge, another golf course which takes care of our dinner.
A few weeks ago, we went to the PGA Merchandise show. It was huge, you could try a lot of new stuff, giveaways and a lot of stuff were sold on sale. If you see the last picture above, there were more than 4000 boots. It was big coincidence, but I met my coach from the Netherlands there. I talked with him and tried to explain what I'm doing over here and what kind of training aids I use to improve my game.
Now my swing changes! All these drills already made a big difference in my game!
A lot happened in the first three weeks and I hope a lot more will come! I hope that you'll keep reading what i'm doing over here!
Train Like A Champion!
FEBRUARY GARY GILCHRIST GOLF ACADEMY
It was already three weeks ago that I made my first post on this blog! A lot of things happened, my first tournament, many activities and an injury.
A few days after my first post, my wrist started to hurt very badly. This is of course very annoying when you finally start to see improvements in your game. But this injury was caused by the fact that I'm just not used to play for 7 days a week for 7 hours a day. At the 2nd of February, I went to the physiotherapist to make sure that it has nothing to do with my bone. The doctor told me that it was fatigue. But because of that, I couldn't do full swing for one week, but luckily I could do some chipping and putting! But I was so unlucky that I was stung by a bee at the exact same spot where my wrist was hurting....
But there were a lot of fun activities that week. After a long time, I did some ice-skating again. It took me half an hour to get the feeling back, but I enjoyed every minute! And I finally received my certificate from my CPE exam that I did in Bristol!
During this period we also got the result of our fitness test!
If you want to know what everything means: Text me!
9th of February: Pre-competition started. Injury was over and that monday we had a practice round for the 54 holes tournament on the 14-16th of February at the Harmony Golf Preserve. During the days before the tournament, we had to fill in a form with the predictions for that specific tournament. We also had to fill in challenges and solutions for that challenges. In the next picture you'll find my expectations for the tournament:
Saturday the 14th of February: My first tournament finally started!
SCORE: 80 Front Nine : 42 Back Nine: 38 Birdies: 2 Pars: 8 Bogeys: 6 D Bogeys: 2
Par 3: +3 Par 4: +3 Par 5: +2
Fairways: 11 / 14 (78,6%) Greens: 8 / 18 (44,4%) Putting: 32 putts (1.8 putts per hole / 2.0 putts per GIR) Scrambling: 40% (no bunkers hit )
Commentary on this round in comparison with my expectations.
As this was my first round in Florida and my first tournament here, I was very nervous and you could see that in my starting holes.... Double Bogey, par, Double bogey. But after that I was getting better and better with 2 birdies, some bogeys and played my second nine +2. My expectation was a 82, but I made an 80, so I was really happy!
DAG 2:
SCORE: 92 ( a g2 :P ) Front Nine: 44 Back Nine: 48 Birdies: 0 Pars: 6 Bogeys: 7 D Bogeys: 3 T Bogeys: 1 Q Bogeys: 1
Everything went wrong, nothing was smooth or controlled. I didn't know what I was doing. A lot of wind made it worse and so on I made a 92. Even when my coach, Gary Gilchrist and another coach was watching. Par 3 8 iron. I hit it 5 feet from the hole.... 3-putt. I didn't know where to look... But there was a third day to forget about this day and score better!
DAG 3:
(I started on the tenth hole)
SCORE: 79 Front Nine: 41 Back Nine: 38 Birdies: 1 Par: 11 Bogeys: 5 T Bogeys: 1
I was playing this round with the intention to score better than the 92 I made the day before. And it happened! Played really well. It could have been a 76/75 easily, because of a stupid triple bogey and missing two short putts.
AVERAGE FIRST TOURNAMENT
Gemiddelde Fairways: (27 / 42 ) (64,3%) Gemiddelde Greens: (21 / 54 ) (38.9%) Gemiddelde Total Putts: 32 Gemiddelde Scrambling (Sand Saves): 33,3 % ( 10%) Gemiddelde Par 3: 3.92 Gemiddelde Par 4: 4.70 Gemiddelde Par 5: 5.25
Train Like A Champion!
Only two weeks passed by after my last update, but my second tournament was coming! But family came over after one month to see how I'm living and what I'm doing over here (practice facilities, housing, and a lot of other things!).
Pre-tournament sheet of my second tournament!
Heres some pictues of the course!:
JULIETTE FALLS GOLF TOURNAMENT IMG TOUR
http://imgjgt.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/imgjgt14/event/imgjgt1413/contest/1/contestant/1517/scorecard.htm (<--- SITE MET MIJN SCORES)
http://www.juliettefalls.com/golf/tour/1 (<---- FLY OVER VAN DE GOLF COURSE!!!)
DAY 1 (started on the 10th hole)
SCORE: 85 Front Nine (hole 10-18): 44 Back Nine (hole 1-9): 41 Birdies: 0 Pars: 9 Bogeys: 6 D Bogeys: 2 T Bogeys: 1