I had the same thing in mind, coming into the weekend in good position. However, as can happen, my plans did not become reality. Every time I got some momentum I made an error and paid the price. The 3 double bogeys on the weekend really took the wind out of my sails and ended up costing me big time. It’s always easy to look back with a “what-if” viewpoint, but when you’re out there playing its a fine line, and it all happens so fast…..and before you know it there’s an ugly double to be written in the card.

Still, lots of positives, and I’ll be heading into the Byron Nelson event in a good frame of mind. I’m just a whisker away from a really good 4 day performance, so no reason it won’t be this week coming. A couple more putts in, a little less on the mistake front, and there might be a nice trophy for me to take home. Aside from the golf, it was a nice week in Jacksonville – I had a couple of friends from Australia visiting, their first time at The Players – so it was good to see a familiar face and tell stories as you do when you have your friends with you. Maybe I should have had a game or two of tennis like Kuchar – that proved to be a winning sideline!

Speaking of home – apologies to those who don’t follow AFL football – I am rapt to see the form of my team, the Adelaide Crows. It’s been a tough few years for the boys, but the 2012 season is off to a great start, and a big win at the weekend over the reigning Champions. Come on Crows!!

Time to pack the bags and get myself down to Texas. I’ll report in from there.

Cheers, Adam

“I arrived in Seoul yesterday, and caught up with some of my old mates who play the European Tour, which was great. Sometime later in the week I’m going to hook up with my old high school golf master Peter Claughton, who now lives and works in Seoul. We will for sure be able to enlarge some stories from those days at Kooralbyn School, and laugh about them….I have a feeling Peter may not have been laughing so hard at the time!”

“I’ll get my first look at the Blackstone course this morning in a practice round. The guys who have played here before tell me there is lots of elevation change around the course and that driving is key…..we shall see. Before the round I’m going to do some filming and marketing things for my great sponsor Titleist, and then later there is the Ballantines gala dinner, so it will be a long day”.

“That’s all good….as long as the jet lag doesn’t get me. We’ll see about that too in the next 24 hours”.

“So, for now, bye bye from Seoul”

Adam

I don’t think it will matter how many times I am fortunate enough to play the Masters, I will always get excited when this time of year comes around and I think about the tournament. I’m sure there’s not a professional golfer alive who doesn’t think about winning the Masters, and of course for us Aussies none of us ever have. I want to be the first. Last year was close – and my best performance at the tournament – so I’ll certainly be approaching this year with a lev el of confidence. I feel like I’ve now got a good plan on how to play the course and I know what has to be done well, and what to avoid. So, I’ve got the next 2 weeks to fine tune my game and put the plan into action. Two weeks to go……..

I had some fun playing the Tavistock Cup, which was also good for me to help in the fine tuning process. I wouldn’t say I was super sharp those 2 days, but I was certainly getting the feelings that I like so I think my best game is just around the corner. I really enjoyed playing with Thomas Bjorn the first day – he has really turned his game around from a couple of years ago and is playing super, and he’s been a great mate to me from my early days in Europe and a guy I respect a lot.

I filmed a TV ad recently for Mercedes, which was also great fun. I’m not sure when it’s coming out (maybe they’ve cut me out in editing!!) but I’m really going to enjoy seeing the finished product. I can’t say any more about it but stay tuned, I’m sure we’ll feature it on the site when the time is right.

A little change to my schedule this year – I’m going to play the Ballantines Championship in Korea at the end of April. It’s been a number of years since I played in Korea and I still like the opportunity to go and play in different parts of the world when I can, so this year the Ballantines fitted in really well for me. So, another new experience and a chance to have some fun and play a good tournament.

Right, back to the practice ground for me. No time to waste, 2 weeks to the Masters!

The formula is simple enough. Practice hard on the areas I need to improve, maintain the areas of strength and take it all out onto the golf course. My coach Brad Malone has a good plan for me that take’s all that into account, so there’s no reason it shouldn’t happen.

I’ve dusted off the clubs after having a good break, and we are back into the practice routine. It’s been very windy here on the Gold Coast, so I’ve been working hard on some drills, and keeping a good tempo. And of course the broomstick putter has been getting some work as well. I’ve had a good chat with it, and it knows if it treats me well I will treat it well. I think it will respond well with this knowledge.

I’ve spent a bit of time playing and watching tennis, and of course the Australian Open is about to start, so there is more tennis viewing on the agenda. Tennis viewing is in, tennis playing is now out……The better my forehand gets the more I draw the golf ball, so coach Brad has decided that the forehand can wait!

You’ll be hearing more from me and my team as I get ready for the US Tour season, and beyond. A quick aside – good luck to Peter Uihlein who starts his pro career at the Abu Dhabi Championships very soon, I played a bit with Peter last year and he has some serious game……I’ll wish him luck now as I may not want to in a year or two!!

Cheers for now

Adam

That strategy worked pretty well, as I sure made plenty of birdies for the week, but unfortunately I threw in a bunch of bogeys, a couple of doubles, and even a triple bogey on my second hole of the tournament! It seemed like every time I made a mistake I did it on the wrong hole, and paid the ultimate penalty every time. That’s what the Hyatt Coolum course is like. There is water on 13 or 14 holes, so the chance of a bad shot finding the drink is high. I sure helped out the guy who fishes the golf balls from the lakes – there a quite a few near new Titleist balls in there courtesy of A Scott!

Those penalty shots were really the difference for me between winning and running 4th as I did. It’s frustrating to have given away all those shots and find myself only 2 back at the end of the tournament. Nevertheless it was a good example of continuing to try as hard as possible, as you never what is around the corner in this game. When I made birdie on 16 in the last round it was still possible to win the tournament. As it turned out I needed those birdie putts on 17 and 18 to go in, but at least I gave myself a chance right until the end.

There is lots’ going on at Hyatt Coolum. The greens were without doubt the best I had ever seen them, they were running fast and true and less grainy than in past years. I probably didn’t putt my best on the weekend, but with the condition of the greens I felt like every putt was makeable. Clearly the golf course Superintendent there is doing a great job. The Hotel is being refurbished as well…..it really is a good place for a golfing holiday.

I was very happy to be drawn to play with Greg Norman for the first 2 rounds. Obviously I had spent plenty of time with Greg the week before in Melbourne, but it’s a while since I’ve had the chance to play with the Shark. I’ve got to tell you, he was super impressive. For a guy who hardly ever plays competitive golf now he showed why he was such a great player. As I often reflect, you don’t lose your talent, sometimes just your touch. It was a real pleasure to see Greg in action, something shared by the crowd who followed us around on Thursday & Friday.

The PGA wrapped up my 2011 season. Now I’m going to have some down time, relax and get some personal housekeeping things done. I’m very happy to be home in Australia for a while, the weather in Queensland is nice & warm and the beach sounds like it is calling me. I’ll have time to reflect on a pretty good year past, and by the time I get back to tournament play I will be raring to go and looking to make 2012 a season to remember.

Cheers for now

Adam

It seemed like a long time coming, and it was certainly with great anticipation that we finally assembled at Royal Melbourne to take on the Americans for the Presidents Cup trophy. For me it was my 5th time representing the Internationals with the best result in my time being a tie in South Africa in 2003. The whole year I had been thinking about how great it would be to win at Royal Melbourne, as it was likely to be the only Presidents Cup I would get to play in Australia during my career. So I for one had high expectations, but no false confidence, as I knew that the American team was strong, and they hate losing these types of events.

I had visited Royal Melbourne a few weeks before the tournament – actually on my way to China for the HSBC event – and there were certainly a lot of changes in the 6 years since I had played there. Most noticeable was the new fairway grass, which really slowed up the golf course and certainly took a few yards off the drives. The course was definitely less “fiery” than I remembered it. The changes also made me think there was less value to the local knowledge aspect than there may have been in the past. Royal Melbourne is, and was, a strategy golf course, knowing where in the fairway the drives have to be placed and generally where the “no-go” areas are. The faster the course plays, the more the strategy and position is vital. So slowing it up was, in my opinion, going to take away some of the advantage the Internationals may have had. Being realistic, the best players in the world don’t take long to figure out how to play a golf course, so we all knew that was most important was that we played well. Anything less just won’t get the job done, no matter what other factors prevail.

As we now know, we simply didn’t play well enough. As we have done before in this event, we got behind early, and it is just super hard to make up a lot of ground against a team of really good players. For me it was a week of mixed emotion – wins over Tiger (with my great partner KJ) and Phil were great, but disappointment in losing my other matches, and of course in seeing the team come up short again.

Melbourne – of course – produced a week of unpredictable and diabolical weather. In combination with the super-fast greens, the elements made the golf course play as difficult as it is possible. Anything less than a good shot and the rest of the hole was a battle. I’ll never forget the conditions on Saturday afternoon. It was so cold late in the afternoon it was impossible to believe it was a month before Christmas – certainly in the Southern Hemisphere! You could have been fooled into thinking you were playing in Scotland!

So that was it. Another loss. It was a great week that I thoroughly enjoyed (apart from losing), all the guys on the team were great, and Greg did a fantastic job as Captain. We are just going to have to figure out how to get some good results early in the week so we are not behind the 8 ball and chasing for the set of the matches. And of course Royal Melbourne showed just why it is one of the world’s premier golf courses – truly a match for anything on offer anywhere.

Cheers for now

Adam

Hello to everyone

I’m back at work, after enjoying some time off in Europe and Australia. It’s the same for all of us isn’t it – time off goes very quickly!?

I started back on the practice fairway about 10 days ago, with my coach Brad Malone casting his eye over my swing. We made a few very minor tweaks and things feel good, so I just need to get back into tournament mode quickly. I made a quick visit to Royal Melbourne and played a couple of rounds, just to get my eye back for the course before the Presidents Cup. It had been 5 or 6 years since I was there and there have been a few changes in that time. The changes are mainly with the surfaces, some clearing of the trees and ti-tree, and the addition of a few new tees. I found it really worthwhile, even though Melbourne managed to provide cold, drizzly weather for the visit! It is a great golf course and is going to be the showcase from some great golf in 3 weeks’ time.

For now though, my focus is on the HSBC event in Shanghai, or rather Sheshan, which is about 90 minutes from Shanghai. I see that the weather forecast is for cool conditions, so sweaters are in the bag. Hopefully the waterproofs won’t be needed!! There is plenty to play for and I will need to be sharp from day one as the field is good and lots of the guys seem to be in great form. I’ll be looking for a fast start……

So, this week is the first of 4 weeks of events, with the Australian Open, Presidents Cup and finishing with the Australian PGA on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Lots to look forward to!

More soon.

Cheers,
Adam

As it always seems to, the time is going quickly. It’s been 2 weeks since the Tour Championship and I have been enjoying some time away from playing golf. I spent a few days surfing with some friends down Mexico way, went to Europe to meet up with the people from my new partner Mercedes Benz, and have caught up with some family & friends along the way.

Like I said, the time goes quickly. I’ll soon be back on the practise fairway, getting ready for a really busy month of golf through November. First up will be the HSBC event in Shanghai, and then 3 weeks of golf in Australia, with the Australian Open, Presidents Cup and Australian PGA on the schedule. It is going to be a really exciting time for golf in Australia, with great fields coming down under for all the events. There are 5 Australians in the International Presidents Cup team, plus an Australian Captain, and the event is being played on the great Royal Melbourne composite layout – all in all a recipe for an incredible atmosphere and I’m sure some incredible golf. I can’t wait to be part of it. Melbourne is the sports capital of Australia and always support top level sport, so I am sure we will see enormous crowds cheering for their local players. The US Team is going to have to beat their opponents and the crowds!!

First things first though. I am looking to be ready to fire in China. As a World Golf Championship event, there are lots of ranking points on offer, so a win or high finish really helps on the ranking ladder. I felt like I played really well in the Fed-Ex cup play offs, but just couldn’t make the putts I needed to grab a win. So with some luck my good form will still be there, and I’ll just see a few more putts fall……..I’d like to grab another WGC trophy.

I can’t sign off without wishing the Wallabies good luck in the big Rugby game this Sunday against New Zealand. For lots of reasons I am really hoping for an Australian win….c’mon Wallabies!!

Cheers for now

Adam