ANDY BORG - THE BELGIAN EXPERIENCE

03/09/2012

The Belgian International Amateur & Ladies Golf Open Championship was played at Royal Antwerp Golf Club between the 23rd and 26th August 2012.

Royal Antwerp is a par 72 course and plays over 6600 yards from the back tees. “It is considered long enough for the vast majority of golfers, especially if there is a bit of wind swishing around between the pines. This is not a layout that requires a booming drive off every tee. Course management and good placement will serve you just as well if it is a good score you are wanting to card”.

The Belgian Open Championship was based on a four day aggregate medal score with a cut for the best 42 players after the second day. Andy was one of the 87 players that registered to play in this competition – 50 of which had a handicap better than scratch.

The competition was won by Mathias Eggenberger from Switzerland with a score of 69-70-69-73 after a 3rd play-off hole from Philip Bootsma of the Netherlands.

What follows is Andy’s narration of his trip to Antwerp – a trip which was completely self financed.

I arrived on Tuesday evening and played a practice round on the Wednesday. Teed it up on Thursday at 08:25 hours and shot an opening round of plus 4. At the end of the day plus 4 was the cut line so I was depending on Day 2!

On Friday, I started at 13:10 hours and had a very steady front nine carding 1 under for the first eight holes. On the 9th – a dogleg left – I failed to reach the corner and had to lay up dropping a shot to turn in level par and still 4-over for the 27 holes. I then bogeyed the 10th and the 12th, managed a double bogey on the 15th before finishing with another bogey on the 17th! It was a torrid back nine and here I realized that I was not prepared for the tournament. I had little trust in my golf swing and was constantly trying to find a swing to get me round.

The course played fair and it was a very good test. It was vitally important to hit good positional tee shots and then good iron shots into small greens. The fairways were tree lined and with a swirling wind made it difficult to judge the distances.

On Saturday, I was asked to act as a marker for the ladies and so I managed to play the course again. Similarly on Sunday – I played as a marker for one of the men.

It was an excellent experience and what I was looking for. It was disappointing to miss the cut however I feel fully motivated and am working very hard to make sure that Turkey and the Eisenhower Trophy is a success.