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NICHOLAS BECK MISSES THE CUT IN SLOVAKIA
19/08/2013
Whilst the heat wave was on in Malta last week, Nicholas was playing in the Slovakian Amateur Golf Championship at the Welten Bac Golf Course. Welten measures 6179 metres off the black championship tees and has a course rating of 73.4 with a slope rating of 144. The par for the course for the tournament was 72. Most of the 80 participating players hailed from the home country and those surrounding it including Austria, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. Apart from Nicholas, a Russian, a German and an Englishman were the three other players that travelled from outside the “region”.
The Championship was won by Vitek Novak with a 68, 69, 68 score. Vitek, from the Czech Republic, plays off a handicap of +3.4 and was the second best player in the field. His -11 score was 1 better than Austrian’s Markus Habeler who plays off a handicap of +2.6.
The experience of the Championship is explained hereunder by Nicholas himself.
"I arrived on Monday just in time for the practice round early afternoon. Main objective was choosing what to hit off the tees for positioning as well as getting used to the ever so slick and tricky greens. I managed to post a score of +6 which consisted of 2 birdies, 9 pars, 6 bogeys and 1 double for a score of 78.
Tuesday: first round. Tee time at 7:40am starting off the 10th on a rainy day. Having played 4 holes I had already dropped 3 shots failing to make a couple of up and downs. On the 14th (Par 5 - 482m) I ripped a drive down the middle and due to the lake surrounding the front of the green I decided to lay up with a 7 iron. Another great shot only to walk up and not find my ball. We concluded that due to the fairway breaking all the way down to the hazard the ball must have gone into it. This resulted in a double bogey and +7 for the back 9.
A further 6 bogeys on the front nine left me with a total of +13 for the round placed 63rd from 80 players and work to do to make the cut of 45. 12 out of 18 greens in regulation gives one an idea of where I struggled on the day. Ball game on and around the greens is a total different matter to what we are used to in Malta and trying to adapt within a matter of hours of a Championship is hard to come by.
Wednesday: 2nd day. Tee time at 12:10 starting off the 1st. Windy day but at least the rain stopped. I started the day with 2 straightforward pars but on the 3rd, par 5, I blocked my tee shot to the right to find it just out of bounds. I finished the hole with my provisional ball which resulted in a double bogey. Bounced back immediately with a birdie on the next and found another birdie on the 7th to bring me back to level par. Unfortunately another blocked tee shot, this time a 4 iron to the par 3 8th, put me in the water and missed a 1 foot putt for bogey after chipping it close from the drop zone putting me back to +2 after 9 having made a par on the 9th. Once again I blocked my drive on the 10th (out of bounds- right) and put my provisional into the lake (left). This resulted in me dropping for 4 and playing 5 (found the green), 2 putts, for a triple bogey 7. Having kept my composure I played the next 4 holes 1 under par with a sublime birdie on the par 5 14th having chipped from the heather over the greenside bunkers to within 3 feet to get me back to +4 for the day. Another poor drive this time tucked away to the left put me in the lake and having 3 putted resulted in another double bogey. A couple of pars and a bogey at the last left me with a score of 79 (+7) to put me into 55th out of 80 players missing the cut by 5 shots.
Conclusion: Taking into account the number of times I practice due to my responsibilities at work, I was quite pleased with myself. Two scores below 80 with some wayward drives and plenty of missed putts give me the confidence that I can play with these guys. Round 1 was not to be but even so 12/18 greens in regulation on both championship days shows me that my long game has developed and just some practice on proper greens abroad should do the trick on some positive results in the near future! Definitely a great experience and I am looking forward to the next one. The way forward is playing more events at this level!
PS: The winner of the Cyprus open – Oliver Gabor from Slovakia – shot a 79 today like me. More events abroad will do the trick. That is all it is – we just do not have the experience. Not the distance just the mindset. I could have avoided a lot of strokes on my card just by playing smarter."