We’ve been following Tom Sherreard, from Chart Hills, on his pro quest since 2012. This year the the season has already taken him to Egypt and Spain on the Alps tour (are there Alps in Egypt? We’re confused…)
“A new golfing year has started and with this in mind I am writing my first blog of the 2013 season. Last year didn’t end quite as planned, falling short at the second week of European Tour School leaving me to play Alps Tour golf for a further year. Having finished 11th on the Alps tour last year I managed to keep my playing rights without having to go back to the Alps Qualifying School.
So far this year I have played three events on the Alps, the first two as part of a winter series in Egypt, finishing T17th and T14th respectively. The third event was played at Golf de Layos near the beautiful town of Toledo near Madrid. I played solidly all week apart from a couple of mistakes leading to two double bogeys. Despite this and the tough conditions I managed to finish on a total of 217 (+1) for three rounds, finishing in a tie for 12th. With three top 20’s in my first three events I feel happy with a solid start, however I know there is much more to give and the prospect of the 2013 season excites me; it’s just a case of getting in the grove and finding the swing again.
My next tournament takes me to Golf de Rebetz in northern France starting on May 1st. For score updates please check out alpstourgolf.com and keep your eyes on the order of merit, hopefully my name will work its way up from its current position of 16th to the top over the next few months…
Tip of the month
As with last year my blogs will come with a tip to help you improve your own game. This month’s tip is all about being more specific in your pre shot routine to reduce the margin of your errors.
When you are picking a line to hit any shot, pick something very specific to aim at. Too many times I hear amateurs saying that they are simply aiming ‘up the fairway’ or ‘at the green’. Try to pick a much smaller specific target. There are two main ways of doing this, some people like to pick a blade of grass or something literally two feet in front of them to help their alignment, this giving them a very specific point to aim at. Others (myself included) try and pick something in the distance, usually on the horizon or higher up than the area you are trying to hit into. Again this is simply a way of making the target as specific as possible to try and really focus in and reduce the chances of making an error.
If at first you find this too difficult it may be worth trying to aim for a specific strip in the fairway, as the mowers usually cut narrow stripes in the fairway. When approaching the green try to aim for a specific part of the green, either front left, front right and so on. This will help you focus in on specific areas and will reduce the margin of area, after all if you are simply aiming to hit the fairway and miss it, you will find the rough, whereas if you are aiming for a specific target within the fairway and miss that, you still have a chance to hit the rest of the fairway…
Happy golfing during 2013 – let’s hope for some warmer, drier weather so you can all get your GoKarts out and enjoy playing again.”