I really enjoyed my first visit to La Manga last year and after a much better performance in Italy last week, I was looking forward to trying to stay “in the moment” this week. I rented a cool 2 bed AirBnB with Van Phillips and we were located just 5 minutes from the course which was ideal.
For some strange reason, it was seriously windy for most of the week and with the greens not being up to their normal standard, it was quite a struggle to feel any level of confidence at any time during the rounds. I was fortunate enough to have a friends son caddie for me (Alex) and it was nice to be able to chat to someone “on my side” during the rounds. Alex is a really good golfer but an even better person so it was fun having him beside me for the 3 tournament rounds.
My game was (for the second week running) really solid and I really only made a few mistakes over the 3 days but as we all know, mistakes cost you big time! I was going along lovely in the second round until I miss-clubbed on my second shot into the 11th and that mistake cost me a double. I then missed an 8 footer at the next for birdie and then failed to birdie the par 5 12th. Coming to the last hole, I hit a pretty solid drive up the left and was faced with a 225 yard second shot uphill, into the wind to a from pin protected by a huge penalty area at the front of the green. The other element that I had to take into consideration was the palm tree which was directly in front of me!
I decided to try and cut a 5 wood around the tree and flushed it perfectly. Neither Alex or myself saw the ball come to a finish but it was right down the flag and we hoped I had stiffed it. As we got closer to the green, we saw no sign of the ball and sure enough, the ball came up short in the penalty area. I dropped a ball 70 yards short of the green, pitched my 4th shot to 5 feet but missed it, thus dropping another shot.
My final round was once again, very solid but I just didn’t take advantage of all the great shots I hit. The second round really cost me the top ten finish but a final round 71 saw me finish tied 12th with rounds of 70, 75 and 71 for a -3 total. I left La Manga feeling much better about myself and it was clear that my mindset and approach to golf was in a far healthier place than it had been all year. Upwards and Onwards!
Patrik Sjoland shot 67, 70, 68 and won by one shot from Ricardo Gonzalez.
