A consecutive round of one under par 71 sees Padraig make the cut at the KLM Open. Ten under par leads in a tightly packed field. He got off to a par start before picking up his first shot of the day at the par-four 5th hole. But he dropped a shot on the 9th to be out in level par. He again dipped under par when he birdied the par-four 11th hole and added another on the 15th hole to be two under par for the day. Disaster struck at the next, the par-four 16th hole where he recorded a double bogey but to his credit, he picked up a final important birdie at the last hole to play at the weekend!

Padraig opens his account at the KLM Open with a pleasing round of one under par 71. Six under leads. He got off to the perfect start with a birdie three on his opening hole, the par-four 10th. He then quickly added two more to race to three under before a dropped shot on the par-three 17th saw him out in 34 shots. He started for home with a bogie but picked that shot up on the par-five 3rd hole before a final dropped shot on the par-four 6th hole saw him sign for 71. He has been playing some nice golf in recent weeks and if he can eliminate the mistakes, he can contend! He tees off tomorrow at 1.15pm local time.

Padraig is playing this week at the KLM Open in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The International golf course plays to a par of 73 and nearly 7,000 yards and has five par fives. It is the 100th edition of the KLM Open and a star-studded field has been assembled. Fellow Major winners Martin Kaymer, Sergio Garcia and Patrick Reed all tee it up alongside Padraig. Ashun Wu is your defending champion!

Padraig tees of at 8.15am Thursday and 1.15pm Friday with Thomas Detry & Sebastian Soderberg.

PREVIEW

This week it’s Amsterdam for KLM Open. Ronan and myself drove here from Hamburg on Monday. It was nice to be driving rather than flying for a change and a great way to spend a day off.

We are playing a new course this week, The International. It’s beside the airport and only 20 minutes from the city centre. I have to say it has been nice playing back in Europe these last few weeks, especially as we have visited some great places.

On Tuesday I did a small bit of practice in the morning and the played 11 holes with Dunners, Grant Forrest and Wilco Neinabar. Dunners and myself had a chipping contest for the 11 holes and it pains me to say it but he took the money off me again – whilst it was a sore loss it was great practice.

The course this week is quite links like in its look and how it plays. We only played 11 holes as there was a pro-am on the course in the afternoon. It’s quite tricky as the greens are big and have a lot of slope and run offs on them. The tee shots are very different to last week as you have to lay up on more holes here, whereas last week it was pretty much driver everywhere. I like the way the course plays; you have to think your way around and be prepared to have a few tough chip shots during the round.

On Wednesday I played the pro-am. I had planned to do some practice before it but the weather was so bad I just warmed up and then played. It was a shotgun start – we started on the 7th and by the time we got to the 18th green my playing partners and myself had had enough so we decided to retire to the bar. It was really miserable out there so I was very happy to finish up, especially as been out on the course was of no benefit to preparing for the tournament.

I’m looking forward to playing the tournament on the course as I am interested to see how it plays with a card in my hand. It’s amazing how different we pros play a course when it matters. It’s a really good layout and if you hit good iron shots you should have plenty of birdie chances. It’s one of those courses that if you play well you can score, but if you are slightly off then you could struggle.

I’m playing early on Thursday and thankfully the forecast is for all the rain to be gone overnight – hopefully they are right.

Talk soon,
Padraig.