A third round of one over par 73 saw Padraig lose some ground at the Czech Masters. Five bogies were mixed with four birdies on a day when too many mistakes cost him. He got off to a poor start with a dropped shot at the first hole but hit back with two birdies in the space of three holes. He bogied the par three 7th hole to be out in level par. He birdied the par five 10th hole for the second day in a row but a poor run of three dropped shots made it a day to forget. A birdie three on the last hole was a nice way to finish!

A superb second round of four under par saw Padraig make the weekend at the Czech Masters. It was especially pleasing in that he had no dropped shots and was able to produce such a round under pressure. Looking forward to the weekend!

Padraig opened his account with a one over par round of 73 at the D+D Real Czech Masters. Starting on the 10th tee, he reeled off seven pars before a dropped shot on the par four 17th hole had him out in one over par. He got this back when he birdied the par five 1st hole but then dropped two shots in the space of three holes. He managed a final birdie at the par four 5th hole to finish at one over par. He tees off at 1.05pm Friday and will need to dip under par as the cut line looks to finish under par!

Padraig is playing this week on the European Tour at the D+D Real Czech Masters. It is being held at the Albatross Golf Resort near the iconic city of Prague. He is joined by fellow Major winner, Ernie Els, former World number one, Lee Westwood and former Ryder Cup Captain, Thomas Bjorn. Padraig, of course, finished second here last year losing out in a tense battle to Andrea Pavan.

Padraig tees off at 8.05am and 1.05pm local time with Lee Westwood and  Thomas Pieters.

Preview

This week I am in Prague for the D+D Real Czech Masters. I played here last year for the first time and had an enjoyable week, as well as finishing second in the tournament. Having had such a good time last year, the event went straight onto my schedule for this year.

After a nice weeks holiday I arrived in Prague on Monday morning. However I was missing a key piece of luggage, my clubs! In 32 years of traveling to golf tournaments it’s the first time my clubs haven’t turned up, but it’s hard to believe it hasn’t happened to me before. Luckily I arrived early enough that there was time for them to get to me. They arrived safely on Tuesday morning, fully intact and as it turned out it didn’t affect me too much. I managed to borrow a wedge and a 4 iron to hit some balls with on Monday, but the weather was poor most of the day so if I’d had my clubs I probably wouldn’t have played anyway. On Tuesday I was tied up all day with media commitments and a shoot-out on a boat on the River Danube. It’s great to come to such a wonderful city and get to do some of the promotional events in the city itself.

On Wednesday I played the pro-am which, as it turned out, was my only practice round. I remember the course well from last year, however I was glad to get out and play as it is playing totally different to last year. It is much softer as there has been quite a bit of rain over the last couple of weeks, whereas last year the course played very short as the fairways were firm. After my week off I was glad to get out on the course and play. Unfortunately we didn’t do any good as a team but we did enjoy it.

In the first round I’m playing early with Lee Westwood and Thomas Pieters. The alarm clock will not be welcomed in the morning as I am still a little jet lagged, but I’m looking forward to playing and to hopefully getting myself into contention come Sunday once again.

Talk soon,
Padraig.