South African Tour Roundup

What a crazy month it has been transitioning back into life and training in San Diego. After stepping off the plane, jet-lagged, and all disoriented I decided to take a week off before getting back into training 100%. Now after my week has passed I am more then ready to get back into my routine knowing what I have ahead. I have starting working with my Coach Sheri Hayes, and training in the gym, and practicing obsessively. Enough about that though, let me catch you up with my travels throughout Africa and what you have missed. I do apologize for not updating you along the way but finding internet cafes proved much harder then I imagined.

I played a full 4 weeks in South Africa: Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Durban. It was an amazing experience and valuable to me in so many ways.

As far as the golf is concerned I only made two out of four cuts. I was able to put up some low scores, but I wasn't able to put them together. My first week was a struggle to get used to the weather. I finally figured out that carrying an umbrella would decrease the temperature a bit and keep me below melting. Freezing water bottles and wetting towels for my neck were just some of the necessities. I think it would be easier to situate yourself in a complete down pour then playing in that heat!

So onto week 2; it was a much nicer course called Waterkloof. Very open, very dry and we played the ball up. My caddie's name was Sergeant. He was amazing; he knew every inch of that golf course. We played alright the first two days, and made the cut. The final round came along, and I thought we were going to post red numbers for sure. I was confident, and I was rolling the ball really well on the greens. We came in shooting even. I was feeling great about that tournament. My game was finally coming together.

That brings us to week 3 and our road trip to Durban(located on the southeast coast). For those of you that are not familiar the geography of South Africa, Pretoria to Durban is 7 Hours. It was a debate about weather or not we were going to fly or drive. So we chose to drive, and I have to say the rest stops were pretty impressive with their built in the ground trampolines for the kids. I'm not sure where you'd end up if you fell through, but I tried it anyways. (pictures to follow).

So we arrived on the coast right on the beach of the Indian Ocean. It was beautiful, the waves were amazing and huge and the water was warm. The golf course was very challenging, with its tightly carved golf holes, adding more difficulty when the wind picked up. Sometimes it was a 4-5 club wind. I missed the cut, but was able to loop for a friend of mine on the final day. Durban was beautiful, we ventured out and bargained with the locals at the beach side markets and dined on the beach. Before we knew it we were back in the truck heading for Benoni.

Week 4, our last week in South Africa, our last time to tee it up. We stayed at this quaint little B&B 5 minutes from the golf course. The weather was hot, but at this time we were quite immune to it. It rained twice during our competition, which led to some events that I have never experienced before. It's the second round, and there's about to be a cut. I'm on the 17th hole, sitting at the cut line, and I have a 180 yard shot into the green and into the wind. So, I get into my routine, take the club back about to hit the sweetest five iron ever, and Hoooooooooooooooooooonk...the lightning horn goes off as soon as I'm starting my down swing. SHANK! awesome. Ok, I've never been that angry before on the golf course. I think there should be a rule to allow players to re-tee or re drop there shot. So now I'm in the clubhouse waiting for an hour. I realize now, I have to go out to my shot that has to flop over the bunker but under a tree. Hmmm. Well I ended up just making the cut and play the next day. :) But am still irritated about the lightning horn! ha.

Overall it was an amazing trip. I learned a lot about where I am right now as far as golf and fitness wise and what I need to work on before the season starts. I also learned so much about the culture in South Africa and saw some beautiful landscape and ate unique South African cuisine which I loved. I also met amazing people from all over the world. The trip was a success and I am planning on going next year for sure.