Qualifying for The Open itself is something I’m undecided on. The R&A moved final qualifying to a Tuesday, which makes it almost impossible for tour players to manage with the travel involved.
If it was still on a Monday, I’d be in. But with a Sunday finish in Italy, travel on Monday, 36 holes on Tuesday, then off to Munich for the BMW International on Wednesday — it’s just not viable. Especially not when you factor in the costs. Between flights, caddie expenses, and accommodation, you’re looking at nearly £2,000.
It’s tough to swallow when you see Open spots given to winners of obscure events in far-off places where some players have little genuine interest in The Open. Meanwhile, national champions like the Spanish or French Open winners don’t get in. I won the French Open last year and finished 30th in the DP World Tour Rankings, which would traditionally have got me an Open spot, but now it’s just the top 25, so I still didn’t get a spot. It doesn’t feel right.
GAME GETTING CLOSER
The Soudal Open in Belgium was tough. My Thursday round was the worst I’ve had in a long time — just nothing was working. Prep was fine, but when Thursday came, I had no control, no confidence. The ball wasn’t going where I wanted it. I knew I needed something special on Friday
to make the cut— six-under or better — and when I missed a few chances early, that was that.
But I didn’t give up. I still tried to take the positives – my short game was solid and my putting felt okay. After missing the cut, I had a good session with my coach. Sent some videos over, got some feedback. Turns out a few old habits had crept back into the swing. Not ideal, but fixable.
Statistically, I usually gain off the tee and on approach. Lately, I haven’t. I’ve been hitting greens, just not close enough. Short game has improved, putting’s been okay — but not great. Still, I know my game is close. I’ve missed seven cuts this year by one shot, including at the Austrian Alpine Open, where I finished tied 67th on level par, with those on -1 under making the cut. Those are the fine margins we’re dealing with, but the Belgium round was the first time I really wasn’t in it.
ALL CHANGE AT KLM
Thankfully, things turned around at the following week’s KLM Open in The Netherlands, where a top-10 finish has provided me a bit of positive momentum. I got off to a really good start, holing a few early putts to go three under after eight holes, but I gave all those shots back around the turn, and then kind of hung in there to be one-over for the first round. It was pretty windy for the second round – gusting 40mph and it was just a case of limiting the damage and hoping everyone else was finding scoring
as tough as I was.
Thankfully that proved the case and my +3 total for 36 holes was two shots inside the cut mark. I played pretty solidly over the weekend, shooting 71 on Saturday and then fired a 66 on Sunday to move 40 spots up the leaderboard on the final day into a share of seventh. They were tough scoring conditions, so I’m proud of how I dug deep over the those closing holes and got the best possible result out of what was a difficult week.
With so many tournaments in Europe over such a short period of time, I decided to drive my own car between events, rather than flying back and forth. It’s been a 3,000-mile-plus road trip through some amazing countryside and I really enjoyed having my feet on ground. Compared
to flying – packing bags, checking clubs, airport stress – driving’s a dream.
Right now, I’m having a couple of weeks off before playing the Italian Open, the BMW International in Germany, and the Scottish Open. It’s a busy stretch, but they’re all relatively close together, so there’s less travel stress and hopefully they’ll bring some better results.
DAN’S SPONSORS
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