A few weeks late, but just a quick wrap of my campaign for a PGA Tour LatinoAmerica tour card for 2018.
I arrived into Bogota late on the Saturday night from Atlanta which worked well as there was very little traffic which I was told was an uncommon sight. The first thing that really took me by surprise was the difficulty of breathing on my first night there. Bogota as it turns out sits at 9,000 feet above sea level (2650m). My first few nights there I woke up multiple times struggling for breathe as my body was certainly not used to this environment.
The course was fantastic and due to the altitude, the ball went miles! (See my ‘adjusted carry distances in the images below’). Needless to say there were a lot of adjustments I had to make in my 2 practice rounds before the event.
Unfortunately, my start to the event was slow shooting a 6 over par 78 to begin my campaign. My confidence in the swing was not where I needed it to be and the lack of energy from the altitude certainly affected me much more than I anticipated. I worked on my game for 2-3 hours after each round to try and re-capture my groove and each day it got better and better closing out my tournament with a 2 under par 70 (with a bogey on the last!). Unfortunately this was too little too late and I missed out on conditional status by 3 shots. Such is the nature of tournament golf and only cemented the fact that we always continue to learn and encounter new challenges and experiences. If I play again next year, I will plan to arrive at least a week early to acclimatise to the extreme altitude.
Tim Stewart Golf 