As my first visit to Papua New Guinea I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I had heard many different things about the course and the place and as such I was eager to see it for myself. I was greeted at the Royal Port Moresby Golf Club by an extremely friendship membership base and treated very well by the staff. The main challenge for the week was going to be keeping everything dry as the humidity was high together with the temperature.
I played really solid for the first two days with rounds of 68 and 67 with a particularly fun run of birdie, eagle, birdie, par, birdie, birdie on holes 7-12 in the second round. Playing in the last group on Saturday with my good buddy Scott Arnold and local favorite Brian Taikiri was a lot of fun as we had a good crowd following us. It certainly helped as I played really solid for another 67 to put me at -14 and 3 behind the leader of Daniel Gale who shot a 61 in the third round from one of the earlier groups.
The final round got off to a great start with a par, birdie, birdie start but unfortunately despite some really good ball striking I just couldn’t quite hole any more putts for the rest of the day. With a disappointing double on 17 I finished with an even par 72 and a Tie for 2nd place.
Thought I would have liked to have finished a little better in the final round, I am extremely encouraged with my form and even more pleased to see the work done over the past 12 months starting to show in my results. On paper, it is my best result as a
professional and it was a huge buzz to be playing in the last group on both Saturday and Sunday. It has been some time since I have had that privilege and certainly something I want to do more often!
The next stop is Perth for a few pro-ams Thursday though Sunday before heading out to Kalgoorlie for the WA PGA Championships the following week.
Tim Stewart Golf 