Following the Luisita Invitational, the Central Azucarera Open de Tarlac was played at the same course, Luisita Golf and Country Club. After such a good week prior I was feeling very good coming into the week.
These two events were both played in a Tuesday- Friday format, so following an arduous amount of travel between the 3 preceding events I afforded myself a rest day on the Sunday after a Saturday pro am.
It seems that over that stormy weekend, there was a switch in the seasons from wet to dry and as a result the course presented totally differently when I played on the Monday practice day. I found that the course had very quickly gone from soft with no carry to firm and fast. It was only 5 days before the first round of this tournament that we were playing preferred lies due to the amount of mud balls around the course.
I had a solid opening round of 4 under which came from a hot back nine of 5 under 31. My confidence was in a good place however, in retrospect, I feel that I started to run out of some puff as the rest of the event seemed to get harder and harder and I finished the event with rounds of 72, 71 and 73.
After the solid first day I just started to fight my swing a little and as a result the rest of the week turned more into game management. I did do these exceptionally well in my opinion and despite my difficulties I was was pleased to finish at -4 for the week and in a tie for 16th, capping off a solid 11 day Philippine campaign.
Coming home on the Saturday morning I knew I had a couple of days to get ready for the NSW open the following week.
Tim Stewart Golf 