Following on from two weeks on the PGA Tour China Series in Suzhou and the rain shortened event in Huangshan, it was back to the Philippines for the Iloilo Invitational where I had some success last year with a 2nd place finish.
The course at Iloilo which is located in the Visayas region of the Philippines is quite unique in that it is the oldest golf course in the Philippines and was constructed by Scottish rail engineers at the very beginning of the last century.
My 2019 campaign got off to an interesting start as 3 minutes prior to me tee time, I got struck in the back of the head by a rogue golf ball off the 11th tee as I was practice putting before my round. I was extremely lucky that the ball which was coming from around 250 yards away, hit below my skull and right of my spine into some soft tissue in my neck and I was still able to play despite being a bit shaken. Luckily for me I was able to joke about it later as I went on to shoot 3 under par and follow that up with 2 under par in my 2nd round leaving me only a few strokes back of the leader.
Unfortunately the final two rounds were not the most memorable as I shot a 4 over par 74 in the 3rd round and a disappointing even par 70 in the last round after being 4 under par after 6 holes on the final day.
I would go on to finish the event with a total of -1 and in 12th place. A reasonable result but could definitely have been better and something to build and learn from.
Whilst there was some good signs I am moving in the right direction, there are few areas that need some work and I am looking forward to taking a week of back in Australia. It will be a great opportunity to work through some of those issues and will be better prepared for my next event which is the Manilla Southwoods Invitational July 9-12.
Tim Stewart Golf 