The next July stop was a short drive to Dongguan and the Mission Hills resort for the Dongguan Open, which was played on the Norman Course at the famed Mission Hills Resort which is home to 12 championship golf courses.
The Norman course is one of the tougher layouts on the property with some fairly testing walks between greens and tees. Unfortunately for the event, there was significant weather during the practice days which meant I was only able to see 15 holes of the course between Monday and Wednesday. The huge volume of water that inundated the course also left it in an unplayable state, which meant we did not begin the first round until Friday.
Once my round finally got going, my game felt really good and I was playing really solid eventually signing for a 1 under par 69. I felt happy with my game and was feeling good going into what would eventually turn out to be the last round (round 2)
At the time of finishing our last round and In some confusion, our group teed off the last hole not realising the siren for darkness had been sounded, only to later find out as we left the tee ground from other players that the siren had sounded. Unsure what to do, our group proceeded to finish the hole due to the siren being sounded for darkness. In an unfortunate and disappointing turn of events, the tournament committee informed us on the 1st tee for our second round that we were being disqualified for playing after the siren. Though we didn’t agree with this decision, our group was unable to tee off.
It was the first time I have been disqualified from a tournament in my entire playing career and certainly left me with mixed feelings. I suppose sometimes that is just the nature of the business of golf. Whilst I didn’t agree with the committee’s decision it was one I had to respect and so I once again packed my bags and focused on the weeks ahead.
Tim Stewart Golf 