TG Blog: Looking forward to a title defence

Tuesday 13th September

It has been a year since my first win at the Casa Serena Open in the Czech Republic and I still cannot believe how much I have achieved, seen and done since that victory.

I qualified for Casa Serena last year after securing a top three finish at Woburn in my first Senior Tour outing and since then I am pleased with the progress I’ve made on the Senior Tour, but there is still room for improvement!

Casa Serena is a beautiful course and one of the best on the Tour. It will be tough to repeat my success from last year but I enjoyed playing the event and I’m sure this will help when I begin the defence of my title on Thursday.

The greens are just perfect, as good as we see anywhere on any tour as far as I’m concerned. It’s a proper venue, the people are great and it’s an opportunity for the Senior Tour to show what golf is all about to a country that hasn’t really adopted golf fully as yet.

This year has been one of the best yet on the Tour in my opinion. There have been some great stories, including Sandy Lyle winning his first professional title for 19 years, Tom Watson winning the US Senior Open and Ian Woosnam winning in Germany.

I currently stand in a great position to pick up the Rookie of the Year Award this year and I am hoping that a strong finish here in the Czech Republic will further reinforce this. I have a few guys chasing me, including Tim Thelen and Mark Mouland, so it is not plain sailing and I will be hoping that I better their results until the end of the season, as well as win another title.

But that is not where it stops for me. I firmly believe that I am capable of and will try to finish in the top 5 on the Order of Merit as this would be a massive achievement.

Time will tell whether I can do this but one thing is for certain; the tour continues to be extremely competitive, with 15 different winners this year, and it just goes to show that there are many players able to rise to the occasion and grab those vital titles.

Wish me luck this week, hopefully I won’t need too much of it!

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