Last week I played two tournaments on the Portugal Pro Tour to prepare myself for the upcoming season.
In a big and strong field of 90+ players I finished 42nd and 29th.
After a long time without competitive golf I am satisfied with the state of my game! I am really looking forward to play more tournaments this year!
Scores:
Palmares Open 1 (Lagos-Praia) 76-75-67 (+2) 42nd
Palmares Open 2 (Alvor-Lagos) 71-74-72 (+1) 29th
And 2 years later we did it again!
After the second place finish last year, we won the The Dutch Foursome Championship for the second time!
At Rozenstein Golfclub we played solid throughout the whole round. With a 1-over 73 we managed to stay one ahead. Thanx to my partner Eduard Schwarz for a great day!
Last Wednesday and Thursday I played The PGA Benelux Trophy, a tournament for the best pro's in Belgium and The Netherlands. The club made big changes to the golfcourse by reshaping most bunkers and putting 5 new backtees in play to make the golfcourse play much longer. The two days were really hot, We played in 33-38 degrees.
I finished the tournament in 6th place with scores of 73-68 (-3) A good result although I played much better then my scores suggest. The first round I played really good, created a lot of chances for birdie and was only -2 for the round after 13 holes. Then I made 3 silly bogeys coming in for a unnecessary 73.
In my second round my ball striking was even better. With 17 GIR and 5 birdies and only a single bogey I made a score of 68 to climb to 6th place.
But also in this round I had a lot of chances for a much lower score.
My game feels great. Next week I play the Dutch Futures at The Dutch. Looking forward to it
See you soon.....
Results: https://www.golfbox.dk/livescoring/tour/#/competition/1337358/results
In the bunker at the 18th on Royal Limburg Golf
Yesterday I had a good titel defense at the Dutch PGA Championship. Unfortunately it wasn't good enough to get a win, but I am happy where my game is. There is still much room for improvement. A T5 place with two rounds of 74 is a good result on the difficult golfcourse of The Lage Vuursche!
From tee to green it was ok for two rounds. The first round I putted poorly and missed a few short ones. The second round my putting was much better. It was a pity that I finished the tournament with a double bogey on the last. Next up Benelux Trophy at the beautiful course of Houthalen.......
The green hole 14 on the Lage Vuursche
What a fun day we had and what a great round we played at Golfclub Kleiburg last Friday.
Eduard Schwarz and I made a round in 72 strokes to beat the field by two strokes.
Funny fact is that precisely 20 years ago (1998) I won the National Amateur Foursome Championship.
I can be short about the KLM Open 2017.
It was a great experience again. The weather was awful an unfortunately I didn't have my best game last week, so I missed the cut. I will try to do it better next time! Xavier
Last weekend my game was pretty good, but I missed qualifying for the Dutch open by one shot. Today I grabbed the ticket on The Lage Vuursche! But even better I won the Dutch PGA Championship for the second time!
After a long rain delay on Wednesday the organization canceled the first round and decided to cut the tournament to 18 holes.
My start today was sloppy and with a double bogey on hole 2 and a 3-putt bogey on hole 7 I was +3 for my round. From that stage I started to play really well! With birdies on 8,12,13,16,17 and 18 I finished on 69! Big thank you to my caddie Jean-Paul Duits for his help today!
The KLM Open will be played from 14-17 of september!
Looking forward to it!
This weekend I came close to a wildcard for The KLM Open. In the 9 holes event at the ING golfweek at Prise d'eau Golf I made a bogey-free 34 (-1) to just miss out on the play-off.
Next week I will play the Dutch PGA Championship at The Lage Vuursche!
Xavier
A few weeks ago I travelled to Spain to play in four Gecko Tour events and to work with my shortgame coach Dani. The purpose of the trip was to prepare myself for the upcoming season, but also to have some fun. I could stay in an apartment of a friend in Benahavis and Dave Willemse travelled with me to caddy the whole trip.
The Gecko Tour is a good Tour organised in the Marbella area on courses that are generally short but tactical. The standard is pretty high. It's a good preparation for your season under pleasant conditions.
My game was decent. After the "failed" trip in december and a few months without competition I wasn't very unhappy with my game. There were parts, specially on my shortgame, that I need to make bigger steps on to have a chance to compete for a win! But hopefully I can make those steps this spring when the tournaments begin here!
Scores:
Gecko Tour El Paraiso Golfclub 73-73 (49th)
Gecko Tour Atalaya Golf Club 73-71 (37th)
Gecko Tour Marbella Golf & CC 76-74 (32e)
Gecko Tour La Quinta Golfclub 77-75 (36th)
*A week after the Gecko Tour tournaments I also played The PGAE Fourballs Championship at Lumine Golf Resort with my brother and we unfortunately just missed the cut with 71-71. It was a great and fun tournament!
See you soon!
Last month I had an interview in De Nederlandse golfkrant! You can find the interview (in Dutch) below. Have fun reading! :-)