Ladies European Tour Qualifying School.

Pre Qualifying – 2nd Place.

I travelled to Rabat, Morocco on 24th November with my friends Sarah and Kirsty, to play in Pre Qualifying. Held at Royal Dar Es Salam Golf Club. What a venue!!

We landed at Casablanca airport around 8.30pm and finally left around 10.15 once we had sorted the car hire. Never easy!!
We had roughly a 90 minute drive to the area of where our booked apartment was. We struggled to find it exactly so Sarah and I got out of the van we had to go for a quick walk to see if we could find it.
What happened next was truly a terrifying experience and one I hope never happens again!
We walked down some steps to look at the block of apartments behind and there was an open Marquee on the left of us. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a figure type shape laying on a put up bed, covered in a blanket.
Sarah and I have never turned and moved so quickly in our lives and before we had even run back up the steps which were about 5 yards away, this figure had got up off the bed and started to chase after us!!
Whilst running away, I fell over but fortunately managed to get up quickly and continue running back to the van. Sarah had opened the door for me, Kirsty had no idea what was going on but we just told her to drive, away, quickly!! Slight problem though – my sliding door wouldn’t shut!
So, out I stepped to close it. The guy had at this point stopped chasing us so I guess we were lucky to have gotten away.
We have no idea who he was, what he was doing or if he wanted anything… Maybe he was just a security guard but our instincts told us not to hang around to find out.
It was so scary and we both thought that that was it…
We decided to find the Official Hotel as it was to be the safest place at that time of the night/morning! The staff were brilliant and looked after us very well.
Skipping to the end of this – we chose not to stay in the original apartment and eventually found ourselves a Hotel nearby.
As a result of the fall I had, my Left palm was badly cut in the worst place possible for holding a golf club!!
My Left knee and Thigh also took a battering.

I was unable to hit shots or play practice rounds leading up to the tournament rounds. Though, whilst walking round with Sarah and Kirsty, I worked out my game plan and mapped the greens.
However, when my Mind Coach and Caddy, Karen, arrived on Tuesday evening, she had a good chat with me and persuaded me to give it a go on Wednesday. (I wanted it to heal)
The main reason being to find a way of dealing with the pain come the first round on Thursday.
The cut on my hand was cleaned thoroughly by a Doctor and padded and bandaged very well.
I completed the practice round, in a lot of pain but I’m so glad I did as we then knew what to expect.

The golf course was amazing!! The condition first class and it was playing SO long!! Over 6,500 yards! It required you to hit a whole variety of shots and made you focus 100% on every single shot! Such a challenge but very fair. I loved it!!

The first round was just about getting through it and keeping myself in contention to qualify in the top 18 players (out of 41).
The first 7 holes didn’t quite go to plan score wise but the golf was pretty good and the score didn’t reflect that. It was a little frustrating but when you’re playing alright, you keep going and hope things will change. They did – I played the last 11 holes in 1 under par. Total +5.

Round 2 – hand still painful and bandaged up but I fought hard and well. My rhythm wasn’t quite how I would’ve liked it but there were some birdies on the card. Total +4.
Range work done afterwards to take a good rhythm in to the following day.

Round 3 – The best I had played so far but wasn’t quite getting the scores Karen and I felt I deserved. It was all about keeping going and so glad I did… I made a great birdie on the 17th and then holed a Wedge for an Eagle on the 18th!!!! Great feeling for us both and a score of -1.

Round 4 – The aim was to keep going as we had been for one more round. We knew we were in a good position to qualify but around that course, you couldn’t take anything for granted!!
I played alright and made a few birdies but tired towards the end of the round. Total +6.

Still, I finished in 2nd place and safely qualified through to the Final stage being held in Marrakech next week. 14-18th Dec.

Karen was brilliant and we enjoyed the week. We learned a few things that we will work on leading up to Final stage and are looking forward to getting out there.

Thanks for your support.