Great article from and of his visit to Concra Wood- Michael Hoey’s Weekly Diary Exclusive: Ready for a mission to Moscow as sIeason approaches hectic stage t was another week at home for me this week. I’d not man- aged to qualify for the Open this year so was at home for the week to watch it. I was a little stiff and sore from the long drive home from Inverness; even with the stop at Crieff Hydro it was still a long journey so I headed down to Dundalk to see Karen Lawlor for a physio session. Karen is married to my physio Shane, and whilst he was away at the Open Karen was happy to treat me instead. She’s a great girl and a fab therapist so I turned up armed with a few bot- tles of wine as a thank you for letting me interrupt her holidays! I haven’t managed to fit in much practice over the last few weeks away from tourna- ments because of baby Erin’s arrival so the trip to Dundalk was an excellent excuse to fit in a trip to Concra Wood golf course and some much needed practice. The course is in a stunning location on the edge of a lake in Monaghan and the staff are all very nice. I will defi- nitely be going back over the next few weeks and I know Gareth Maybin has also been down to practice there as well. They have a Euro Pro event next week and had I not been going to Russia for the Tour event I would definitely have considered playing in it just to have some competitive golf this sum- mer. The Tour definitely feels a little part time this year, the events have all been in fits and starts for me, and the summer is no exception. I don’t have another event until the middle to end of August and then we have six in a row. The schedule is defi- nitely a little strange, there just aren’t enough events in Europe during the summer months and then we spend all winter flying long-haul to play all round the world. I can understand with the eco- nomic state of many Europe- an countries that companies Rory McIlroy looks dejected with his caddy JP Fitzgeraldas they walk off the 18th at Muirfield, but he’s young and will be in contention for years to come would rather safeguard jobs than sponsor an event but it is a little frustrating that the European Tour has only one event in a six week window over the summer in Europe. So I’m off to Russia to try and get my season back on track. Gareth Shaw is also going; he’s played really well in the main Tour events he’s been able to play and is probably only £70,000 or £80,000 from sorting out a Tour card for next season without hav- ing to go back to Q-school. Hopefully his Management Company can source a few more invites as the season draws to a close to help him out but it will be difficult as they are hard to come by and so many guys are applying for them. I spent a lot of time this week at the gym, stretching to make sure I got the maxi- mum benefit from the physio session with Karen, and sat on the sofa. The only thing I enjoy more than watching the Open is playing in it. The weather was decidedly un-Open like, the usual comment from the Americans of why it’s not played in our summer cer- tainly didn’t apply this year. I was surprised by Rory’s per- formance, as I think every- one was. He’s young though and will definitely be in contention for years to come once he gets things sorted out. His attitude and mind set is definitely one younger players should look to emu- late, very little ever appears to bother him; something we all could do with on the course. Darren was going really well and was nicely placed un- til that bunker incident on Friday; sometimes that just happens on a links course. GMAC looked a little frus- trated playing with Tiger on Thursday and Friday, he was missing fairways and the rough was thick and tricky so it was always going to be dif- ficult to contend. The course also looked re- ally bouncy and difficult, coupled with the tricky pin positions and I’m sure it was a tough test unless you were really on your game. I was surprised by Westwood on Sunday, like most folk I was sure it was his year but he ended up in three bunkers on the front nine and seemed to take the wrong club on the par 3, 7th. You just can’t make like that in the final round of a major, especially when Phil Michelson is with- in striking distance. I think Westwood’s perform- ance spurred Phil on; I doubt he would have finished in such emphatic style had they been on the same score with Westwood finishing later in the day. I played with Phil a few years ago in Singapore. My impres- sion was that he’s a really nice guy, he (or someone in his team) had found out a lit- tle about both of us. He spoke to me about winning the Brit- ish Amateur. I thought it was a really nice touch. I can’t imagine Tiger or some of the other top play- ers would bother finding out about their playing partners. So we are still waiting on a Englishman to win the Open and Tiger is still waiting for his first since coming back. I’m off to Russia in the morn- ing on the 6:35am flight to London - hopefully it’s a good trip.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 21:29:22 +0000
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