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Well the Sunshine Coast series was pretty ordinary a few weeks ago. I had a win at Horton Park (Maroochydore) a course that I played many times as a kid. It now has no holes that resemble the ones I grew up playing Saturday mornings on but a -7 score of 65 was enough to tie the win with good mate Matt Ballard and veteran Terry Price. Unfortunately I bogeyed my last hole from 92 metres out and it cost me about $650. Lucky I am loaded (said with serious sarcasm). For the rest of the week I played pretty average and am now taking a break from the game. I have really struggled with my motivation,drive, x factor (whatever it is that made me want to win each week)  this year and am looking at doing other things with my life and it is showing in my game. I am not sure which events I will play at the end of this year on the Australian PGA Tour (exempt for 2 years courtesy of my 2009 WA PGA win)if any but hey it has been a great ride. Interesting times to come.

Well the trip up north to Mackay and Yeppoon hasn’t gone as well as I would have liked. Having won both events before I would like to have been more competitive but it wasn’t until the 4th round at Capricorn where I really got anything going. That was due to some emergency video emailing to my coach Kevin Healey I think who gave me an analysis that worked well. I will head down the Gold Coast to see him next week. This year I haven’t seen him as much as I would have liked as when I have had time off I have come home to spend time with the family. I missed the cut at Mackay and in the last round at Capricorn I had a great round going before a double bogey on 17 whilst -4 for the day on the Championship course. I didn’t take advantage of the Resort course there which is the easier of the two. Now I am taking 2 weeks off before heading to the Sunshine Coast events my old home ground. There is a circuit prize for this series which I have won before so lets hope I have a better run this time. AB

After a break of 5 weeks I am up in Mackay for the $50 000 Pro am. I didn’t do a whole lot of practise in the time off as I was trying to shake some persistent poor habits. My game isn’t spectacular at the moment but Mackay is a course I like and have had some success here before. I tied for the win here in 2000 and we ran out of daylight in the playoff after 4 holes. I also lost a playoff here about 6 years ago too so hoping for a good tournament this week.

Unfortunately another disapointing week up here in the mining towns with a 7th placing at the Glenden Pro am. Glenden is about 166 kms west of Mackay and a great little 9 hole course in a nice town. I have been struggling the past 3 months which all of you subscribers all realise and yesterday I got away with some wide drives but had a great short game and shot a -7 to be tied for the lead going into the final sunday round. I made some very silly mistakes today and as the round went on my game got worse and eventually shot a 75. Tomorrow we drive about 850 km’s to Burrum (Hervey Bay) for a corporate day on  Tuesday followed by a one day event on Wednesday for $10 000. Looking forward to seeing my Grandparents playing Burrum then some time off to find my game. Bye … AB

Things haven’t been going as well as I hoped here in the mining town series. After pro ams at Blackwater, Emerald and Middlemount I have not featured in an event with my best result being a 5th in Emerald. I have been hitting it ordinarily with good signs followed by woeful shots. With 2 more events in the Runge Series in Dysart and Glenden I still have an opportunity to win the series but I need to start making some serious birdies something that I haven’t really been doing. My wedgeplay hasn’t been sharp enough which on these shorter courses needs to be on song to take advantage of the courses. After Dysart this weekend I have 4 days off before Glenden and hoping that time off will help find that missing link. Bye for now…..AB

Well my year got a little better last week with a 2nd placing in the $110 000 Papua New Guinea Open in Port Moresby. With rounds of 74 71 68 69 (-6) I finished 4 behind winner Leigh Deegan from Victoria. My form the past 3 months has been scratchy and I feel I finally started to see some improvement in POM. The week before at Lae in the Morobe Open I finished 13th after a long Sunday of 34 holes. Between Friday evening and Sat afternoon we had 12 inches of rain. When it comes down up there it COMES down.

Anyway I didn’t flush it in POM but did a great job managing my game and kept bogeys to a minimum especially the last day where I had 0. Leigh made all the putts he needed to keep the momentum he had built up and a few times I thought I might be able to apply some pressure but I missed my putt and then he made his from similar range to keep his advantage throughout the day.

I now am at home for a few weeks before some pro-ams including one at Moree NSW which is now my closest pro am to home being 115 kms away. I am not playing the 2 Oneasia Tour events in Korea as am not a fan of the first course and want to work on my game a little more. Also it seems 50% of the time I play with a Korean player they try to cheat  so keeping my Korean appearances to a minimum…. By for now, AB

Another day where things didn’t go to plan where I was +1 with 4 to go and just wanted to get it back to even for the day to get some confidence for next week when I made a bogey on my 16th (7) from the middle of the fairway. At the time we where on the clock for being slow and out of position so I rushed 17 and made a double bogey to be at +9 with the cut at even. With the Chinese Grand Prix on at the same time in Shanghai flights are booked out to Sydney so I am here for the weekend. Luckily the practise facilities are excellent so I will be continuing my work on my ever needing game. They say to look for light at the end of the tunnel but at the moment that light seems like an oncoming train. Have a nice weekend. AB

Well this game of golf can be frustrating at times and I have been in a bit of a funk for about 5 months now. I feel everyday that I am battling within myself a little and when you are going through these stages bad things tend to appear. This afternoon I was playing solid without being spectacular in 5 degree weather at the Volvo China open in Shanghai and was +1 through 16 holes. On 17 I three putted for bogey before a real disaster hit on 18 where I hit an ordinary drive that caught the fairway bunker lip and all I could hit out was 9 iron even though I had about 200 metres to go. My shot just knicked the lip which sent it a little left and the ball plugged under the lip of a fairway trap 110 metres away. I had no shot and tried to go sideways which was a 50/50 call but the ball caught the lip and went back over my head and plugged in the middle of the trap. Knocked it out then wedged it onto the green and 2 putted for a triple bogey 7. So demoralising when you hang in there all day and then it goes pear shaped the last couple of holes but hey that is the deal I have chosen isn’t it. I need a deep one tomorrow morning to make the cut when it is meant to be 2 degrees when I tee off and I will have that many layers on I will look like the Michelin Man.

Well my debut round of the 2010 Oneasia Schedule didn’t get off to the start I was after with an even par round of 72 this afternoon. Through 15 holes I had a solid day going at -2 but a pulled drive into water on the par 5 7th hole led to a bogey followed by a bogey after another errant drive on my 17th (8th) soured a decent round. I actually played ok to well at times but just wasn’t hitting it close enough to make birdies.

Playing in the afternoon in drizzling rain and cool weather meant the greens weren’t rolling their best (not bad for a pm round) so hoping I can get it going tomorrow in my morning round. Chengdu is a region known for it’s Panda breeding program and might be going to check them out in the afternoon tomorrow hopefully after a great round. AB

I am in Chengdu China for the first event of the 2010 Oneasia Schedule. It is the Luxehills Chengdu Open and live scoring is available at www.oneasia.asia on the homepage or you can cut and paste this http://www.oneasiatour.info/tic/tmlsmon.cgi?tourn=OA01~season=2010~

My teetime today is at 1:15pm so wish me luck,
AB