Wow, what a trip and welcoming for us to Korea. When I say us I’m referring to another fellow player whom I stayed with, Henry Epstein. Henry qualified 2nd through the Tour School and we organized the first tournament together. We arrived in Je-ju on Sunday night so we could arrange as much practice at Zephyros GC to get aclimatised to the conditions.

As an international player, getting acclimatised isn’t that easy yet in Korea. On the Monday we were told we could not get a practice round that day so we walked the course instead to get a feel for the layout and begin to piece together a course strategy. Later we found out some international players did get a hit, at US$250 per head! Mind you, that is what you can expect to pay for a round of golf in Korea.

Tuesday was the official practice day and while playing it became apparent I was struggling to adjust to the winter rye grass coming from the bermuda grasses I’ve been playing and praciticing on in Qld. Wednesday was the pro-am day for the Korean players so I spent a few hours around the greens trying to get a good feel for how the course was going to play come Thursday.

I struggled to get my brain working and fired 80-81 to miss the cut by a whopping 8 shots. The scoring was bad but more importantly I have a lot to take out of the experience from my first event as a professional. Preparation is everything.

Henry unfortunately missed the cut as well, firing rounds of 74-80. A last hole triple bogey stoped him one shot outside the number needed to take home a check.

I spent the friday afternoon with my young caddy, watching some of his ‘heroes’ practicing on the range. One player who’s immaculate ball striking that stood out was Kim Kyung Tae. He just turned professional after winning twice on the Korean Tour last year as an amateur. It was no surprise Kim actually ended up winning the event by one shot with a one under par total.