I didn’t waste much time with this one. These clips are footage of my new stance position and footwork. I worked on getting rid of my pigeon toe setup so the left foot can roll to the inside through impact which should greatly improve my left hip action on the way down.
Jim, I think you’ll like it:
T136 MC Nathan UEBERGANG (+17) 78 79
That’s enough… now it’s time for a swing change. My ball striking sucks. I’m going to turn my toes outwards. No more pigeon toed setup! 😉 I’ll work on it and go to the Mizuno Open from there.
Henry and I will head to Tokyo for a couple days and then head down to Osaka for the Mizuno Open on Monday.
MC Nathan UEBERGANG (+7) 73 76
It’s impressive how good these courses have all been so far on the Japan Tour.
T40 Nathan UEBERGANG (+7) 73 78 74 70
DAY 4
The weather was good today and the scoring reflected it. I had it moving along nicely today, getting to -4 through 11 but finished a little rough and wound up with a 70 (-2). Overall a good day and a good tournament. It’s nice to make my first cut on the Japan Tour and get things going over here. There’s a lot I can take out of this week.
I must say it’s just great playing in front of the big crowds over here. They are so supportive and really get into the mood with you. It’s nice being able to put on a show for them.
DAY 2
It was a tough day out on course. I though I struggled out there but clearly everyone else did too. The howling winds and slick greens made it extremely tough to post a score. I’m very pleased that I’ll be playing tomorrow and have a chance to climb the leader-board. My short game is working great but my ball striking continues to hinder my scores. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the two working well together.
Wow, what a great venue they’ve got here. The Oarai GC has been rated in the top 5 courses in Japan and I can see why. Beautiful tree lined golf holes, extremely thick rough off the fairway and lovely fast gently undulating greens much akin to a US Open venue. Oarai GC (course pictures) is a seaside golf course, probably one of the flattest courses on the Japan Tour as it’s one of the few not located on a mountainous range. It’s one of the toughest tracks all year and will be a good test especially if the rains and wind turn up as predicted during the week.
MC T79 Nathan UEBERGANG (+3) 75
For the two day Challenge events they have a cut after the first round. Man it sucks when you double the last to miss the cut by one. Entirely my own fault as I made a bad decision on my second shot and didn’t execute it well.
Henry (my caddie) and I will now spend a few days in Tokyo before heading to Mito for the Mitsubishi Diamond Cup.
Coutesy of Golf Style Japan I have these great “What’s in the Bag” pics from the Token Homemate Cup. Just click the “what’s in the bag?” section at the top of the page.
There’s a bit of chopping and changing going on with my bag at the moment, but more on that later on.
I will be heading back to Japan next week for the Sashima JGTO Challenge on the Challenge Tour in preparation for two events on the Japan Tour, the Mitsubishi Diamond Cup at the Oarai Golf Club and the UBS Japan Golf Tour Championship held at Shishido Hills Country Club.
T115 MC Nathan UEBERGANG (+5) 77 70 = 147
A few really loose tee shots cost me this week. Giving four shots in penalties each day really hurts. I believe by the time it came to play on Thursday I actually turned up a bit fatigued. So that’s something to keep in mind for my preparation from now on.
In getting ready for the next trip I have to keep working on my ball striking consistency which is the one area that is hurting me at the moment. I’m hitting some high quality shots but it’s the improvement of my misses which will reduce the number of costly mistakes on the score card. Statistically my short game is great and my putting is great.
I’ll also be giving the new TaylorMade R9 driver a good workout. It seems to be a great driver and it looks like I’ll be using it for the rest of the season. The first two events of the Japan season were such an enjoyable experience and a real eye opener. I loved every bit of them.
T85 MC Nathan UEBERGANG (+4) 73 73
SECOND ROUND
Even though I bodged a couple holes today, I felt like I hung in there and gave it a crack. I can’t emphasize enough how much fun it was playing out there. A big thanks goes out to my caddy Chris who did a great job and made it an enjoyable week.
FIRST ROUND
It was a very enjoyable first round for me on the Japan Tour. I could enjoy playing here for a lonnnnng time. As expected I was nervous teeing off the first, but at the same time I was feeling a buzz that you can only get from really enjoying what you are doing. The atmosphere on the first tee was amazing as a few hundred were gathered to see the 2009 season get underway.
Overall the round today was pretty uneventful which is certainly against my trend of rounds recently. I had a little stretch where I missed a bunch of short putts, I made a couple of loose swings with driver, but overall I played a solid round which was so much fun. The crowds are fantastic, the course is great 🙂
