On the 24th May, I flew out to Kuala Lumpur with my dad, Richard, who is also a member at Glenelg. While the main purpose of the trip was to catch up with family, I also played in the 29thMalaysian Ladies Amateur Open which was held at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.
The conditions could not have been any different from Adelaide, we left cold days and rainy days in the teens to humid weather constantly around 35°. I had recently played in humid conditions up in Queensland in the Australian Junior Girls Interstate Series, but that was nothing compared to the sheer heat of Malaysia.
In the practice round I was drawn to play with Australian National Squad member Whitney Hillier (WA). This was a great experience for me. The stand-out thing I learnt from Whitney was to have self-belief and confidence and to always be positive.
In the first round I did not play as well as I would have liked and shot 80. I never really got anything going and wasted opportunities on holes where I should have made birdie. Having a better idea of the pace and grain of the greens would have helped me out a lot as I tended to leave a lot of putts and chips into the grain way short.
The second round was a similar story to the first round however I finished worse off with 83. I started par, double bogey before we were called off for about two hours for a rain delay and never got anything going when we got back out on the course.
By the third round I was finally getting the hang of the grain and made a few good up and downs. I played better all day up until the 16th hole where I made double, followed up by a triple and another double to finish with 83 again. The biggest thing I took out of that day was that hydration is the key to having a good round.
The main things I learnt from the trip were the importance of hydration, particularly in the harsher climates; knowledge of the green conditions; and having the confidence in your own game – Whitney came back from 8 shots down to win the tournament by a shot simply by having the confidence in her own game to play her own game despite the circumstances.
Despite some disappointing results, I am very grateful for my opportunity to play in Malaysia as I can prepare myself better next time I play in similar conditions. I would like to thank my parents, my dad in particular for taking me over and the Glenelg Golf Club and the Junior Foundation for the support I received on this trip, and also throughout my time as a member at Glenelg.
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