PLAYERS BLOG: Gemma Dryburgh’s Lalla Aicha Tour School Experience
I have just arrived back from Morocco from the pre-qualifier A at the Royal Mohammedia Golf Club.
Day 1 – “Important to find some time to rest”
I flew from London Heathrow to Casablanca with Royal Air Maroc. I didn’t have much time to pack for the trip since I had just returned from LPGA stage 2 qualifying in Venice, Florida. I arrived in time for one practice round on the Thursday before the tournament started.
During the practice round I made sure I got the line off of all the tees and where I would like my ball to finish. There were a couple of holes where driver was not the right club for me. Once I got to the greens I putted to spots on the green where I thought the pin positions might be. I also took a note of some of the slopes and breaks on the green that I thought seemed important.
In the evenings, I always tried to find time to rest. Tour school can be a little bit more stressful than a normal tournament so it is really important to find some time to rest.
For dinner I ate with my friends and also my caddie. We had the option of eating in the hotel, or at the local restaurants. I went a few times to a restaurant called Big Bamboo which I would highly recommend! One of the classic Moroccan dishes that you can have is a Tagine. You can have a meat, chicken, or a fish Tagine. I tried the meat version and it was very good!
Tournament Days – “Feeling really confident”
For the tournament days, I arrived at the course a little over an hour before my tee time. I usually get the pin positions for the day and mark them in my book so I don’t have to worry about them once I start playing. I then hit balls on the range for about 20 mins and then putt for another 20 mins. After that, I am ready to go! I was feeling really confident with my game going into the tournament, and fortunately I managed to play well all week.
We had rain one day and some really strong winds on a couple of the other days, so the course was a really good test of golf. I really liked the course. There were two quite long holes, the first and the last hole. The second shot on the last hole was quite intimidating.
The Final Round – “Finally Relax”
My last round I managed to hit the green on the last hole and after that I could finally relax knowing that I had qualified for the final stage.
Congratulations to everyone else that qualified!
Follow me…
Follow me on twitter @gemz1993 and see how I get on at the 2016 Lalla Aicha Tour School Final Qualfying from 18th December – 22nd December.
