Golf blog: life as a PGA Pro

The latest blog installment from Assistant PGA Professional John Jackson

Well the golf season is finally here and a lot has happened since my last blog a few weeks ago. On the 20th March, I played my first tournament of the year at Weston Super Mare in the PGA Titleist Assistants. It was great to get back on the golf course and get the competitive juices flowing.

Weston Super Mare is a links course for anyone who hasn't played it, and actually is a decent course.

It was a windy and tough day at Weston, which was not the ideal start to the season. Although the conditions were quite tough I was pleasantly surprised with how I played. I scored a 79, which is not great, but I felt I played much better than I scored. I hit the ball solidly, but took too many putts on the greens, and a slip of concentration on the 17th saw me walk off with a triple bogey 6 at what is a relatively simple par 3.

I tied for 33rd and hopefully this is something I can build on. I realise I won’t be a tour player, but I still enjoy to compete and practice. There is nothing better than shooting a good score and playing well in a tournament. Hopefully once I get my exams out of the way, I can then focus my time on playing and hopefully winning some money.

For the time being though my main priority is to pass my exams at the end of April. I can’t say I’m looking forward to the exams, but I am looking forward to getting them over and done with.

I also found out the other week that I passed my club fitting exam I did while on my residential at the Belfry which was great news. You had to get 75 out of 100 to pass and luckily I managed to get the job done. For some assistants though, this wasn’t the case. In fact, one lad walked out half way through his exam because he had put the ferule on the wrong way round and couldn’t get it off! Poor lad will have to re-sit in August which is the last thing you want to do, especially when there’s tournaments to play in.