First Signs of Success

Sam played this past weekend in the King’s Prize on the Empereur Course. It is one of the “majors” of the Belgian amateur season. He was excellent in his first round.

For the first time this year, I saw smile coming off the course. He had a two over par round and was eighth in the tournament. He didn’t struggle. He hit the ball well. “If I only putted a little better, I would have been well under par,” he said.

The next day, Sam had to play 36 holes. I watched the first nine holes and it was instructive. He hit the ball much better than his playing partners. On the first hole, one boy hit into the water and took a triple bogey seven. The other missed the green with his second shot and took a five. Sam hit two perfect shots – and three putted for a five. On the second hole, he made another three putt. His playing partners kept missing the fairway, but scrambled for pars. By the turn, Sam was four over and his playing partners were two under and par.

Sam shot 77 and 78 to finish 19^th.