August 2003

1 August, Talma Finnish Challenge, 2nd Round 70 (-2)
Shot 70 again and the cut looks like being three or four under so I should just make it. I played really solid again and hit 17 out of 18 greens, but could not make a putt again and missed a couple of short ones. It was a bit windier today, but I made a better start and buried the 10th, my first, then went bogey, birdie and parred my way out to the turn. Made another 2 at the 2nd and that was it. Just going to do some practice this afternoon and hopefully I will have made the cut. Check out www.finnishchallenge.com later if you want to find out yourself and hopefully I'll be talking to you tomorrow. David

2 August, Talma Finnish Open, 3rd Round 72 (Level)
I played pretty good but had three holes where I made terrible mental decisions and missed three short putts for pars. After birdies at 1 and 5 my head went AWOL at 7, 8 and 9 where I dropped three shots due to among other things a ball in the water and a three putt. I got back to level with a 3 at 17, but that spell before the turn was annoying as 69 would have placed me where I wanted to be. As it is I am tied 35th, but only 3 shots off 10th place so hopefully I can shoot something like 68 tomorrow to make up the gap. I'll need to cut out the mental mistakes and sharpen up my short game though. Just to round off the day, the bus taking us back to the hotel broke down - welcome to life on the Challenge Tour! David

3 August, Talma Finnish Open, 4th Round 69 (-3)
Played pretty well, just missed key putts and made one dumb bogey at 9. Started with a birdie at one again and added to it with birdies at 7, 8 and 10 and apart from the aberration at the 9th it was just pars from there on in. 69 is 2 shots too many for a top ten and for entry to the next two big money events at the BMW Russian Open and the Rolex Trophy. However tied 18th gets me a few more Euros so I am on track for staying in the top 45. David

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