A break from tournament golf has Jarryd Felton feeling on top of his game for the upcoming Nexus Risk TSA Group WA Open.
Making three cuts from his six starts in 2016, Felton will be the first to admit he hasn't been in the best form — but the golfer who ended the 2015 season with a win at the NSW PGA Championship says he's made the moves to get back to his winning best.
“Since Queensland I sat down with my team and we came up with a plan to have a solid month off and work on the game,” said Felton.
“I did a lot of strength stuff with my strength and conditioning coach, Jordan (Stares), and with Marty (McInnes) on a bit of release work and full swing with Ritchie (Smith) which has been good so far. It’s definitely paying off and I feel I’m playing a lot better.”
And Felton highlighted that having the ability to rest from tour golf is a part of the benefits of his status after winning at the 2015 PGA Championship.
“I’ve got status for two years and it’s good to be able to pick and choose where I want to play,” said Felton.
“That’s why I didn’t go to Papua New Guinea, as it allowed me an extra week to plan and prepare for this week a bit better.”
Felton played his practice round in the morning on Tuesday, managing to sneak in just before the rain bucketed down on course.
Felton didn’t know his exact score from the morning, but with “3 or 4 under” for the day that puts him around at 12-under mark come Sunday.
“Obviously the rain's going to soften up the greens and make it a bit easier on everyone, but you’re also going to have the rough there to penalise soft shots,” said Felton.
“I think anything over 12-under will be up there, depending on the wind though it could be anything, but with the soft greens it’s definitely at least 12-under. Hopefully the course holds up well will all of the rough weather over the past few days.”
As one of the big drawcards for the week, Felton has drawn an all-WA group playing alongside defending champion Daniel Fox and last year's runner-up Curtis Luck.
Felton will tee off at 7:30am on the Thursday, and tweeting that he's excited to have the local company.
"It's a honour to play with the defending champion@danielfoxwin and good mate @CurtisLuck6 looking forward to it boys #WApride"