By Matt Griffin It&aposs been an extremely disappointing past few weeks on the golf course where my performance has been well below where I expect it to be. I have missed the past three cuts all by close margins which has been out of character for my first few years as a professional. Can t quite explain the reasons for my poor form but can t seem to put a solid 18 holes together at the moment. The first event in this recent stretch was the Volvo China Open in Chengdu China. The event was co-sanctioned with the European Tour and provided a great opportunity to earn some good world ranking points with a number of high ranked players in the field and earn some good money towards the order of merit. Day 1, I played well without holing any putts and signed for a one under round. The cut looked like it would be about 5 under and so I needed a good day 2 to make the weekend. Got off to a wonderful start to be 5 under for the day after 10 and feeling really good. I then proceeded to make some elementary mistakes coming home and missed the cut by a few shots. It was then home to Melbourne for a week before returning up to Korea for the Maekyung Open an event usually dominated by Koreans on what is an extremely hilly and crazy golf course. I was drawn to play with Bae Sang Moon who is one of the young Korean stars and so we would have a large crowd to follow us which would be fun. Day one I played really solid but didn t make the most of my opportunities and finished with a 1 under round which wasn t too bad. On day 2 I began horribly dropping a few shots before rebounding to bet back in with a chance to make the weekend. A near missed putt on the last left me 1 shy of the cut and another early flight home. After another week in Melbourne it was then off to Korea again and Jeju Island down south. The course here was very good and one that should have really suited my game requiring good driving and wedge play. Early on day one I produced some of my worst golf since I was back at school to be 7 over after 9 and in truth lucky to be that. However I hung tough which was good and despite a poor bogey on the par five 9th got it back to 6 over for the day and a chance to make the weekend with a good Friday. Played much better on Friday and gave myself plenty of chances and with a bit of luck would have been a lot lower than 3 under after 12 holes for the day. This had me right back in it but finished with a combination of bad play and a bit of bad luck to miss the cut by a couple of shots. So where to from here? I am about to head back to Melbourne again for what I plan to be an extremely hard week of practice to get my game back in shape and where I expect it to be. I can t put a finger on why the form has dropped but it can be a combination of a heavy travel schedule and just being out of sorts. The good news is I will have seven days at home before heading away again to China and the Nanshan Masters and playing some quality golf again. Matt Griffin is a former National Squad member and current member of Golf Australia&aposs Rookie Professional Program. This blog can also be found at his new website www.matthewgriffingolf.com
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