7th Nov 2011 The NSW PGA this week just gone ended up as predicted being a 54 hole event due to the first round being washed out. My scores of 66,67,72 placed me well done the leader board in 28th position. It was the 3rd and final round that proved costly as I was in tied 7th position after the 2nd round on 7 under. The 3rd day however was a little weird for me as I just didn't feel comfortable on the greens or anywhere on the course for that matter. The putts didn't drop early which had me feeling a little "flat" and I just couldn't get into any sort of rhythm. Anyway, I am now on my way up to Sydney this week for what is shaping up to be one of the best Australian Opens in history, with a fine field assembled in the week prior to the Presidents Cup. I know The Lakes course pretty well and with a little fine tuning from my coach Ian Triggs in the next 3 days, I should be well and truly ready to mix it with anyone who wants to take me on! Will report soon on some fine results! Good golfing Wrighty
3rd Nov 2011 After a rollercoaster couple of weeks from winning the WA PGA to missing the cut by a single shot in the WA Open, I am in Woolongong this week for the NSW PGA. This has been a good stomping ground for me in the past with a 2nd place finish here 2 years ago. It looks however to be a shortened event this year with rain falling constantly overnight and play being suspended for a minimum of 5 hours at this stage due to the fairways and greens being drenched with water. I was due to hit of at 12.40pm which takes me to 5.40pm so it looks very unlikely that I will get out on course at all today meaning that I will be playing 36 tomorrow or reducing the tournament to 54 holes. Time will tell but I am keen to get out there and get amongst the lead! Will report in soon. Good golfing all! Wrighty
24 Oct 2011 And that girls and boys was THE bounceback I needed after such a dismal display in Korea. A win in the WA PGA this week has me raging with confidence in my game and really looking forward to the coming weeks over the summer. I started out the tournament with 2 rounds of 70 (2 under) then caught fire on the weekend shooting 66 and 67 to win by 1 shot with a birdie on the last! It all looked as though it may have come undone though on the 17th where I hit my drive right on the edge of the water and had to take my shoes off and roll up the ol trousers. With the ball sitting way above my feet I conjured up a career shot and knocked it on the green to make a recovery par then took the title with a birdie on the 18th. It has been a long time between drinks for me with my last win coming in the NSW Open in 2005 so to win yesterday was a great feeling and like I said earlier, it gives me a huge lift heading into the next few weeks of tournaments on the Australian schedule. Will check in at the end of this week with some more good news from the WA Open. Wrighty 8th Oct 2011 No good news to report this week I am afraid. After shooting rounds of 4 over and 9 over, I am leaving Korea with my tail between my legs. It just wasn't to be for me this week as pretty much everything that could have gone wrong did. My putting was the main culprit which is a rare occurance for me as it is usually the strength of my game. True to form, the Korean officials didn't help things with their whacky pin positions and the majority of the field feeling the same with a rediculous cut of 6 over! You know something is going on when the cut is 6 over and the weather is decent. Anyways it is onwards and upwards for me now. I have a week at home before embarking on a 4 week campaign in Australia which I am looking forward to. Our summer of golf is shaping up to be one of the best with some big names set to grace our shores and I am certainly grateful to being a part of it. Will check in when in Perth in 2 weeks. Good golfing Wrighty
2nd Oct 2011 Well here I am sitting in the Brisbane International terminal waiting for yet another flight! Ah the joys of playing tournament golf! This time I am off to Seoul, Korea via Hong Kong. Looking like taking around the 23 hours from door to door which seems pretty standard these days:( I will get little rest before teeing off in the practice round tomorrow. The course we are playing this week (Woo Jeong Hills) is certainly going to be a strong test for all given its demanding layout and crazy pin positions which these Korean officials love to explore! Couple that with super fast greens and the entire game needs to be in great shape in order to contend. 2 years ago my game was on fire in the first 2 rounds at this tournament and I lead by 2 shots at 9 under before falling back to 5th place by the end of the week. I certainly have very fond memories of this place with huge galleries encouraging all sorts of shots and being in contention is truly a great buzz here and something that I am longing for this week. After some very solid scores and consistent play over the past few weeks in proams when I have been home, I am looking forward to testing my skills this week and being in contention on the back nine on Sunday. Until then, good golfing to all and I will check in with some good news towards the end of the week. Wrighty
12 Sept Check out my new swing The new Action!! from Michael Wright on Vimeo. (20 Sept 2011) Hi all. Sorry for the lack of updates over the last month or so. Had a few computer illiterate issues! Anyway, I haven't had much on since the Thailand Open but for the last week where I have played a few local proams with a bit of success. I started at the Mt Warren Park proam where I shot even par to run 8th then finished 3rd at Indooroopilly with 4 under, won at Brisbane GC with 3 under then finished off the week with 3rd in the biggest one day proam in Australia, the Royal Qld Cup which we play for $60,000 for one day! (Be good if they were all like that!)
2 weeks at home now to prepare for the Korean Open which starts on the 6th Oct then the run of Aussie tournaments begins which will see me playing in at least 6 out of 7 weeks leading up to Christmas.
The work I am doing with new coach Ian Triggs is coming along nicely and I am very pleased with the progress we have made. Good golfing to all!!
Wrighty
(11 Aug 2011) Here in Thailand this
week for the 2011 Thailand Open at Suwan Golf Club. After the last 3 days spent
preparing on the course, we are going to be in for an extremely hot tournament
on a great course. The condition of this course is up there with the best I
have played with the greens being smooth and fast and the rough certainly up in
most areas if you stray off the fairways. I had a couple of
health issues early in the week with possibly something in the water or food which
certainly softened up the food that I was passing! On Tuesday my stomach did a
few back flips but I can safely say that all these issues have passed now and I
am 100% healthy and looking to get plenty of fluid in the system over the next
4 days. After some technical
changes last week with the new coach I am striking the ball well but by biggest
challenge is still going to be getting everything out of my head and just go
play. I am certainly looking
forward to the start today when I tee off at 1.00pm local time. I will check in on
Friday afternoon with some good news! Wrighty (June 9th 2011) F irstly I have to apologise for the lack of updates over the last week for my tournament in China. The reason there have been none is that China have placed banns on certain websites that have any blog related content being able to be uploaded to the sites. This includes sites like Facebook as well as my own website. Anyway now that I am back in the "Land of the Living" I can let you know about my week at the Nanshan Masters in Yantai, China. Again, it was another lengthy journey to get there with around 26 hours of travel time to get there and 30 to return! The weather was tremendous all week with the only real change from a little breeze being an extremely windy day on the Friday morning where play was suspended due to high winds for 2 hours. Fortunately, I was tucked away in my hotel Friday morning as I had an afternoon tee time so the only effect it had on me was a 1.30pm tee off rather than an 11.30am. The week resulted in me shooting rounds of 72,70,73,72 for a 1 under total in 32nd place which was 9 shots behind eventual winner Bio Kim form Korea. My game to be honest wasn't the sharpest it has been and I guess looking back this could be partly due to the fact that 7 weeks of golf and travel has worn me down a little and a 4 week break from tournament is much needed. I will spend the next 2 weeks with no golf involved at all and then the following 2 weeks to practice and prepare for the next trip which will take me to Korea and Indonesia.
Take care all and until next time, good golfing!! Wrighty (May 21st 2011)
Terrible is the only way to describe this weeks performance here in Korea. With rounds of 8 over and 3 over it is certainly not the type of golf I have been accustomed to or want to get used to! I didn't adapt to the conditions well at all with the wind coming from the opposite direction to the practice round and blowing quite strongly. This would normally suit my game being a low ball player but it just wasn't my week this week. On the positive side I will now head home to spend a week with the family and recharge the batteries with some practice in preparation for the next One Asia event in China. I am told the course is suited to the long hitters so some good news is waiting just around the corner!
Until next time, good golfing!!
Wrighty
(May 18th 2011) All set After a practice round yesterday and some practice today, I feel well rested and prepared for the first round tomorrow starting at 12.10pm. I have fellow Australian David McKenzie in my group which will provide some welcome relief in being able to speak English to someone along the way as opposed to an all Korean group which often results in me going Awol from all the head noises talking to myself for 6 hours!!.
The course is in great condition and looks to suit my game with quite a few lines I need to take over bunkers being at the 260m mark which is just inside my length with driver so it's going to make the course a little easier in terms of positioning off the tee. The winds weren't too strong yesterday for our practice round but today picked up to around 20 or so knots so depending on how strong they become will influence strongly on the scores for the week.
I am really looking forward to this week as this course is more "normal" compared to most Korean courses. The grasses are similar and the layout decent with hardly any "funky" holes to leave foreigners scratching their heads.
Well that's all from me this afternoon. I will blog again Friday afternoon with some good news about my first 2 rounds!!
Good golfing
Wrighty
AWAY TO JEJU!!! (May 15th 2011) Hi all. Well after a few teething problems with my site, I am well equipped now to be doing some serious blogging and keeping you all informed on a much regular basis. If you now visit my site you will notice up to date scores (on a daily basis) as well as blogs and I might even throw in the odd video and photo of all the antics us professional golfers get up to while on Tour! I am currently at Brisbane airport waiting for my 1am, YES 1am departure as I make my way up to Jeju Island which is off the south coast of Korea for the SK Telecom Open starting on Thursday. As with most of my trips to Asia, I have around a 20hr (door to door) journey which takes me from Brisbane to Hong Kong then to Seoul then onto Jeju Island where I will spend the week rooming with the one and only Bronson Lacassie. Should be interesting as I have never roomed with him before and from all reports....can snore!! The last few weeks for me have been a bit of a grind on the body as I have been one week on one week off. This has seen me do some serious milage as I have returned home for the weeks off in between. Great for the family as I get to see them each week but very average on the body from all the flying. I have a couple more trips coming up which are week only tournaments before a month gap when I will finally get to recharge. My form has been OK so far this year with a 56th in Indonesia, 27th in the lucrative China Open and I have thrown into the mix a missed cut at the infamous Namseoul CC in Korea. I am currently 20th on the One Asia Order of Merit. I had a session with coach Tom Berndt this week and from the feedback from him and the way I feel, I reckon I can be extremely competitive this week on Jeju. From what I can tell from the talk about the place, we are in for some windy conditions on the south island which should suit my game to a tee!! Well that's all form me for now as I have a plane to go catch so I will check in soon with an update on how the course is playing. Good golfing Wrighty
OFF TO THE THAILAND OPEN
August 24 2010 Well I have arrived in Pattaya for the Thailand Open
this week. I was out early for the ProAm yesterday morning and
discovered a very wet golf course yet one which I think I will do well
on. It plays quite long with many par 4's over 400m but at the same time
there are some par 5's under 500m which should get carved up given good
driving! I am planning to do a few hours prac today before being
the first player to tee off on Thursday morning! This is a great draw
for me as I have heard that the weather is coming in tomorrow around
lunchtime. With the course being already very wet and the forecast for
more rain all week, the earlier I can get out the better with regard to
delays etc. My game is in pretty good shape this week after the last
2 weeks of preparation so I am heading into this event with confidence
and feeling fresh having not played in a tournament for 4 weeks. I will let you all know how I am going as the week progresses. Good golfing! Michael
Busy back half for 2010! Well after a fair first half to 2010, I am now settling
into a 4 week break from tournament golf to refresh and get the body
into shape for an aggressive assault on the remaining tournaments for
2010. The last tournament I played, the Capricorn Rydges
Classic in Yepoon was extremely challenging for me. It was a week where
my ball striking (which is usually my strength) really let me down so I
spent way more time than usual on the range trying to find "it". As the
week progressed, I was striking the ball really, really low and just
struggled to get it with any sort of flight. It wasn't until the final
round that I was able to strike it the way I would normally and all my
hard work on the range paid off as I shot 2 under in demanding winds on a
strong golf course which elevated me from 28th position starting the
day to finishing the tournament in 12th position. I am really excited
about the way I have been finishing off tournaments on the last day this
year. When the conditions have been demanding, I seem to be able to "go
to the next level" and climb the leader board with ease! A tremendous positive for the week in Yepoon, was that
my chipping and putting were as good as they have ever been which is a
great sign for when my ball striking comes around! As always, it's just a
matter of gelling the 2 together and when this happens, it's usually a
winning week! As I said earlier the next 4 weeks are going to be
resting up with the family (first week or so) and getting the body
feeling strong again working with my physical trainer at EGFA. One thing
I am going to incorporate which is a little different for me is to
introduce a little running every day (not too much as I know it's tough
on the knees!) which will help with my fitness coming down the stretch
of the 4 rounders towards the end of the year. Well that's it from me so stay tuned for my next update
and I will let you know then of my progress leading into the next event,
The Thailand Open at the end of August. Good Golfing Michael PGA Interview with Michael Wright at Wollongong 2009 - Click here to watch the video GOLF Australia Magazine May 2009 - Three's Company Michael qualifies for the 2009 British Open - Click here to watch the official video The Fraser Chronicle - Wright to tee off in British Open Wynnum Herald - Wynnum West golfer in British Open The Leader -The Wright stuff |
