BMW International

Acquiescing

Like the Gallagher brothers, It seems me and Golfclub München Eichenried just don’t get along. There aren’t that many venues we return to year in year out on Tour, but since 2019 the BMW International has been played exclusively in Munich. I have played Eichenried seven times since turning professional and the best I’ve managed is a tie for 49th position in 2024. That year wasn’t without its trauma mind, as I carded four double bogeys and one triple bogey across the four days back then. Five missed cuts in seven attempts around a course that is fairly innocuous to the eye, and not particularly punishing off the tee. I actually do not know what the problem is! One thing that I am tempted to suggest as problematic are the par five’s. They are all reachable but all have water in play with the approaches. Historically I’ve not always been the best at finding the target from 250 yards or so, especially when water hazards are present, like last week on hole eleven where I found the hazard twice over two days. It’s possible my lacklustre results are a product of this type of phenomena. Watching the bigger hitters hit long irons or even mid irons into holes where I’m having to hit a five wood in, would explain where some dispersion in scoring might occur. It’s also possible I just don’t like the golf course very much… In fact I’d say that’s probably it.

Strokes Gained Total; - 0.69 Per Round

Strokes Gained Driving; + 0.20 Per Round

Strokes Gained Approach; - 0.06 Per Round

Strokes Gained Around The Greens; - 0.25 Per Round

Strokes Gained Putting; - 0.57 Per Round

There isn’t a great deal to report on my performance to be quite honest. From the tee I was very good and didn’t once find myself in any real trouble. My playing partner, Sean Crocker (who I’ll touch on again in a bit) did comment on how well I was driving the ball. The last time we played together I wasn’t using a driver and he knew of my struggles off the tee, but he said was impressed! A sheer driving pleasure. I couldn’t sell him a Ping driver however as he is under contract with another manufacturer. The reality is I just didn’t play very well from there on in. I hit two five woods into the hazard on hole number eleven, and the one on Thursday was a bit of a killer as it halted any momentum I could have picked up heading into my back nine. My tee shot actually held up in the rough just over a hazard off the tee which was around 285 yards to cover. This points to something I touched on above, that there are a few holes around Eichenried where if you can carry the ball 300 yards you gain quite an advantage. Holes seven, nine, eleven and eighteen all reward players who can carry the ball 300+ yards as you can carry hazards or corners. Unfortunately for this chubby little fat man, that isn’t on the menu. My iron play was fairly good. The statistics will reflect the two five woods that found water, but putting those aside from an approach play perspective with my irons, things were not all that bad. This was most evident on hole number sixteen, my nemesis. If one thing did emerge from Bavaria it was that for the time being anyway, I’ve cracked the code on that hole. I was amused during my second round when walking to the thirteenth tee which runs adjacent to hole sixteen, I saw another player (shall remain unnamed but isn’t to be confused with a legendary author of thrillers) launch his wedge fifty yards on a penetrating trajectory into the water hazard after his approach found the water on that very hole. The sixteenth at Eichenried is genuinely a brilliant little par four.

I didn’t putt very well.

I felt a bit sorry for Sean Crocker. He birdied two of his final three holes on Friday to post -3 and at the time that looked good to make the cut. I can only guess that the wind laid down a bit later in the day as for a long time it looked pretty certain that -3 would be enough, but Quim Vidal from Spain ruined it for about fifteen other guys when he eagled the last hole to get to -4, thus knocking all the players out who were in on -3. That’s a gut punch, and when you’re in a position like Sean is at the moment on the Race to Dubai where you need to start accruing some points, a weekend of golf where you could climb the leaderboard is really what you need. It doesn’t happen every week where cuts are as tight as one player making the difference, let alone one player eagling his final hole to be that difference. That would’ve been a tough one to take for Sean and the other guys on -3. Selfishly, it helps me out of course, but thankfully that wasn’t my initial reaction to seeing this. I have my faults, but one fault I don’t possess is envy or wishing bad on others to get an upper hand. I recognise how brutal this sport can be and cuts are one of the most enthralling, yet painful aspects of playing this game for a living.

I now have a four week break which has come at a good time. I have been gradually draining the battery since Turkey back in late April and my body feels somewhat battered. The hardest part of Friday’s round was after making a double bogey on my second hole playing through the aches that I was experiencing. The adrenaline completely disappeared from my system and it’s utterly remarkable how powerful adrenaline is. It delightfully oils the system when that system is creaking at the seams. Additionally, and no doubt connected to the above, my drinking habits have slowly re-emerged in recent times. This isn’t a new pattern of behaviour, it’s something I’ve always struggled with when playing more and more golf. I find competing increasingly stressful and so with each passing week my proclivity to consume increases too. So far this year I’ve done a good job with my scheduling, all things considered. It hasn’t been easy as access into events hasn’t been guaranteed obviously, but still, I think I have gotten the balance about right. It was two years ago at the BMW International when after my third round I had a bit of a breakdown in my hotel room (I touched on this recently in my Q&A blog), and upon reflection it was almost entirely down to being burnt out. Since then I’ve been conscious not to make the same mistake and reach that point again, although it is increasingly difficult to do as so much rests on results and performance and feeling as though you have to play. I have come to see stress and burn out much differently as I’ve aged and have come a long way from the days of seeing breakdowns and the like as a weakness in people’s resolve and instead understand how it comes for us all, irrespective of how much mental fortitude you think you might have.

I intend to spend a good month or so working pretty hard on my fitness again. One thing this year has taught me is how much better I feel when working on my fitness. I wasn’t blogging early on in the year, but as someone who has found wintering increasingly difficult in the UK, the one thing I did during January this year was lots of fitness and the impact it had on my overall mental health was pretty transformative. Believe it or not (sarcastic emoji face), fitness training isn’t something I have done much of in my life. I’ve had periods of strength training, but not fitness specifically. Back in December of last year I read up on Zone 2 cardio training and its benefits, so I started doing it every day on the treadmill. It might sound incredibly boring, but I found walking on a steep incline for around one hour at a time to be incredibly rewarding from a psychological perspective, let alone physiological. It certainly helped me understand why people love to run! To be clear, I fucking hate running and will never do it, but I can now at least understand why so many enjoy going for a run and getting their heart rate up. So, that’s the plan. To get my body and spirit back to a place I had it earlier in the year, ready for what will be a pretty hectic run of golf from August to November. I am not 100% certain but it’s likely my next event will be on the HotelPlanner Tour at The Scottish Challenge in Kelso from the 6th - 9th August. I played it last year and enjoyed it. We are enquiring about the dogs and whether they can attend… fingers crossed they can!

Thanks as always for reading and I’ll be positing over the coming weeks even though I’m not playing, with updates and observations on other events. The Scottish Open at Renaissance next week should be good before what I’m increasingly hopeful will be a brilliant Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Let’s hope we don’t get too much rain and have the fairways nice and brown for the best in the world in two weeks time.

Cheers, Eddie.

That’s it, fella. Zone 2.