Tournament: Roehampton Gold Cup at Roehampton Club, London 
 Date: 20th April 2013
      I was in two minds about going all the way to South Africa. Although I've been making some good progress with swing alterations, I felt it was too much of an expense to risk going. So rather than missing out on tournament play altogether, I decided I would enter the Roehampton Gold Cup. I played at Roehampton last year and came 2nd, it was my first paycheck as a pro. I like the course and it was a good opportunity to earn some pocket money and see where my game was at.
      On Friday I met up with Charlotte Wild and Nat Lowe, a couple of good friends of mine for a practice round. To our astonishment, I started with 5 birdies! I don't think I've ever had a run like that, and it wasn't the day to be making a load of birdies! You can stop that right away, I told myself. It must have been the delight of putting on decent greens. The greenstaff had done a wonderful job at preparing them, I believe they were running at 11 on the stimp. It was a real pleasure to see the ball rolling on the line you hit it.
      Saturday morning and I woke to a bright blue sky and sunshine. Which was more than they had in South Africa, apparently play had to be abandoned due to the amount of rain. The poor organisers! I was paired with Holly Aitchison and Rachel Drummond, another couple of good friends of mine. The golf wasn't sparkling but we had an entertaining day. Due to the miserable weather in the weeks leading up to the event, they had to have winter rules in place. This was great if you were on the fairways and greens, but if you weren't you couldn't guarantee a good lie, which made life very difficult.
      I should mention that my brother Phil had promised to caddy for me. He was having to cycle 14miles to reach me, but there was no sign of him, and I was teeing off in 5 minutes. I got a message when I was on the 3rd hole to say he was running a bit late and would see me for round 2. Well, I was a little miffed as I was carrying my bag; thank heavens I hadn't brought my Tour Bag! I carded a 75 (+3) and rushed in for lunch, we had about 10mins before the afternoon tee off; talk about indigestion. I'm not used to this 36 holes business!
      Still no sign of my brother. I wasn't going to carry again so I quickly grabbed a pull trolley and off we went for round 2. I had just made a birdie on the Par 5 2nd, when a scruffy figure appeared on the horizon. Could it be my long lost brother?! It was.
"Sod off!" I said with a smile, I couldn't believe he could be such a let down. Nevertheless it was lovely to see him.
I played similarly to the morning round. I had a few more birdies, but threw in a couple of yucky doubles. I finished with another 75. I didn't have my hopes up. I thought I'd thrown away any chance of getting into the prizes.
      To my complete surprise, I was leading by about 3 shots! "That can't be right." I said. We sat down for some tea and checked the scores again. "You've won!" said Phil. I shook my head with disbelief. I was so pleased. I've always wanted to get my name on this beautiful trophy, and now I have. My first win as a pro too. A good days work and if my brother thinks he's getting a percentage of the winnings, he's got another thing coming...

Tournament: Lalla Meryem Cup, Agadir, Morocco
Date: 28th - 31st March 2013
Since returning from Australia, I made the decision to commit to some swing changes. The reason being that I want to improve but also because I had been suffering from pain in my forearms.
To understand why this was happening Stuart Little (my coach) and I  went to Reigate to see Mark Bull, who specialises in Biomechanics. It was extremely informative and helped us to understand exactly why I've developed forearm pain. Stuart and I have been working together to implement these changes. It's a slow process but I can already notice the difference in my forearms.
Morocco was the first event on the European Calendar and I was looking forward to escaping the frankly disgusting weather we've been having. I knew it was going to be a tough week, as up until a week before I had only managed a half swing with an 8iron!  There's never a good time to make swing changes, it just takes a lot of patience.
Arriving at Golf de L'Ocean and being able to hit balls with less than 5 layers on was very refreshing. You forget what a bit of blue sky and sunshine does to make all the difference! I was also keen to work on my putting as I haven't been able to practice this properly. They weren't as smooth as I'd hoped but they were a world away from the winter greens and the carpet at home.
On Wednesday I had an unexpected and rare treat. I played a practice round with the legend Laura Davies. Apparently I'm on a short list of people who have ever done that as she normally uses the Pro-Am as her practice round. It was so lovely. She really is such a wonderful and approachable person. I asked her how many swing changes she's had to make in her career, she said "None, I've never had a lesson!" So then I asked if she's had help with the mental side of the game, she said, "it's all just common sense, you can't go far wrong if you use common sense." Got to love her. Hehe
Day one of the Lalla Meryem Cup and we were greeted by some fairly breezy conditions; at least a 2/3 club wind with strong gusts. I hadn't really done much wind practice and keeping the ball down proved to be difficult. My short game was going to need to be good. Unfortunately, not only was my long game off kilter, my putting wasn't great either. I kept leaving myself 5-6 footers and I missed every single one, which wasn't like me at all! I felt good over the putts, but they decided that going round the edge was more fun! I tried to stay positive but it became more and more demoralising the more I made bogeys. There was no doubt about it, it was a tough day. They weren't easy conditions, but I never expected to miss quite so many putts. Thankfully I was part of a very friendly group, and we all got on like a house on fire, otherwise I would have been beside myself. Tomorrow was another day.
Day 2 was a lot less windy, so I was able to find a bit more connection in my swing. I was hoping I could get some putts to drop and start making the all important birdies that had eluded me the day before! Sadly, it was a similar story on the greens but on the plus side I gave myself a lot more opportunities for birdie, I just wasn't taking them.
As I had the weekend off, it meant that I could spend some quality time working on my swing. After a spot of lunch, I popped next door to watch the men at Golf du Palais for bit. I caught up with fellow Gloucestershire player Chris Lloyd, he was just coming to the end of his 3rd round, and he recognised me prancing outside the ropes! It was great to see him doing so well. What a beautiful course, tough but very picturesque, fit for a king you might say! 
Glad to be home for a few weeks to continue the hard graft on the swing in preparation for the next event. Lets just hope Spring arrives soon.
Enjoy the Masters this week. I've got my money on Rose and Kuchar, but I can't help but think Tiger's got something special up his sleeve. Very exciting!