‘It was the best round I’ve ever witnessed’

When I got my Challenge Tour card I was hoping for a handful of European Tour starts and so to play in back-to-back events in recent weeks was pretty cool. I had played in Kenya and the Czech Masters earlier in the season so to double up on those was great. 

You get an email from the European Tour updating you on where you stand on the reserve list. The first at the European Open in Germany I was hopeful of, the Netherlands start was more unexpected but gave me my highlight of the year so far.

It meant missing two weeks on the Challenge Tour, and I need to climb a few spots to finish in the top 70 which would help with my category for next year, but you never know when these opportunities are going to come along.

You get well looked after on the Challenge Tour but the main tour is something else and everything is done for you with food available all day long and courtesy cars – which in Germany meant being picked up in a Porsche. Given that I spend a lot of my time in a hire car this was quite a rare treat.

Otherwise off the course everyone is doing their own thing and it’s noticeable that everyone seems to have a plan to make the most of their time in preparation for the week.

I missed the cut in Germany by three but then managed a 68 on the Friday in the Netherlands to, what I thought at the time, was comfortably low enough to make the cut. I was 43rd at the time of finishing but the next time I looked I was 55th and I then started to panic a bit if my 2-under total wouldn’t be enough.

Next to my name was Matt Wallace so I thought that if I did make the weekend there was a good chance that we might be playing together on the Saturday morning.

I had felt a bit bad as my local caddie, Rick, hadn’t got home on public transport until late on the Thursday night and was then back at the course at 6.30am for the second round but, as things turned out, I did play with Matt which gave us both quite a lift. He loved it and so did I. 

And a few hours later we were shaking hands on the 18th after he shot a nine-under 63.

I would say that it was probably one of the best round I’ve ever witnessed. You know he’s a great player and he was obviously hitting it well but it was all so solid. Every part of his game was so sharp.

He’s longer than I am but it’s not ridiculous but his bad shot was never that bad and the good shots were really good. Then when he got near the hole he wasn’t afraid to knock them in and he holed a lot of putts on that Saturday – he had five birdies in his first six holes and another four in the last seven. In total he had 10 birdies.

I was a bit anxious to get going at the start and try follow on from Friday’s round. It was also good because my old Sunningdale Foursomes partner for Yorkshire is caddying for him now, Jonny Smart. 

They’re a new pairing and they seem a good one already going by what I saw. Smarty is really good and he had a lot of success with Danny Willett so it will be interesting to see how the partnership with Wallace plays out.

In the end I was round in level and I finished the week with a couple of ridiculous up-and-downs to birdie the last four. At 17 I chipped it up the slope and it ran back down the hill and dropped in.

Sadly there was no camera evidence of it so you’ll have to take my word for it that it was on a par with Tiger at Augusta but maybe just a little more low key. 

Nick McCarthy plays on the Challenge Tour and is a member of Moortown. He is an ambassador for Fortress Wealth Partnership LLP, a company delivering bespoke financial advice to individuals and businesses. He was talking to NCG’s Mark Townsend.