Welcome to my newsletter for October. It’s been a busy month for me, both in my golfing and my personal life, and I’ve also been trying to do a great deal of planning for the future.

With the European Senior Tour drawing to a close, players were doing their utmost at the Riviera Masters at the beginning of the month to secure a good finish and propel themselves up the Order of Merit – myself included of course! Before heading to Terra Blanche, I was feeling quietly confident as this is an event in which I’ve achieved a good deal of success in the past. Unfortunately the terrible weather had made the course play a mile long, which as you’re probably aware, is not exactly ideal for my game these days!

After arriving in Provence early to give me the best chance of success, the first round was cancelled due to the torrential rain, and we were very fortunate to get the second round completed as the weather closed in again. It was certainly some of the worst stormy conditions I’ve ever experienced in Europe and you may have seen some of the terrible scenes from that area of France on the news.

Despite the conditions being extremely challenging, my rounds of 75 and 73 were disappointing and I’d hoped to achieve a great deal better in order to move up the Order of Merit as we reach the crux of the season. However I’m now heaping the pressure on a massive performance out in Mauritius for the Tour Championship…. so wish me luck!

Upon returning home, much of my time has been taken up looking for a new home, as well as buying a new car – the Honda CRV 4x4 and trying to sort out finally my computer and broadband needs on into the future…. quite a task all in all, but should keep me busy that’s for sure. Hopefully, everything will be sorted out fairly soon though to give me a good basis as I finish off this season and plan for the years ahead.

Speaking of forward-thinking, I’ve been looking at my pension arrangements, will and finances etc through St James’s Place who are helping me to try to get everything in order. Though these things may seem mundane, I appreciate that they are very important for the future…. so I’m hoping to achieve all these things as soon as possible.

I’ve also been looking at my equipment issues utilising all the latest computerised technology to try to find out how to maximise my potential through the next five years in particular on course. I have a number of targets that I’d like to achieve and getting the best equipment for me personally is absolutely crucial. Also my physiology needs addressing too after the numerous injuries I’ve had to cope with in the previous four years in particular, and with help I think I can improve my athleticism for the game to hopefully reduce the problems of the recent years of back trouble I’ve suffered while also still trying to improve my technique with my coaches.

All in all this has added up to being a very busy month, and the ‘clock is ticking’ for the final event of the Senior Tour in Mauritius where I will attempt to give myself a smooth transition into 2016 and beyond.

To finish the month I played in the Eligo Invitational Pro/Am in the Algarve with a good friend of mine Maurice Cotter, who is heavily involved with Carus Green where I’m based these days. He is a partner to Graham Curtin who owns and is developing the fantastic facilities up here in Cumbria at Carus. Maurice is an ex rugby player who has adopted golf with a passion, and we played hard…. but in the end came up just short in collecting a prize in the team event. In the individual event I finished 9th which was a little disappointing after a good start, but this was an excellent chance to see where my game is going in preparation for the Tour Championship in December. Finishing -5, four behind eventual the winner shows some progress. Now I need to continue with my preparations, and hope the improvement continues.

Next month I’m looking forward to an opportunity to work for Sky Sports doing a week’s coverage of the US PGA Tour’s start of their “wrap around” season over in the States. Doing punditry with Sky Sports is something I really enjoy, and hope in the future to do much more with them. It would help hugely if you all could send some support of my work with Sky via the internet in one form or another as they take notice of the public’s “likes and dislikes”. Many thanks for anything you can do in this respect.     

As always I’d also like to thank all my sponsors, advisors, supporters and well-wishers – your continuing support and encouragement certainly means a great deal to me, and is why I keep trying to push myself to do the best I can.

Gary