Liam Hancock – Season Start 2019

Second week of January, Liam landed in Portugal to start his full 2019 season along with Challenge and European tour players on the Portugal Pro Golf Tour.

Liam played some solid golf picking up 16th spot in the second event. After an impressive three under first day, Liam started very strongly day two, at three-under-par through the first five holes, possibly leading the event at six-under. A very unlucky break after a wayward drive on the back-nine, couldn’t be decided by the players a call for the referee was needed, and his ball was then deemed to be out of bounds by a few inches costing Liam dearly, a couple more bogies Liam fell back to 16th spot.

Arriving home in the middle of February, a little disappointed missing his chance to capitalise on this good start, he vowed to learn from it and push on with his practice and personal fitness.

Liam then flew back out for swing seven and landed on Saturday 2nd March.

First event was the Amendoeira O’ Connor Classic, practice day Liam felt comfortable and set out his plan for the course, it was going to be tough in very high winds, playing long and some very tricky pin positions. However, Liam started solid on the front nine holes with four birdies and a couple of bogeys to go out two-under-par front-nine, another birdie on ten followed by a couple of bogeys, he was back to one-under, but then two back-to-back birdies took him to three-under to finish the first round.

Day two; Liam learning from the previous trip started with a good mind set, with two birdies and only one bogey he was two-under for the front-nine. Starting the back-nine birdie, bogey, birdie kept it rolling along nicely and a final birdie on 16 took him to six-under-par, two solid last holes and he was club house leader at six-under-par.

It wasn’t over there! A playoff was going to be the added pressure to secure his first professional win, two players at six-under-par need to play the very long par-5 first hole to decide the winner. Liam smashed his 3-wood and split the fairway, a low flighted three iron into the wind left Liam a comfortable 85-yards to the green, setting up with a wedge Liam clipped it just past the flat to spin back to 12 inches, leaving an easy tap in for birdie and secure the trophy and a nice winner’s cheque.

I’m sure everyone would like to join me in congratulating Liam on his first Professional win.

Portugal Pro Tour Championship Finals 2019

Dad flew out to join Liam for this special event limited to the top 50 players from the 250+ who started the tour in January, Liam’s win at the O’Connor secured him 39th place.

Troia Golf Resort is situated on a peninsula just below Lisbon, very links feel but heavily tree lined with a sand base that comes into place with a missed fairway.

This is a three-day event and the top 50 players all of good calibre with a lot of European and Challenge Tour lads looking to clear up, after a good practice day sorting out the driving lines and getting used to the very slick greens day one was looming.

Day 1; Liam had a very up and down day with some very tough holes, Liam managed five birdies and six bogeys to finish one-over for the day.

Day 2; Learning from a few mistakes on day one a more compact round consisting of two birdies and three bogies for another one-over round.

Day 3; Starting the day at two-over for the event, Liam was off the first tee and eight shots off the lead, with a mental note to try and finish level for the tournament at worse. Liam played solidly all day hardly missing a fairway, with a level-par front-nine with one birdie and one bogey. Liam started the back-nine strongly with another birdie, one more bogey put him back to level, but then a superb eagle on the last hole of the day giving him a two-under card for the day and level-par for the event.

This was good enough to secure 16th spot overhaul for the Portugal Pro Golf Tour Championship Final.

Also, to say a big thank you to the BLUE Group, UK Waste Solutions and Mizuno Golf for their continued support without you people this could not be possible.

Liam will see you all at the Club.