Successful year for Soto
NORTHANTS County professional Nick Soto is sponsored by Dalepak and here he gives a first hand account of his golfing year while looking ahead to 2009
A THIRD successive victory in the USA Overseas Pro Am is among my targets for next year and after a strong finish to my 2008 campaign, there is no reason why it shouldn’t happen.
Defending my 2008 title at the Valley Course, Sawgrass in Florida gave me a huge early fillip this year, setting me up for the summer where my aim was always to compete well in the Midland Order Of Merit.
This I did, competing consistently during the series of six tournaments, as well as winning the Midland Assistants Championship at Stapleford Park in mid-August before concluding the season with a victory in the Northants Autohaus Open at Staverton Park. Both of these were after tense play-offs!
It is perhaps easier to deal with these highlights first. My Sawgrass victory was helped by a positive run-up during the Northants PGA Winter Series. Having worked hard with my specialists on technique, fitness and psychology I won events at Kingsthorpe with a 66 including five birdies and an eagle and at Wellingborough with a 72 in tough conditions.
Over to America and after a defensive first round of two over par I played more aggressively, defending my title by two shots thanks to covering the last nine holes in three under par, including a birdie, birdie, par finish.
If that was a satisfying experience, so too was my first ever ‘professional’ title at Stapleford Park, all the more so as it had taken so long time to arrive. It really was a case of ‘the longest day’ for I had been up at 5am to travel to the course and the play-off ended at 8pm!
The event which turned my season around produced scores of 72 and 71 which left me at three under par on the day, level with two other players. Having eagled my penultimate hole by driving to within 4ft of the par four and holing the putt, I felt confident about the play-off.
All three of us birdied the 1st hole and moved to the 18th. After watching one of the players hit his approach to within two feet, I followed him to about four feet. With both of us holing our birdie, the other player was eliminated.
Back to the 1st hole where I drove my ball onto the green of the short par four, setting me up proved for my third successive birdie and the title.
The Staverton event in August was over 36 holes where, brimming with confidence, I opened up with a three under par 68, three shots off the lead. With the field tightly bunched I then recorded four birdies in the first seven holes in the afternoon, moving me up to seven under par for the tournament. With the back nine playing tougher, I held my score well and with a great two putt at the last from 80ft I finished on seven under par.
My score was tied by Shane Rose who shot 66 in the \afternoon but parring the first extra hole proved enough, as Shane found trouble off the tee.
All through the summer my focus was on the Midland series where five of the six tournament scores count in the final analysis. My aim was to finish in the top three and qualify for end of season play-offs from which invitations for European Tour events are up for grabs. This didn’t quite happen but I still posted some solid efforts which augur well for the future.
The opener was the Glazerite Trophy at Wellingborough in May where after two solid rounds of 69 I finished third on 4-under-par, three shots adrift of the winner. This was comfortably my best finish in an Order of Merit event and gave me masses of confidence to realise I am capable of winning.
Next up was The Invitational at South Staffs where I struggled in the first round with a 5-over-par 76. With only the top 20 and ties making the cut for the final round I forced myself to play aggressively the next day and managed eight birdies to reach 4-under-par for the round after 16 holes. Unfortunately, one bad drive cost me a double bogey on 17 and I missed the cut by one shot.
This is probably the worst feeling in tournament golf but I tried to stay positive and in reality it was the first round which cost me, and not the double bogey.
The Midland Masters at Kedleston saw me finish 15th on 1-under-par. I played steadily over the two rounds but the putts refused to drop.
Then the following Order of My Merit event proved my worst of the season. It was held at Forest Hill G.C. in Leicester which isn’t a favourite of mine to say the least!
The most annoying thing with this performance was the fact it severely dented my chances of securing a high finish on the Order of Merit as you can only drop one event. Now, after missing the cut at South Staffs, I had two.
The final two series events were in consecutive weeks and both the Midland Pro’s at Belton Woods and The Tour Championship at Cold Ashby were over 54 holes.
At Belton I played well and followed a level par 72 with a 5-under-par 67 to be well placed after the first day. In fact my 67 could have been a fair bit lower as I was 5-under-par after just seven holes.
The final round was disappointing as I made a poor start, covering the front nine in 5-over-par. However, I am proud of the way I recovered, scoring 3-under-par on the back nine to finish 13th.
The Tour Championship consists of the top 75 in the Oder of Merit standings and after shooting a 4-under-par in the pre-tournament Pro-Am, I was exuding confidence.
Teeing off the 10th hole at 7.40am I made six birdies in my first round for a 5-under-par 66. This is the best start I have had to an event and more importantly I followed it up with a 69 which left me at 7-under-par after two rounds. Although I was in third place, I was an amazing seven shots behind Daniel Greenwood who somehow shot 62 and 66!
My game plan for the last round was to remain aggressive and not fall back into the pack and after being guilty of some early defensive play, a double bogey on the fourth putting me 2-over-par, I started to turn it round on the next hole where I hit my drive onto the green at the short par four and holed for an eagle!
From that point one I converted short birdie putts at 10 and 12 and chipped in for birdie at 13. A 30ft birdie on 17 moved me to 11-under-par for the tournament and only one behind with the par five 18th to finish.
After a great drive to be in range, I couldn’t make the final birdie and Daniel achieved the par he needed for victory.
I had mixed emotions as I was on such a high for playing so well on the back nine and challenging for the title, but disappointed I came up just short.
Perhaps next year!
