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BERMUDA | RSS PODCAST

West warms up for trip to California

Bermudian golfer Eric West warmed up for this month's $30,000 Monterey Open in California as he finished 12th in a Moonlightgolf.com Tour event in Florida earlier this week.

The 25-year old pro shot a final round of three-under-par 69 on Thursday at the Forest Lake Golf Club for a 36-hole total of 142.

West, who carded a one-over-par 73 on the opening day, bogeyed the last hole to miss out on another Moonlightgolf.com Tour paycheque by a single stroke.

Yet rather than rue what might have been, the past Bermuda Amateur Strokeplay champion has instead set his sights on the Monterey Open, to be held at the 6,365-yard, par-72 Del Monte Golf Club, confident he can sort out a few kinks in his game.

"Everything was fairly solid during this outing except for my par-three performance. For two days I was five-over on eight par threes, which is pretty terrible," West explained.

"Each par-three is over 200 yards so I was hitting three or four irons into each hole and just flat out didn't hit good shots.

"I left myself in areas that were very hard to get up and down from or I would hit it 60 feet from the pin and three putt."

West now hopes to make the necessary adjustments before the Monterey Open which tees off on October 19 at the Charles Maud-designed Del Monte GC which is the oldest course west of the Mississippi still in use.

"I really need to work on my long iron game for the Monterey Open as there are many shots that require position golf with long irons," he added.

Joel Kribel won last year's Open after beating Micheal Nicoletti on the third hole of a two-man play-off.

West has placed heavy emphasis on his putting and driving lately and judging by recent results both areas of his game appear to be improving.

"My driving was very good this week, I only missed two fairways over the two days which is pretty solid," he said. "I made a lot of good putts over the last two days which was evident with the ten birdies that I made.

"Mentally, I thought I stayed fairly relaxed and slowly but surely I am getting better and more mature on the golf course. I have several events this fall and winter, and I am looking forward to my continued improvement."