THE G4D OPEN

May 15, 2024

Thomas Blizzard

Mixed Zone

Q. Good day out there? Decent score from you for the final round,

THOMAS BLIZZARD: It was okay. It was quite scrappy. The finish was frustrating. Just wrong clubs off the tees cost me the last two holes going bogey, bogey but other than that it was just trying to stay with it because you're never going to win a tournament on the first day. You can only lose it. It's just trying to stay in there and not shoot a million, basically.

Q. What's the biggest challenge out there from Woburn?

THOMAS BLIZZARD: Probably it was the best part of my game, actually, off the tee, it's quite narrow. The par 3s are quite unforgiving, especially the second. I mean, that green's ten yards wide. It's interesting going into holes.

Q. Tell us the category you're in and kind of obviously golfers with disability, what challenges you have personally.

THOMAS BLIZZARD: So I'm an Intellectual 2. That's an autism spectrum disorder. That's ASD, in particular.

So difficulties you can face with that is social anxieties, one, and general anxiety on a whole and struggling to gauge situations and things. It's mainly like the physical, social aspect of it you can struggle with but there are other things that it entails if you want to research into that.

Q. But talking about the situation there, you must play a lot of tournament golf and get more used to these situations, do you feel?

THOMAS BLIZZARD: Well, on the first tee, there was a good 40 people or so. Didn't know where the clubface was when I was swinging it back.

But no, the more tournaments you play in, the more things it kind of gets easier. I really struggled when I was young. As you get older, you kind of learn to deal with things, and I have certain coping mechanisms that make it a lot easier to deal with.

But this tournament's been great so far. It's only going to get better.

Q. Tell us your age.

THOMAS BLIZZARD: I'm 18 years old.

Q. And I believe you had rushed to a practise tee time yesterday because of what reason?

THOMAS BLIZZARD: Yeah, I had an A level the Tuesday morning. So we came up on the Monday. Had to go back down, two-hour drive. Exam after half eight, nine o'clock in the morning. Sat in there for 2 1/2 hours, two hours. Then drove back up four hours to try and make the practice round in the afternoon. It was interesting.

Q. Dedication. What was the A level?

THOMAS BLIZZARD: Business.

Q. Any others this week to trouble you with?

THOMAS BLIZZARD: I've got two next week, another business and then P.E., and then they are all in the weeks after, fortunately.

Q. And you said two hours back. Where is the school you're at?

THOMAS BLIZZARD: North Bromsgrove, Sixth Form, so it's also a high school that you basically kind of graduate up into it.

Q. So you've got a lot on your plate but handling yourself well. So well done.

THOMAS BLIZZARD: Thank you. It's difficult.