Fings Wot I Learned

Well bless my soul. It only turns out my humble 34 points was good enough for second place in my division in yesterday's stableford. Now while the course was wet, particularly in places, and so played long, I didn't think it was that brutal but CSS was 71 and there were some really low point totals.

Unexpected as the result was it got me thinking about what I'd learned so far on my odyssey.

1) However good or bad you are hitting on the range its what you do when you get on the course that counts. There are lots of scratch players on the range.

2) Keep your mind empty. I'm not sure if it was the fact that only had 4 points after four holes yesterday but I wasn't thinking about what I "need" to do on upcoming holes or having that annoying voice in my head chattering about differentswing thoughts. I literally took one shot at a time

3) Putting practice at home can help. My wife bought me the Pathfinder http://www.improvemygolf.co.uk/acatalog/Pathfinder_Putting_System.html for Christmas and I've been doing a lot of work on my stroke especially from 6 feet and in. I only had 31 putts and didn't 3 putt once

4) Keep grinding. For those that have read my very first post, the aim this year is to be more competitive. No more giving up or watching on as someone snatches the prize. I feel that my approach has been vindicated, at least in part. After such a shabby start, I would normally bemoan my poor play, lose interest and fritter points away coming home with some embarrasing total. Yesterday I kept plugging away and it only took a great pitch at the sixth to act as a catalyst. I didn't even drive the ball that well on the back nine. However I did make some putts and kept it in play and came home in a respectable 20 points

5) Short game, short game, short game. Putting was A+. Pitching was B- (hadn't practiced it much). Bunker Play was C (in two and got them out well to about ten feet but couldn't make the putt). Chipping D-. Very poor technically. What I've learned from my first point is that however many balls you hit working on the long swing, fundamentally its the shots from 100 yards and in that's going to get me to single figure utopia

6) There's still a long way to go!!!!!