Patience Required

Well another golfing weekend draws to a close and the first time my new set up has been out on the course as opposed to the sanctuary of the range. I played a friendly game yesterday with my good mate Hywel, who's recently come over to Ascot. Neither of us played great and I found it hard in particular to trust the new swing and better turn and so was hitting poor shots especially on the opening few holes. It started to click in places but a truely shocking short game and an inability to gauge the speed of the greens (pretty quick actually) meant he turned me over 4&3. Still he's Welsh so I had the last laugh after the rugby.

Monthly stableford today and a much more civilised start time of 9.20 having been first out in the last event. I felt good warming up and so stood on the first tee in confident mood. A 3 wood later and I everything in the world seemed rosy as I stuck it on the middle of the green. Mind you, after all these years playing you'd have thought I'd have known I was heading for a fall. 3 putts later.........

Hit the ball well down the 2nd until I put my approach in a bunker. Hit an aggressive shot to a back flag and overcooked it into the back trap and eventually walked off with a double. The pattern continued. I was striking it really well and had a great tempo and total belief in the new set up and turn but couldn't convert ball striking into a score. Three putts on the 5th and a duffed chip on 6 didn't help. Made a good up and down on 7 and then hit a beautiful 6 iron on the par 3 8th but just drew it left of the green. Another duffed chip and three putts. I was stoked and blasted one way down the ninth to only leave a 6 iron at the 400 yard hole. Hit it great but it came up short. Made bogey to go out in a paltry 12 points.

The back nine did offer some crumbs of comfort, at least initally. Another great drive down the 10th was follwed by a fat approach. Can you see a pattern yet? Hit a beautiful hybrid at the next and it was only a yard or so right but caught the trap. I managed to make a couple of good up and downs at 12 and 13 and my first wayward drive of the day at the 14th meant I had to play safe and make a 5 (net 4). Although the wheels had come off in terms of points, my day was complete when I lost a ball down the next. Hitting from the light rough, we all saw it clear the ditch, bounce far side of the fairway and finish near the 100 yard marker albeit in the rough. Could we find it?

Scrambled a 5 (net 4) at the next after hitting a rubbish drive way right and then managing to miss the green with my third from 100 yards. Quality wedge work. Hit another sweet drive down the long 218 yard 17th pin high and my short game decided to go on holiday to walk away with no points. To cap it all I then hit the worse shot of the day off the last straight right OB and didn't trouble the scorer. A grand total of 25 points.

It sounds like a horror show but it really wasn't. My approach shots were largely to blame and given the wet conditions I should have been hitting one more club. However I can live with missing greens as long as I give myself a chance to chip and putt but when I'm duffing them a yard in front of me or scuttling them over the back it drains the confidence. Another 0.1 back and I'm in grave danger of going back to 12 (now 11.4).

Hywel was playing his first competition today at Ascot and he matched my front nine score. However he must have blitzed the back nine as he came home in 23 points. I hope he has broad shoulders as he'll be carrying me in the four ball better ball on the 21st.

So what was the prognosis from the weekend. The set up is better and I have more room to turn which we like. I'm getting a much better strike and hitting a lot more straight shots. We are liking this too. My chipping is woefully weak and needs addressing urgently. The new grittier Homer needs some work as my head still dropped especially after the lost ball fiasco on the 15th. All in all though there are definite signs of improvement and it is still early season so more positives than negatives.

Total number of lost balls in 2010 = 5