There has been some vast improvement in terms of grinding the best score possible out of a round but sadly, I let all the blog followers, the casual reader of my tome, and myself down yesterday. Although I didn't hit the ball nearly as well as I had over the course of my four rounds on Friday, I still had a creditable score on the front nine in yesterdays monthly stableford and to be quite honest it was there for the taking. In the end, I hit three bad shots on the inward nine. I still played level handicap golf coming home and scored 37 points in total to get a small handicap cut, but I lost on countback to Dave Wild. He's a thoroughly decent bloke and a steady single figure player so all credit to him for playing so well. A lot of people have said I should be enjoying a decent run of form, especially after all that has gone before and the recent dose of the shanks in particular but I can't see it.
The round didn't get off to a good start. I hit the right hand greenside bunker off the first tee. Not a problem usually but managed to pick it cleanly off the sand and it sailed straight over the green into another bunker. A repeat performance had me back in the original trap (good job I had raked it properly). I got it out and holed the putt from ten feet to salvage a point. When I hit my second shot on the next into the bunker short and left and had to stand outside the trap to play the shot the signs weren't good. A great pitch and another ten footer salvaged par.
Something happened. Something wondrous and I went on a run of form I hadn't seen for months and for a few holes my golfing clouds cleared. I parred the third and made birdie at the fourth which I notoriously struggle to play well in competitions despite only being 320 yards in length. I hit a great pitch and left an eight footer uphill that dropped with the last revolution of the ball. I made a par at the 5th and hit a hybrid into the 6th with everything in the tank and only just got onto the putting surface as it played straight into a freshening wind. Another par.
Standing on the 7th, I decided to take a hybrid as it was downwind. To be honest it was a dreadful swing and hooked towards the 3rd fairway. When I got to it, it was in one of the bunkers on the 3rd and all I could do was play out and leave myself a long shot in. I played the approach brilliantly and it drew and ran, but was too strong and went over the back. I could only chip and two putt for one point. A missed green at the 8th led to another single point hole and a terrible chip from pin high at the 9th meant I made a nett par when it could have been better. Still I'd managed to rack up 19 points so things were still rosy.
I hit a great drive down 10 under the watchful gaze of club pro Ali White. My 52 degree wedge to about six feet set up a birdie chance and I converted. Happy days. I got up and down from long and left on the next and suddenly I was flying. However I was pulled up in my tracks. I took a three wood off the 12th as I have recently been hitting it too long and running out of fairway and into the thick rough. It was a tactic that had served me well on Friday and being downwind I was cautiously optimistic. I caught it flush and so was surprised when I got to it and it was under the trees lining the right of the hole. My approach missed the green but I made a nett par. However disaster was about to strike.
Standing on the 13th tee, it was playing into the wind and the flag was at the front of the 186 yard par 3. I opted for the hybrid which had served me well previously. However on this occasion I hit a huge hook and the ball veered left towards tall and thick ferns never to be seen again. No points.
Girding my loins, I hit a huge drive (wind assisted) and only had an 8 iron into the green at the next. The putt was downhill and left to right from about twelve feet and to be honest I was happy to cosy it to the hole. A solid par at the next and things were still on track and we had coped with the bad hole. I had opted for a 3 wood off the 16th as it downwind and I was confident I wouldn't hook it left and out of bounds. I hit a beauty. And then the problems started. My GPS was saying it was 174 to the centre and 161 to the front. I wanted to hit a 7 iron but was worried it would bounce short and run through. I opted to hit an 8 figuring that even if it came up short I'd chip and two putt for my nett par. All this indecision meant I put a very quick and snatchy swing on the shot and pulled it left into the bunker some twenty yards short. When I got to it the ball had run to the back of the bunker and I couldn't get one foot let alone two in there to give me a solid base. In the end I had to stand outside and squat right down. I got it out but nowhere near the green. I salvaged a point but it was really a missed opportunity.
I could only make a four at the 17th after missing the green left at this long par 3. I had mentally worked out my score which is never recommended and knew that a par five at the last would give me 38 points. With the course running fast, the rough being penal and the wind freshening I reckoned that might be good for second or third. I hit a good 3 wood and my 5 wood second left 94 yards to the flag with the wind into and from the right. I then made the final mistake of the round. Standing over the shot, I was conscious of the pond right and the fact that the lie was bare where the fairway was parched. Instead of swinging freely as I should have done I tried to be too precise. I didn't accelerate through impact and the club skidded on the hard ground. It was short of power and heading right. As I wandered around the pond it wasn't in sight and my heart sank. Fortunately it had held up and was dry but I didn't chip it close enough to give me a realistic par chance.
And that was that. I knew there would be a small handicap cut for getting 37 points but assumed that it would be at least two or three short of being a winning score. You can imagine the frustration then when I checked the results last night and saw that I'd lost on countback. In truth it was the tee shot on 13, the second at 16 and the approach to the last that killed me. Any one of those shots executed properly would have been enough.
So what have we learned. Well, there is still a long way to go to reach the gritty competitor I want to be. A revisit to the words of Bob Rotella will be a start.
I also need to focus on one shot at a time and not get carried away but perhaps most importantly I need to relax more. Friday's four round marathon was about hitting it, hitting it again and getting it round. There was plenty of banter and I wasn't overly focused on how I was playing. As a result I had 39 points (with two blobbed holes) in the first round starting at 4.30am and despite being absolutely knackered played the last six holes of the fourth and final round in level par (and that included electing to lay up on the 16th).
Still having come to terms with the bitter taste of defeat I'm going to put a positive spin on events. There wasn't a shank in sight and I played some good stuff especially my driving and putting. I will go away and learn from this and come back bigger and better.
Total number of lost balls in 2010 = 49
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