Total Indifference

You know how it is. You're at the practice range on a Friday night hitting it as badly as normal and then WHAM you flush one high, long and straight. Now what did I do there? Did I take it back a little more inside? Whatever you did it happens again and again. Maybe it's finally clicked.

I rocked up for the normal Saturday roll up in positive mood. A good friend (and fellow Fulham fan) Mike Stannard from the Golf Monthly Forum had joined as a new member and so I was introducing him to a few of the usual suspects from the early morning gang. I had this "new move" sorted and everything set fair. Well that wasn't strictly true. The weather forecast online and on TV had said cloudy but dry so why was I waiting to tee off in a light, constant drizzle having not bothered with the waterproofs? It did stop although would return intermittently throughout the round. I'd even hit some balls on the practice ground and the new move was working well.

As we started the greens were on temps as we'd had an slight overnight frost. I sunk a long putt at the first for par and despite hitting an iffy drive down the second, an outrageous hole out from 10 yards for birdie put me in red numbers and under par. A par at the next continued the trend. By the time we reached the 4th the greenstaff had put the flags back on the proper greens and inevitably I immediately made a bogey. I managed to lose a ball at the next but my infamous short game was having a rare good day and despite not hitting many great shots I made the turn with 20 points.

The back nine was a trial. I seemed to lose my way very quickly and this "new move" was turning into nothing more than another false dawn. It wasn't helped by the fact that whenever I drove the ball well I then threw in a poor execution and would cost myself points or even more annoyingly three putt from nowhere. The back nine was an ignominious disaster and a measly 10 points. The less said about the last the better which involved several visits to the woods, a lost ball and an ugly end to the round. Mike, the newbie recovered from early nerves and beat me with ease but neither of us were ever in contention for the pot.

I played yesterday with my old mate Paul Sweetman a.k.a Budly. I was in less positive mood and had packed the waterproofs in case. Naturally it was dry the whole way round. I didn't hit the ball great and the weak slice/fade that had blighted my game on Saturday reappeared early on in the round on Sunday. The most frustrating thing of all is that amongst all the rubbish there are nuggets of golfing talent coming to the fore.

However the short game and chipping and bunker shots in particular had regressed to arguably an all time low which considering the depths they've been to takes some doing. The problem is once the confidence in these simple to execute shot goes it just filters back through the rest of the game. Paul played some of the most consistent golf I've seen him play for a while and apart from one or two duffed chips scored pretty well. I was trying hard to hang in and make it a competitive game. I hit a great 5 wood from 216 yards at the 9th to set up par and that reduced the half-time deficit to three points with Paul going out one under his handicap in 19 points.

I actually started to play a bit at the beginning of the back nine and made a rare par at the 12th thanks to a great pitch from the rough to 11 feet and a putt that tried its hardest to squeeze out. A par at the next followed. From there the wheels really came off and a combination of bad technique, poor execution and bad strategy meant I rarely troubled the scorers from the 15th hole in.

And what does it all mean? Well in simple terms all that glistens at the range isn't golfing gold. Whilst what I was trying to do had some merit I don't know why/how it isn't working regularly and think that I need to really stick to what I'd been working on. I know that I'm reverting to spinning my hips out to quick and the impact position I worked so hard to achieve regularly in those freezing cold range sessions has deserted me.  The funny thing is I don't actually care. I seem to have so many of these "eureka" moments and each seems to bring another promise of glory but in reality is another chapter in golfing disillusionment. From now on I'm going out and what will be will be. I am really looking forward to getting back up to 13 (should only take another four competitions on current form from my 12.1 position).

I can't rely on the short game to save me and so unless I'm driving well and hitting greens I'm never going to be in a challenging position for a while. Naturally I'm fed up but I'm starting to get too long in the tooth to search for that pot of golfing gold. I'm prepared to have one final chipping lesson as I need something but after that unless it goes seriously wrong (shanking etc) then I'm putting my faith in dubious talents and getting on with it.