Something Positive At Last

I played in the fourball better ball competition today with Martin Davis (Bash) as my wingman and alongside two funny guys and decent golfers in Mark Timms and Keith Feesey (ten and nine handicaps respectively). It was off 3/4 handicaps so I found myself in the realms of the single figure golfer off nine and Bash was down to a nose bleeding thirteen. Mark and Keith were off eight and seven.

It seems Bash is made of stern stuff and having mocked him for calling it a day after nine yesterday, it transpired he went back out later for a full eighteen. I was hoping the extra practice would come in useful as after my woeful exploits yesterday I was a worried man. not so much for the inability to support my partner but for the four hours of grief Messrs Feesey and Timms would be giving me if I chopped all the way round.

As it happens things weren't as grim as I thought. I managed to find the centre of the clubface on the opening drive and it went straight and towards the green, stopping about 10 yards shy. Having gone out of bounds yesterday it made a pleasant change to not have to worry about looking for it from the off. I chipped to about three foot and holed out as did my partner and as he got a shot we were off and running and ahead of the game.

Things were going terribly well until the 3rd when we committed the cardinal sin in this format and both failed to score on the hole. My tee shot was way too quick tempo wise and dived straight left into the environmental area and Bash sliced his right never to be seen again. They say the mark of a good golfer is to bounce back straight away. Good golfer may be pushing it in my case but I found the fairway at the 4th and hit a wedge from 101 yards to within two feet and converted for birdie.

My partner was doing a sterling job of keeping the scoreboard ticking over and although we both had a horror on the 7th we at least got a point. I made a par at the 8th having hit a great six iron to within six feet but never gave the birdie putt a real run. We both made a mockery of the ninth having got close to the green in two and our one point return put us out in 17 points or one over our revised handicap target.

We made a solid start to the back nine and when Bash hit the green at 11 and made par we were back level with our handicaps. He scrambled a good five at the next and I came in at the 12th when my hybrid just found the edge of the green and I made a tricky two footer for par after leaving the first one a bit short. I came in again with a chip and putt at 15 (ok the chip was thinned from forty yards out to fifteen feet and I made a fluky putt). Bash made a great five at the 16th and I played a superb chip from the right of 17 (reminiscent of my one there yesterday but not as close) and holed out. Bash meanwhile nonchalantly hit the green and two putted anyway to steal my thunder but as he had a shot I soon forgave him.

We were one under our handicaps and I knew it wouldn't be enough to win. I didn't think even a par at the last would be good enough but hoped we could perhaps sneak up the leaderboard and maybe a top 10 finish. I gave us the perfect opportunity standing over my approach in from 144 yards but tugged my 7 iron horribly left into the greenside trap. My recovery came out but just shy of the green but I managed to put the lag putt stone dead.

In the end we finished on 37 points for a 15th place finish out of 42 teams which was creditable if not earth shattering. I certainly played a lot more good shots than yesterday in particular and of late in general. We dovetailed as a team pretty well but we just couldn't get putts to drop or made silly errors at the wrong time. I had an absolute ball with Mark and Keith and I think their unique style of humour kept my mind off the golf a lot which helped and I was a lot more relaxed than normal. Definitely something in that.

The one thing that did make life hard was my driving. It had been pretty steady but today it wasn't quite there. I don't think it's a long way off but I tend to work through my bag from wedges upwards when I go to the range and so by the time I get to the driver I'm probably getting a little tired. I'm off on Wednesday afternoon and so weather permitting I might get on the practice ground and work it through. My iron striking was a lot better and all in all there are a lot of positives to build on which certainly wasn't the case this time yesterday.

Spring is just around the corner and I'm hoping my complete game is too.