I was due to Play Roger Wing, a 10 handicapper of notorious consistency in the Weatherill Cup (Summer singles) on Saturday morning. He's a lovely chap and I had been really looking forward to our game for several weeks but a 2.00am phone call had me careering down to an A&E department in London and I was still there as sun broke over the white brickwork of the hospital. Sadly I had no option but to concede as the tie had to be played by today and with the monthly medal taking place it was impossible to rearrange at such short notice. I pulled out of the medal today as the lack of sleep, another journey back to the hospital this afternoon and my dire form was hardly an enticing cocktail of circumstances in which to pit my handicap against the course.
However there is a note of positivity. After catching up on some much needed rest yesterday afternoon I ventured down to Maidenhead Golf Centre to see if I could sort out the affliction to my game. Regular readers will know I've lauded long and loud about the quality of my ball striking in recent weeks and a talent for finding ways of not compiling the score the quality of the shots had deserved. Friday saw the ball striking go back to the bad old days and the cause was fairly evident. The old, old habit of sliding the hips instead of turning them and getting overly active with the legs (disco legs as my teaching pro calls them) has come back to haunt me.
I went back to the old drills Paul Harrison my coach had shown me before focusing on keeping the hips on a more level plane and turning more instead of sliding. There were real signs of improvement and I made a small change to my posture which had me in a much more neutral but solid and athletic base. There were still too many shots where the hips slid but overall the ball striking was so much better.
After a long lie in this morning it was back to the range before heading back to the hospital to make sure everything was fine (on both counts). I was hitting it a lot better and there was improvement over and above what I'd achieved yesterday. Even the driver was more on track than of late. The swing still isn't as it was. I think in hindsight I may have over egged the short game practice following my lessons and neglected any swing work and so it was an accident waiting to happen.
Far be it for me to be accused of being a practice freak, I've decided that we know the fault, have worked on the fix and that the only way to test it properly is to get out and play. I intend to get out and play several sets of nine holes after work this week and all things being equal get out of work early and play in the midweek stableford on Friday.
Sometimes life gets in the way and you have to look at the bigger picture. For now though, everything seems to be back on an even keel and so I can "enjoy" the golf again this week without my mind being elsewhere. I hope I can put my game back onto a steadier footing and take the enforced break this weekend as a chance to re-evaluate my technique, recharge the golfing batteries and come back out of my corner ready to take the fight back to the course and my handicap. Seconds out......
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