Mid-Term Reflection

Now that the savage winter, enforced snow breaks, and playing in sub-zero temperatures to frozen greens are a distant memory and the course is beginning to come into full glory, it's time to consider what I've achieved in the first few months of the season.

Many would argue not much. To some degree they would have a point. With an ailing short game it was impossible to score well early on but I wasn't hitting it well enough anyway for that to be a major factor. Yes it contributed, but if you can't hit fairways and greens you can't post a score. However, I put a lot of hours, effort and determination into making a big change (for me at least) over the winter and to stop my hips sliding as opposed to turning, and working on compressing down on the ball much more. Once the warmer weather arrived in the early Spring, it started to come together and I really began to hit it great but failed to translate ball striking into scoring.That is where the poor short game came back to bite me on the bottom.

Chipping is such an easy part of the game and yet for months and months I couldn't play these shots. Fat, thin and even the odd shank, I had them all. It wasn't until the start of April when I had a short game lesson and started work on the Linear method that things have improved. My short game is still as fragile as the global economy but at least I have positive mental thoughts now instead of panicking. I'm not sure if there such a thing as the chipping "yips" but I must have come close.

As the months have rolled on my game got better and better and I was really beginning to feel that there was a score waiting to burst out. On the downside while I was waiting for it to make an appearance the handicap finally clicked over to 13 (currently 12.8) and so is another shot away from the single figure dream. Of course, in true Homer style just as the game began to peak, family business has come very much to the fore, especially in the last two months or so and golf has taken a back seat. Now I'm free to enjoy it again the bubble has burst, the hip slide fault has returned (probably due to a lack of playing or practice - golf has never come easy) and I feel I've taken two steps back again.

This probably sounds like a woe is me whinge. It's not. No really. If I was going to give myself a mark for the season to date then in roll up games it would be B- but if we're talking about competitive play then it would have to be a C- as I've flattered to deceive and not really performed. As that doyen of sports commentators Stuart Hall once put it "I dabbled with the palette without painting the full picture." However in matchplay in particular and pairs events as a whole I have turned in some much better rounds with the comfort blanket of a good patient (some would say long suffering) wingman alongside me. It has given me much more freedom and the golf has seemed to flow a lot better and I've produced arguably my best performances to date.

There has been far more to enjoy than get upset about. Any round is a good round as I've still got my health and the ability to play the game I love so dearly. Maybe I am my own worse critic. Maybe I'm overly harsh on myself. Some might say I put too much pressure on myself. To some degree perhaps I don't enjoy the good shots as much as I should but I am definitely trying to be more of a glass half full type of guy on the course these days. Hit it, find it and hit it again.

So what about the next few months? Hopefully the game will get back to an even keel again and the ball striking will return. The course will undoubtedly become harder as the fairways firm up, the greens get quicker and the rough becomes lusher. We are starting to run into prime competition time now with all the big events coming up and so I like to think of myself as having paced my race and that I haven't peaked too early.

The short game still remains "work in progress" but the immediate aim is to get my shot back and at least go back to 12 again although to be fair it is quite nice getting the shot on the 17th. At 218 yards off the white tees and with out of bounds tight left, it isn't an easy hole especially if there is a good card going. Ironically since getting the extra shot I've started playing it worse than I did before. There must be something in that.

All in all, there are more positives than negatives. While there is definitely room for improvement and the report card would have to read like it did in my schooldays "must focus more and try harder" the spirit is still good, the momentum is on the up and as D-Ream once said... Things can only get better.