WInd Of Change

It's been a great long weekend and I've finally played some decent golf. I took the opportunity on Friday to play golf rather than watch the Royal nuptials (that'll be the OBE gone then) and it seemed like every other male had the same idea. I played with my old mate Paul "Buddly" Sweetman and fortunately we got on the 1st tee just before the hoards. It was heaving.

It's always fun when we play. It's always serious as there is always lunch on the outcome but there is always a lot of enjoyable banter too. Paul is a very capable 12 handicapper and with his legendary buttery soft hands, he is a short game wizard and so can make up for a lot of errors with his chipping and putting. It was a nip and tuck game and I pulled away in the middle of the back nine with a rare birdie two at the 186 yard 13th and followed it up with a chip and putt par. I let it slip on the last two holes and I was holding a slender one point advantage going down the last. Paul played three good shots to make the green. I responded in kind. Paul two putted for a par and I hit my first putt two feet past and couldn't hole the return and so honours were even. I got the drinks and Paul got the food. Happy days.

I was due to go out with the normal suspects on Saturday but felt decidedly unwell and so didn't play. Given how strong the wind was blowing it wasn't the worse decision I've ever made. I decided Sunday morning was short game time and spent a useful couple of hours working on my chipping and putting. The Linear method for chipping I'm using is better than the error strewn short game I had before but still isn't great. Fortunately I've a lesson on Wednesday so we'll make some progress.

I decided to brave the wind on Sunday afternoon to get some valuable practice in before trying to defend the Jubilee Cup (four ball better ball event) with my partner Mike Stannard who has been playing great recently. I thought I owed it to him to at least contribute somewhere along the line. Boy it was hard. The wind made club selection a mockery and scoring was difficult. The good news was that the putting practice seemed to work and I one putted the first four greens. I struck the ball well in places but also had some poor shots. Playing on your own is always tricky as there isn't the banter or competitive spark to feed off. Mind you the course was empty and so I got to play a few practice shots around the greens too.

Being a relatively short hitter, the wind can make my life very hard but the good news is the ball striking is coming on. With the practice in the tank, I felt ready to defend my title. The bad news was the winds were forecast to be as strong if not stronger. Maybe they would blow in a change of fortune scoring wise and finally I could realise some of the promise recent rounds have shown. We shall see.