Arc Of The Curve

"It's a funny old game" as one TV pundit regularly remarked. It certainly is. It never ceases to amaze me how golf has the capacity to change your whole mood dependant on what has gone before. Or is it just that I'm hopelessly addicted? Play badly or have a bad range session and the mood can be darker than the rain clouds we've endured this week. Have a good round or a range session where you are smacking it straight for fun and you radiate positivity and feel several inches taller.

Last night was a return to the range to work on the swing after the progress of the short game at the weekend. I'd neglected it last week as the chipping went into meltdown but it had been behaving of late and I wanted to keep it running like a well serviced engine. In truth, I always find it really hard after the working day to get into it mentally. I'm usually tired, if not physically then from the joys of an NHS profession and the vagaries of a daily commute. Even the venue, Blue Mountain Golf Centre in Bracknell isn't that inspiring. The mats are adequate as are the balls. It's the range itself. It's basically a large field with no distance markers and only a handful of targets to aim at. However it is convenient.
It felt kind of weird swinging fully again after so many hours invested in a chipping action. The initial results were interesting and I was "directionally challenged" with shots going left and right, and definitely not straight. So it was back to basics and ball by ball I regained control of the swing and in particular the club head. For a first session in a while I was very pleased. If I was being critical there were too many that were pulled or pushed a fraction and would inevitably have missed the green but the quality of the strike itself and the swing I put on the shot were exactly what I was looking for. These pushes and pulls weren't bad shots in themselves and would only have missed by a matter of feet, but a miss is a miss. It's good to be exact and demanding in practice and not accept second best.

So what can I say? Patience is key. Too many negative vibes and negative views creeping in. Perhaps understandable given the insipid last six months of 2011 I endured on the course where the 0.1 handicap rises kept on coming, the golf, even socially began to be a chore and the lessons didn't seem to fix the ailments. A change of teacher, total overhaul of the swing to a one plane model, or my interpretation thereof have really helped. It isn't quite right but functional and getting better all the time. Suddenly I'm riding the arc of a curve of positivity again. I've come further in terms of ball striking in the few months since Christmas than perhaps at any time in the last few years.

I don't begin to think that one good short game session and one good range session make a good score in the next round a foregone conclusion. However I do think I can stand on the first tee with a certain air of optimism and belief and that second word in particular is key. If you think you can, not just in golf but in most things in life, then usually you will. 2012 is going to be a glass half full type of year. Yes there will be low points and disappointments, but it's how I deal with these and bounce back that will go some way to driving on to single figures. Suddenly I don't feel as tired. Bring on the next session. Bring on the next game. Bring it all on.