Feeling Nothing

Well after the highs of last weekend it was back to the relative sanity of the Saturday morning roll up. These are just as competitive in their own right as any honours board event but a chance to enjoy some golf in good company without the score being the be all and end all. Just as well really. I woke up dog tired and feeling below par and to be truthful stood on the first tee without a golfing thought in my head. In fact barely a thought at all. It was like being on auto-pilot.

That's the problem with this working for a living lark. It does tend to get in the way of important matters like golf. Yes, this week, and yesterday in particular, had been challenging in work but I always look forward to my roll up games. Today I couldn't get into it. The tone was pretty much set at the 1st. A good drive just short of the green was followed by a good chip and run to within a foot. I stood over the putt and what should have been a simple tap in was a shot gone as I pushed it right. There was no focus on the stroke at all.

I did make a par save at the 3rd, but to be honest the pitch I played after missing the green right was mis-hit and thin and if the flag hadn't got in the way and stopped it stone dead it would have been off the other side of the green. And so the pattern continued. Bad hole followed good. I missed both the fairway and the green for a sloppy bogey at the 4th and then made par at the next. A poor 5 iron at the 6th cost another shot and despite hitting the fairway at the next a snap hook approach put me on the back foot again. It needed a testing four foot left to right putt to make a five (nett par). I missed the 8th green and duffed my chip. My next shot from off the edge of the green was with the relatively safe putter and I managed to get close enough to make another bogey but there was no saving shot to redeem that into a nett par. I closed the front nine with a par courtesy of a chip and putt save although the chip was somewhat lacking and it was the seven foot single putt that did all the work. Out in nineteen points and absolutely no idea what had happened for those two hours.

The second nine was much the same. A missed green on the 10th from a good position meant just a nett par when a gross one was on the cards. I hit the green at the long 178 yard par three 11th but my first putt was clumsy and left five feet to tidy up. I managed to convert but that was harder than it should have been. After that, the mind really did go on holiday. I was trying over the ball but didn't really have a swing thought or plan for any shot. It was a case of hit it and deal with the outcome.

In the end I came back in 16 points for 35 overall and only good enough in the roll up for third place. It's a tough school at the best of times but there was a large turnout today and some good scores. I have to say that I didn't enjoy my round. Nothing wrong with the company and the banter. That was as it should be. Fun and light hearted. It was my game I was unhappy with. Everything was a struggle, almost a chore. I couldn't get a tempo going, I was fighting the swing off the tee and hitting my approaches. My normally trusty putter was strangely temperamental. Perhaps it knew I'd been looking at my old Odyssey White Ice #9 and thinking about giving that a run out as it responds better to quicker greens and I wanted to get a feel for it before they really started to speed up.

I'm not playing tomorrow. Family duty and all that jazz but will be back out there working on the short game. Yes the swing was wonky. Yes the putter was lukewarm and yes I chipped poorly. I trust my long game and I trust the direction it is going in. My putting has been sound and is one area that I'm not worried about. That leave the short game. It is getting there but it isn't good and it isn't reliable. Everything need to be focused into this area of the game. I love trying different shots from different lies so it isn't that I'm shying away from the challenge. I have just not found a technique I can hone and I can't always clear the mental fog and get too hung up on the why and how instead of the end result. Like everything in my game right now though it is getting better. I'll put a few hours in tomorrow and see where it takes me. Worse case scenario my teacher Rhys will get that call and we'll go back and look at it again. It'll come