Short Game And Bunker Progress

Unfortunately I'm still struggling with this virus I had at Woburn and coupled with the necessity to do the dutiful son bit and go hospital visiting, I've not played any golf this weekend and couldn't make the monthly stableford today. After several hours on an elderly care ward and a long drive back from St Georges in Tooting I needed to get out and clear the head so decided to hit the practise ground and work on the chipping and bunker play.

Having simplified the chipping stroke and sorted the ball position out, the contact is much more consistent and any poor shots are down to the wrists breaking down or the right arm folding "chicken wing" like. If I retain the wrist position and just swing back and then turn through impact the results are so much better. Distance control is coming and I have more confidence in what I'm doing.

I had a bunker lesson last week at the Downshire Golf Centre with my regular teaching professional Rhys ap Iolo and we changed the set up to allow me to find the bottom of the ball and take a regular amount of sand with each shot. We looked at the way I hit into the sand and adjusted the impact position to ensure I use the bounce of the club correctly. The ball was popping out a treat in the lesson but the real test would be doing it now without supervision.

I managed to avoid a lot of the bunkers at Woburn on Thursday and those I did find I recovered from quite well with the exception of the first hole in the morning round on the Marquess. I'm putting that down to nerves and erasing it from the memory. The practise bunker at Royal Ascot is pretty good with a decent size face and a reasonable covering of sand. I have to be honest and say I after a few initial problems I was surprised how well the ball was coming out. I played around with opening the face of the club and different swing lengths but in the main focused on distance control using one set up and lengthening or shortening the swing to dictate how far the ball went.

We've had false short game promises before but I came home with a positive feeling. I need to get back and work on the long swing as that wasn't so great on Thursday and I can't put all of the blame at the door of my malaise. I've lost that feeling of the club going left through impact which is an integral part of the one plane swing and there are too many moving parts. The hips in particular are sliding and not turning out of the way quickly enough. Get that right and the feeling of being on top of the ball and compressing it should come back.

On the plus side I should get at least an hour on the practise ground tomorrow to work on it. Nothing beats hitting balls off grass and whilst ranges have their place nothing replicates the feedback of ball, club and turf. It is the Haig Cup over the weekend which is an honours board event and is Bogey format. It is a two round event but players can choose which two days over the Easter holiday (Good Friday-Bank Holiday Monday) they want to play. I think I might have a social game on Friday and work on any issues and then head out on Saturday and Sunday in my bid for glory. I'm looking forward to it. If I can scramble it round the Marquess at Woburn in 32 points feeling rubbish and swinging badly then my game doesn't seem too far away. Add renewed confidence in the short game and hopefully it'll start to click. If not then two bad rounds see me back to 14 anyway so it's sort of a win/win anyway. At least from there I can be competitive and every time I've gone that far back I've won an event and got cut again so hopefully the run will continue. Still I'm not thinking about that at the moment and just making sure I can go into the Haig Cup swinging well and confident. Then we'll see what happens from there.

All in all though it was a good couple of hours well spent and I think I've made baby steps forward. Slowly but surely has to be the key at the moment and not trying to change too much or focus too intently on one aspect of the game. It's all well and good bashing balls at the range and getting a swing that works (even if it isn't textbook) if you can't get out of sand or chip and putt when you miss greens. It has to be an all round approach and I think I've got the mix right. Time will tell.