Dear Short Game, I Hadn't Forgotten About You

Following my unexpected near miss in the medal on Sunday and having time to assess the performance it is pretty clear where the problems lay. Consecutive three putts on the fourth and fifth holes threw away needless shots and to be fair the putter was ice cold all day, nay all weekend, and I never looked like holing a putt. Even the short 1-2 footers seems fraught with danger and a couple of those slipped by. Strangely though the week before, particularly in the club match against Caversham Heath and in the Jubilee Cup my putting was rock solid. I'm not sure where it has gone other than the fact I've neglected to invest any time or energy into working on my stroke and practising.

I am still in the market for a new flat stick and currently favour the new Ping Anser range, especially the Anser 2. I definitely feel that I want a solid face and not one with any form of insert but a milled face putter doesn't come cheap. I have an original Anser from the mid 80's with a solid metal face. It has a soft feel that belies the firmness of the metal and has served me well over the years. It is just that certain "something" which I can't quite pinpoint that doesn't always feel 100% right. Some rounds it's a lovely wand and I ooze confidence and others like the ones at the weekend I get frost bite off it.

I'm planning to invest a lot of time to the short game over the next few weeks. The practise putting green had been tined and so there was little point trying to groove a stroke on something akin to a corrugated roof laid on Blackpool beach. One of the positives of all this showery weather is that it has now come on a treat and will be great to putt on. The cunning plan is simple. Get the putting mirror out to start with and make sure all the fundamentals are in place. I've had a history of closing the shoulders at address and standing too far away. The mirror will highlight these in a flash.

A putting mirror is superb at highlighting issues at address

I've got a great training aid that I've used for chipping called the V-Easy (http://www.v-easy.co.uk/) but it is also ideal for putting and will keep the wrists out of the stroke and get the shoulders rocking. Having sorted the stroke out I'll work through the distances. I've also got a hole reducer that slips inside the hole and makes it much harder for the ball to go in. Stand there and try and make 10 on the spin from 2-3 foot and then take it away and the hole suddenly looks like the proverbial bucket.

A hole reducer - maximum frustration at the time but worth the grief. The hole looks massive afterwards

Of course it isn't just the putting that needs time invested. I had been making baby steps forward in my ongoing battle with a shoddy short game and there were a few rounds where it looked scarily like I knew how to chip. This wasn't the case on Sunday. Again, the truth of the matter is that it is quite simply the weakest part of my game and so should really have the greatest proportion of my practise regime invested in it. However with the big swing changes I've been working on following my lessons in the last few months there hasn't been the time to marry all the facets needing work and the time available. Fancy having to work for a living. It gets right in the way of my golf. Of course the beauty of being able to chip onto the putting green at Royal Ascot means that I can work on the short game and then have some fun and give myself some challenges to play different shots with different clubs to different hole locations and force myself to try and get up and down. At least this will make the practise more interesting and realistic.

Then we have bunkers. I had a lesson not so long ago and we changed more or less everything from the grip, address position and the way I hit the ball to use the bounce of the club more. It was working great and consecutive sand saves in the competition round the weekend after the lesson proved that the man talks sense and that it works. Again, a combination of a flooded practise bunker and diverting my attention elsewhere has seen the ability to escape from the sand diminish. I left two in the sand in the roll up on Saturday and one flew over the green in the medal where I took hardly any sand with the shot. Hopefully the need for a snorkel will have gone and I can get into the sand and focus on hitting the ball in the right place. I suspect the position has crept forward but I need to get the sand beneath my feet and play around with it to be sure.

Finally, there is the pitching part of the game. Again whilst I was never one to knock flags out with my approaches from a hundred yards and in, I was always confident of getting within ten to fifteen feet regularly. I've lost my feel for these shots. Of all the short game elements this is always the one that seems to get shoved to one side. I did spend a while a few weeks ago hitting a lot of shots to some of the flags on the practise field and these were pretty good. I could even vary the trajectory and the spin which was pleasing. However I've not been able to take this onto the course in the last few rounds and so even playing conservatively when I've got in trouble has meant I've rarely knocked it close enough to give me a realistic opportunity to rescue a par. Similarly, on a par five I've not put the approach shots into birdie country.

It is apparent that I've a long way to go with the full swing and turning the faults, particularly the shallow angle into impact into something much better. For the most part it is working up to a point. Certainly it is beyond my wildest dreams in terms of how easy the transition has been and how impressive the results are. I still need to work on it. Impact angle and club head direction are the two key areas that need to be understood and made better. That will take time but what I do have the ability to change here and now is the short game. It doesn't take a genius to realise that golf magazine, internet articles and a plethora of instructional material all focus on the short game. I'm tantalisingly close to dropping down to 11 now and I only really need to be saving 2-4 shots per round in competitions to really ensure that the worse I can expect each time is the buffer zone. If I can come second like Sunday without really focusing on scoring then this really is positive. All I wanted to do was go out and swing like I'd been shown in the lesson last Thursday. That was all I was trying to do and yet the score took care of itself.

Without making a putt, knocking it close with a wedge or getting up and down I got it round. The one lost ball was a course management issue and the strike I put on the shot was actually very good. I just didn't factor in hitting it straight into a large oak tree. Do you know what the other thing about the short game is? I love, absolutely adore, working on it and could easily lose three or four hours at a time particularly on pitching and chipping. I've never really had the skills to make bunker play fun. Indeed Wimbledon Common where I learned my game is bereft of any bunkers and so it never really featured in my regime. Now I have access to practise bunkers at both Royal Ascot and Blue Mountain I've no excuses.

I'm really looking forward to dedicating some time to the short game and seeing the results. It is fun, easy to do (if you forget about my inability to chip) and will only benefit the game. I'll never be a short game guru but if it shaves the final few shots off the handicap and gets me to my goal of 10 then all the time, sweat and effort will be worth it. Expect to see me at a short game area near you soon.