Where Did The Swing Go?

So there I was, minding my own business and feeling decidedly chipper about my golf and the world in general. I'd arranged to meet Colin Osborn and Steve Downey on Monday morning for nine holes, just to keep the swing ticking over before playing our second round in the Stone Cup on Tuesday.

I'd posted 38 points in round one, and was lying second to Steve's magnificent 40 point effort. What followed was nine holes of carnage. Not only had my swing deserted me completely, with every shot so short of power, but I'd managed to acquire a dose of the sockets from nowhere as well. I can't remember a single good shot in the whole of the front nine we played and I left in a state of disarray and worried about what was to come in the Stone Cup second round.

As it turned out, I had every right to be worried. The swing has still stopped behaving and there is no power in any of my shots, they are all lower trajectory than normal and I have no trust in it. I partnered Steve and Colin again as I had done in round one and we were joined by my regular playing partner Mike Stannard fresh off a holiday to France and Switzerland.

My first shot wasn't that bad. Pushed right, it found a good lie and should have been a simple chip onto the green. Cue the first shank of the day into the bunker. Not good for the nerves. I actually got it out rather well to within four feet. The odyssey white ice #9 putter was back in the bag as the Ping really wasn't doing it for me in recent weeks and the new incumbent ingratiated itself by rolling in the putt for a net par. Granted it was to let me down at the next where I three putted from fifteen feet having found the green from 189 yards with a great hybrid shot. The tee shot had found a shocking lie in the semi-rough and the 6 iron could only move it forward some hundred yards or so.

I managed to chip and putt at the third to rescue a par after the tee shot found the fairway bunker and the recovery came up short. I played another good chip from short of the fourth green after my eight iron was hit fat and came up woefully short. The putter did the honours from nine feet. I was actually one under my handicap after the opening quartet despite not having hit anything solidly.

My round began to crash down around me from the fifth. I found the fairway off the tee but again the shot lacked power and was a long way back. I hit a five wood to try and get it down to short iron distance but only managed to carve it right and lose it in the long rough. A missed green right at the sixth dropped another shot although I steadied the ship with a net par at the tricky seventh.

The eighth hole is so simple. 139 yards to an ample green and all you have to do is avoid the bunkers short of the putting surface. In the first round of the Stone Cup, I'd taken a seven iron and put it long so decided to take an eight this time. For probably the first time in the round I made a decent swing and caught it great. It looked all over the flag and destined for the heart of the green. I was stunned when it fell into the middle of the bunker short. I had a good lie and it should have been a simple shot. Cue the second shank of the day and I simply moved it from one bunker into the one right of the green. Suffice to say I didn't trouble the scorer. I'm playing this hole so badly at the moment and can't seem to make a good score whatever I try and do. It's becoming a card wrecker and fortunes need to change, and fast.

In the end my front nine score of fifteen was better than I deserved and thanks on no small part to the short game and putting. The second nine started in disastrous fashion. My drive was topped along the ground and barely travelled a hundred and fifty yards. My second shot with a mid iron only went another ten feet and so there was a lot of anger in the third that got me to within a wedge of the green. I nearly made the putt to scramble an unjust net par but ended up with a sorry double bogey and more points lost.

I hit a great chip and run to within a foot at the eleventh. Again. I caught the hybrid off the tee well but it just didn't seem to fly very far. There is definitely an issue or fault in there somewhere. A net par at the hardest hole on the course (according to the stroke index at least) and then I managed another chip and putt to rescue a par at the 178 yard thirteenth. Level handicap for the back nine although the damage had been done already and any hopes of mounting a charge for the win had long gone.

If they hadn't quite died, then the fifteenth extinguished any lingering flame of hope. A tee shot short and right was followed by a topped hybrid into the ditch running across the fairway. Although I dropped under penalty and put the fourth shot on the green from 192 yards I couldn't hole the par putt and so another point dropped. I managed to make doubly sure I wouldn't feature, tossing any lingering chance of a top three or four finish with dropped shots at the sixteenth and seventeenth. I did finish with a flourish when I holed a downhill left to right putt from ten feet at the last to rescue a very unlikely par. In the end I came back in 16 points for 31 overall and a two round score of 69 points. It would prove good enough for 8th place.

Given the state of my swing in the second round a top ten is pleasing on the one hand but hugely annoying on the other. For the first time since I've started having lessons with Rhys ap Iolo, my swing has totally deserted me and my confidence is lower than a snakes belly. I thought the changes we'd made to the set up and the back swing had slipped into place after my round on Friday and Saturday. It appears not and if anything I've regressed. The back swing definitely isn't right and there is a big issue with a lack of power/timing. I need to hit the practise ground and work on it.

All in all though I guess there are some positives to take out of the long weekend. I got cut another 0.4 for my efforts on Saturday and although I got 0.1 back for the debacle yesterday at least I came out of the weekend ahead and I'm now down to 11.5 and so right on the cusp of losing another shot. That would leave me tantalisingly close to my goal for 2012 of getting back down to 10. The short game yesterday was so much stronger than of late and the change of putter has left me feeling a lot more confident on the greens. It wasn't quite as I'd hoped it would be after the strong showing in round one but sometimes I guess it isn't meant to be. Rest assured I'll get to the bottom of the swing issues and be back on Saturday looking for a strong showing in the monthly stableford.