Different Year - Same Issues

After just two games in 2013, the competitive season started yesterday in the monthly stableford at Royal Ascot. I'd put some solid work in at the range this week after my practice round on Monday and so was happy with the way I was hitting it. However I still felt deliciously under-prepared but was happy to go out with no expectations and see what happened. I've started working hard on the mental side of the game as well as my swing and so was confident of dealing with whatever happened.

That was tested immediately with a poor tee shot on the first leading to a double bogey. A poor approach at the second lead to another dropped shot when in good position but that was offset by a par at the tricky 366 yard third. One step forward and one back, as I went over the back of the fourth green, catching my approach slightly thin. A very average chip gave me little chance to rescue par. I missed the green from 120 yards at the par five fifth landing in one of the right hand greenside bunkers. My first effort stayed in the sand but my second attempt rolled five feet past the hole but I was able to make a clutch putt.

In this new era of positive mental attitude I know there is no such thing as a bogey hole but the sixth at Royal Ascot has arguably caused me more trouble than any other. It is only 178 yards but with a line of trees and out of bounds tight right, and out of bounds lurking for anything tugged left. It does open out where the trees finish on the right but I seem to have real issues. I hit a solid tee shot but pulled it a fraction. It was arguably too much club and it ended up long and left in a heavy lie. With the pin tucked tight to the left of the green and with a large mound to clear it needed something exceptional to get it close. Sadly that prove too elusive for my flaky short game and my first pitch was heavy and came up short. The double bogey meant no points on that hole.



The view back to the tee on the 6th. It looks so innocent but has ruined my scorecard many times

I hit a great tee shot off the seventh tee and my approach was well struck but wandered into the bunker to the right of the green. I escaped better than I had at the fifth and I made a good read but the putt defied gravity and stayed above ground. Standing on next, the shortest hole on the course at 139 yards, the wind picked up. It made club selection tricky but in truth I didn't make a great swing. Back in sand. I came out again but could only two putt for a single point. I was frittering points but I was sticking to my routine, going through my mental checklist and trying to do things properly. I hit a fantastic drive at the ninth and although my five iron second was a little clean, okay thin, it hit the green. I made a great first putt and narrowly missed the birdie but secured a par to be out in fourteen points. Not fantastic but a platform to build on.

I wasn't happy with my tee shot on the tenth and it left a much longer approach than I was hoping. It was 162 yards and my five iron was superb to eight feet. Another brilliant read on the green and I made the putt for my first birdie of the year and three much needed points. I missed the green with my tee shot on the par three eleventh and yet more sand. It was a deep bunker with not much green but I got it out well. Another solid putt from six feet and a par (net birdie). Another single putt green on the next rescued a net par after I had made a bit of a mockery of the hole. I had elected to lay up after the drive. I missed the fairway and the lie in the rough was poor. I wanted to leave 100 yards and a simple wedge. I hit it too well and left 85 yards. I missed the green which was inexcusable and the chip was scabby but I got away with it. The putter saved me.

Feeling positive, I was working hard to keep the mind quiet and keep everything neutral and calm. I have no idea where the big hook off the tee at the thirteenth came from but it not only cleared the ditch running down the left of hole but much of the rough on the adjacent twelfth as well. Not only was I lucky to find it but it was far enough down to be pin high and with an escape route onto the green. Instead of making the most of my good fortune I duffed the approach and dunked it into the hazard. Another hole with no points.

Previously my mind would have wandered, I would have dwelt on my error and probably have made a mess of the next. The Karl Morris stuff enabled me to go through my routine and clear my head. I made a great drive but pulled the approach. I've started to work hard on my distance control in 2013 especially from 30-60 yards and this paid off when I put my recovery to five feet. Yet another single putt and a great par save. I hit the green in regulation on the par five fifteenth and only had fifteen feet for birdie. The first putt came up two feet shy and for the first time all day I put a bad stroke on it and thee putted to drop a shot.

I hit a rubbish tee shot on the sixteenth. It was a bit of a top and only went about 150 yards meaning I had no way of making the green. I laid up, pitched solidly and was happy to walk off with a net par. The seventeenth is another long par three, coming in at 218 yards. I hit a good looking five wood but it was a tad right and left me a tricky pitch over a bunker to the green. I fluffed it and stuffed it into the sand. I couldn't get up and down and for the third time managed to rack up a hole bereft of points.

I missed the fairway at the last. The lie was good and I needed to hit a hook to avoid the large oak trees down the left and miss the dead tree that stands in the right hand rough some two hundred yards from the green. I pulled it off superbly and the ball bent beautifully in the air to leave 120 yards to the centre of the green. That is about the maximum distance for my nine iron but with the flag situated on the front of the putting surface I thought it would be enough club. There is a pond that guards the right hand side of the green. I hit the nine iron as well as I could have hoped and saw it bounce so assumed it had made dry ground and on the green. When I got to it, the ball was precariously perched on the bank of the pond. I made a reasonable chip to six feet. Using my Aimpoint chart to read the green and the break, I allowed for the the six inches of break it told me I had. If I had been looking at it without the benefit of Aimpoint I would have guessed perhaps two inches. It certainly didn't appear to have that much break. Confident in my read but wary of the putt being downhill and charging it by I made my stroke. It curled to perfection and dropped for another up and down, another single putt green and a par five to finish.

In the end my total of 31 points, 14 out and 17 back, was only good for 14th place in Division One (out of 28 competitors in the division) and I got a 0.1 increase on my handicap. But, and it is a big BUT, there was so much to take away that was good. I had a great mental attitude all the way round and accepted the outcome of both the good and bad shots equally. I was in the present and didn't let my mind dwell on previous bad shots or wander forward to what I might need to do. I hit 75% of the fairways in regulation, only had 30 putts and made 40% of sand saves. Perhaps the only negative was only hitting 22% of greens in regulation.

I am only three games into my 2013 season and already my mental game is stronger and my routine better so that over the ball I give myself the best opportunity possible to execute well. I am swinging well and with the exception of my chipping - AGAIN - all facets are falling into place. The 0.1 increase is an annoyance more than a show stopper in my pursuit towards single figures and there is plenty of time to get that back.

I went in without expectations and three poor holes cost me the chance to get close to my handicap. One was a poor tee shot on the first, one was an inability to capitalise on some good fortune and one was a failure to execute a simple sand save. There were some poor shots in there as well but there always will be and for the most part I was able to recover. In the cold light of day I am perhaps more disappointed. However the pluses more than outweigh the negatives. The only issue I have I have is the short game. Different year, same issues. I really thought I'd started to turn a corner in my practice round on Monday, but add the pressure of a competition and it crumbled like a sandcastle in the incoming tide. I need to get a date in the diary with my teacher Rhys ap Iolo. I did have a lesson booked but as regular followers will know, a bout of the Norovirus put paid to that. It really is the missing link.

I have been working on the short game again today, particularly my wedge play and distance control. It is getting better. I had a good session in the practice bunker too and I'm  beginning to understand what I need to do to control height and distance from various lies. I also spent an hour on the chipping green. I am determined to have a chipping game to match my handicap mark but for all the time I'm investing I don't feel like I'm moving forward. I guess that is why I need Rhys to cast a professional eye over it all but before then I need something to take out on the course. That is where the problem lies at the moment.

Still, when all said and done it is only the start of my season and yesterday was a very powerful and solid foundation and I've laid a few markers down for how I can perform and think on the course. I've a lesson booked for Friday night (too dark to chip) and a roll up game on Saturday. On Sunday it is the Jack Jarrett Trophy at Royal Ascot which is a pairs event, combined stableford scores. My partner Mike Stannard is showing signs of getting his game together and so maybe, just maybe, we can gel on the same day. I feel the arc of the curve is definitely upwards and the glass remains positively half full.