Things have been quietly improving over recent weeks. I
had a lovely handicap cut over the Bank Holiday weekend and recent form has
been consistent. It’s been a long time since I’ve written that word on here.
I’ve had a far more positive outlook courtesy of the work I’m doing with New
Golf Thinking and even the short game has been behaving itself.
With that in mind I was looking forward to the monthly
stableford on Saturday. Warm up went well and I was confident. However a thirty
minute delay for a passing thunderstorm didn’t help and it all felt rushed on
the first tee. My opening drive was a big snap hook left into the pond and an
opening triple bogey and no points.
In truth, things barely progressed from there and if I’m
brutally honest I didn’t engage my golfing brain or any of the facets I’ve
learnt from the work I’d done on New Golf Thinking. It has a whole section on
positivity and bouncing back but I seemed to forget everything. In my defence
the weather was atrocious calling for full waterproofs and I was more focused
on keeping everything dry and avoiding the long grass than on anything else.
However, with the swing misbehaving, and a living in a world of hook and push,
the ball wasn’t going where I wanted. Nor was it finding the middle of the club.
No amount of thinking, New Golf or otherwise, was going to change a
directionally challenged shot.
In the end I crawled out in a miserable thirteen points.
About right for the dross I’d produced. Still, there was another nine to go and
a solid back half could still claw back an air of respectability. That lasted
as long as it took me to play the tenth hole. Another double bogey.
At least by now the rain had gone and we were enjoying
sun. It did little to brighten the mood. Despite a fairway and green in regulation
at the twelfth for a par there was precious little change in fortunes and the
second nine followed the trend of the first with too many bad shots, too many
wasted ones and far too few that were good. Even when I did find the fairway or
make a good swing, this was followed up by something that wasn’t as good and I
just couldn’t cobble anything together. In the end, my measly twenty seven
points meant a 0.1 handicap increase and a lowly sixteenth place finish in
division one and an end to the recent good run.
I decided to bite the bullet on Sunday morning and
sacrifice my golfing soul to the elite roll up group known as the “Hooded
Claw”. I’ve been using Sunday’s to work on my game (and enjoy a lie in) but I
wanted to get out in the sunshine and right the wrongs of the competition.
Joined by the walking book of knowledge (some of which
may even be true) Mick Mills and Russ Adamson, a man never going to be lost in
the dark with his bright golf shirts, I was determined to play better. Yet
again, I failed to engage my New Golf Thinking and yet again I chopped it
around the sun drenched “Heath of Dreams”. There is definitely a correlation
between the power of this New Golf Thinking and an ability to play with a clear
head and think and execute well. It does what is says on the tin.
The “Claw” has a special prize for the lowest score of
the day, “the bitch”. The unlucky person has to do all the fetching and
carrying of drink orders and I was pretty certain my score of 25 was going to
be nailed on for that dubious honour. Fortunately my blushes were spared, just.
However it had been another terrible round.
All in all then, definitely a weekend to forget and the
end of my good streak. Or is it just the beginning of another one? I’m annoyed
with myself for not using what has been working and for not swinging well. I’d
worked hard on chipping and putting and also on pitching, especially in the
30-60 yard area. Could I buy a putt? Could I pitch? Was my chipping strong? Of
course not. That’s frustrating. It’s all about the scoring zone from a hundred yards
and in this summer for me and where much of my practice time has been targeted.
If I can get the ball close and make
more up and downs, it’s going to take the pressure off the rest of my game.
It’s the difference between a 0.1 handicap increase and the buffer zone or a
handicap cut. More work to be done. That’s fine. I’m enjoying working on the
chipping and putting and have fallen in love with all things short game
connected.
I’ve done a lot of work on my swing over the winter with
Rhys ap Iolo at the Downshire Golf Complex in Wokingham and it had been working
a lot better. There were a lot of old faults rearing their ugly head that I
thought I’d banished. I’ve booked a refresher lesson for the 16th
(my birthday!) to just tweak things and freshen them up ready to kick on for
the second half of the season. That desire for single figures is as strong as
ever and the recent cut to 11 has brought it much closer. I can see it there on
the horizon and now it is pedal to the metal and time to accelerate onwards.
What can I take from the weekend? Well my crappiest golf
this season is a lot better than it would have been this time last year. My
short game, bad as it was, is still better than it has been. I did hit some nice
shots too. Just not that many. It has also proved, as if I needed verification,
that New Golf Thinking, is a powerful weapon in my armoury. Those of you that
read my last offering (and if not, take yourself there immediately) will know
that I was in contention for large periods of the Stone Cup over the Bank
Holiday. My second round began poorly but I showed good mental fortitude to get
myself back to a point where I was level with my handicap by the fourteenth
hole. In the end I fell away but I was in with a shout right up until the last
few holes. That is a huge step forward in itself. My rambling point is that I
hit a lot of bad shots in the second round of that competition but a better
mental attitude made a big difference.
I am making a big thing of New Golf thinking for a
reason. As well as being in the new edition of Golf Monthly as part of a
feature on the subject (be warned, there is a mug shot of me in there), and my
recent trip to The Grove, it works. It isn’t some form of crutch or something I
can pin my successes or failures against and it won’t hide poor technique and
execution. It does however give me clarity and a feeling of calm sadly lacking
at the weekend.
I do feel disappointed at the way I played. I always do
when I don’t perform as I know I can. That’s just my golfing DNA. Let me make
one thing crystal clear though. I enjoy my golf irrespective of the outcome.
These days I play free from a myriad of swing thoughts over the ball and even
if my score isn’t what I’d have wanted, I know I am still moving forward. I am
driven. That’s just me and while some may say at times I’m too intense that’s
the way I am with golf and I make no apologies for that. It’s probably way too
late to change and even if it isn’t I won’t be doing so anytime soon. I’m like
a dog with a bone and won’t be happy until I reach single figures. When I do,
I’m sure they’ll be another golfing goal to be reached and so it goes on.
I hit the ball much better on the practice ground last
night and hopefully I’ve sorted some of the problems out in time for the
monthly medal on Saturday. I plan to thrown myself upon “The Claw” again on
Sunday and then the course is effectively closed while the world famous Royal
Ascot horse racing takes place next week. That gives me time to recharge the
batteries, have the lesson to check everything is working and then put the work
in on the range ready to come back after the enforced lay off ready to play my
best golf.
I’ve consigned last week to history and it’s all about
the next game. It's the start of a new good spell. Single figures will be mine.
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