It's been a funny few months and I thought it apt to try and get some thoughts down on screen to update you with everything that's been going on. The question is finding a sensible place to start. I guess my job situation is as good a place as any. The last time I wrote about this, I had just entered my 90 days notice period and been placed in the re-deployment pool to try and find alternative employment inside the hospital I work at.
It's near the end of month one and I've been out in the business, working in maternity of all areas. It's definitely been an eye opener to see what goes on and what all those people I recruited in the last few years do on a daily basis. Is it where I see myself? Definitely not and it isn't for me. I've got a review meeting with HR to discuss my options going forward and I think (hope) there may be an opportunity in that area which will use my skills more. So what I hear you sigh wearily? This is meant to be a golf blog. It's a good point well made but it's important to remember we work to live, not live to work and so being happy in what we do (or indeed have a job at all) makes a huge difference and I definitely found that all the indecision during the consultation process and since finding out I hadn't made it to the other side of that has had a negative effect on my game. Concentration and indeed enthusiasm has waned and it has impacted on my score and my enjoyment. While there is still an air of uncertainty, at least I have options on the table and feel more calm about things.And the result? A win in the Centenary Medal and a second place in a recent monthly medal. You can't keep a good man down.
Amidst all of this, I've been trying to produce content for the Three Off The Tee Youtube channel that now runs in conjunction with this blog (The Three Off The Tee Youtube Channel). Click on the link to see where I am with it now if you've not seen it before and don't forget to subscribe while you are there. Once I hit 100 subscribers, Youtube opens up more opportunities to create bigger and better content, which I hope you'll enjoy going forward. If you have seen the channel, it's not too late to subscribe. Come on those Royal Ascot members!! I know you've been watching so get subscribing. It's free for everyone to subscribe so go on, press that button.
On the subject of it not being too late, and getting to 100 subscribers, there is still time to enter the competition I am running to win two dozen golf balls of your choice. Simply subscribe, and tell me how many points you think I scored in my recent rounds on Sunningdale Old and New in the Golf Monthly Forum day (Sunningdale and New Zealand Course vlog) and how many points I scored in Captain's Day at Royal Ascot on the 19th August. Give me the points tally for the three rounds, tell me how many putts I had (as a tie-breaker) and in the comments section of either the Sunningdale vlog, or the competition video here (Competition) put these down and what balls you'd like if you win. Once the channel hits 100 subscribers I'll be announcing the winner.
Going forward, there will be a lot more video content coming. I hope you like what I've done to date. If not, tell me what you'd like to see and how I can improve things. I am trying to do things a little differently and not just do vlogs, but do some reviews from a mid-handicapper perspective, and not getting bogged down in any any technical aspects, but just giving a simple opinion on how I feel the product performed in my (inconsistent) hand. Of course there have been, and will continue to be updates on "The Quest For Single Figures" via the new "Martin's Mouthpiece" segment (The First Martin's Mouthpiece Video). I am working hard on my game and done some work on pitching including the 40 yard pitching challenge (Pitching Challenge) and there is an update on that coming soon. I've some more balls to review and a rather interesting putting training aid that I've used for years and I think you'll find interesting.
What about the golf? It is still an obsession.
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| A chance to reflect and yes despite everything 2017 has had in store it is still an obsession |
Some have said on here, the youtube channel and on the Golf Monthly Forum (The Golf Monthly Forum) that I will never get to single figures, have stagnated, have too much tuition and too much in my head when I'm playing. Do you know what? They could be right. I disagree totally and still think I have it in me. We'll see but rest assured I'm going to continue to try my guts out and do whatever I think helps to get there. I've had a rocky time of it one way and another in the last two years but I'm a survivor and what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger (so they say). I am just hoping for a period of stability so I can focus on this blog more often. I'm aware I've neglected it. I want to do more on youtube and of course I want to be out playing and working on my game.
If this all reads as a woe is me and doom and gloom I apologise. I'm aware (more so working in a hospital) that I'm luckier than many. I just had such high hopes for 2017 in terms of my golf. Perhaps I'm being overly critical. Let's look at the positives:
- I won the Centenary Medal at Royal Ascot Golf Club
- Winning this qualified me for the end of season "Masters" a 36 hole medal even only open to competition winners over the qualifying period. It's the first time in four seasons I've qualified
- I have played some wonderful courses already including Sunningdale and New Zealand and have another top 100 UK rated course in Hankley Common still to play. There have been some less famous courses too which I've really enjoyed including Sutton Green (Course Review), Tylney Park and Kingswood.
- I have been able to try and review some nice products
- I have played with some fantastic people, including old friends and new faces and really enjoyed my time on the course with all of them
- The handicap is moving forward. Granted it's like an asthmatic snail at the moment but it's down by half a shot and one cut is back to 13 again and we can kick on again.
- I have had some wonderful and informative coaching. I've enjoyed the process and some of it has even stuck. I've enjoyed the practice afterwards bleeding the changes into my game and testing it out on the course.
- I've been able to carry on with this blog and the youtube channel and received some positive and encouraging comments. If you took the time to respond to a blog or video or even just to read/watch then a big thank you. I enjoy doing it and if some of it resonates with what other golfers are doing then so much the better.
So where does that leave me? Work wise, still in flux but hopefully with something positive about to happen. Golfing wise, there are still a number of months, including my favourite time of the year to be on a course, when the leaves start to change colour and the place looks its best.
There are still a lot of competitions to enjoy, including of course the "Masters" at Royal Ascot. I've got a Golf Monthly Forum day in aid for the Help For Heroes charity. This is an annual event, played on some great courses and this year as I've mentioned we're off to Hankley Common for what promises to be another great day raising money for a fantastic cause. I've got more lessons coming to try and get better and the handicap moving downwards before winter raises an icy grip on proceedings. There is also a plan to get in place for work over the winter period to get the swing into a better place and ready to hit the 2018 season hard and fast. I am not planning to make it a hat-trick or pre-season hospital trips!!!!! I have mentioned in other posts about doing some NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) to improve my mind set on the course, for better thinking, LESS technical thoughts and to be a calmer golfer. This hasn't really happened as I hoped but again it's something I want to work on and re-visit over the winter.
The last few months have given me a lot of time to think. I've played a number of solo rounds in the evening and just hit the ball while considering career options, my golfing aspirations and life the universe and everything. Funnily enough, care free, about my swing and focusing on stuff other than golf was conducive to some good play. Must be a lesson in there somewhere!
So what about everyone else? How has your season gone to date. Are you burning it up and hitting all the targets you set? Are you happy just playing a for a bit of cash with your mates at the weekend? Are you struggling. Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Stick your comments in the box under this blog and let me know how it's going. Am I ploughing a lone furrow with my take on golf or does it strike a chord with some?
It has definitely been a manic time of it (It's Been Manic blog) and still is but we're moving forward. 2017 definitely isn't the season I'd road mapped for myself but it's not over yet. I've had some good stuff including a win and runners up spot, done well in club matches (bar losing on the last green in the last match against Tylney Park) alongside some total dross including a miserable 24 points in the stableford immediately after the Centenary Medal win. Gloriously, consistently inconsistent. How often do I say that? What I would give to churn out a month of buffer zones.
On reflection then perhaps not as bad a year as I may have painted it in my own mind and more positives than negatives. It's easy to reflect on the negative aspects at time and forget the good stuff I can produce. I am having a successful season, having had a win and a second, a couple of handicap cuts and generally the swing is beginning to feel in a good place following my lessons in 2017. There is a long way to go, short game in particular, and lots more I want to achieve not just in 2017 but in my golfing career. Single figures remains my paramount goal, but I'd love a hole in one. Never had one in over thirty years of playing. I'd like the youtube channel to grow and get bigger and better (you subscribing will definitely help that) and I want to feel I can go out and play competitively on a regular basis. Above all I want to carry on enjoying my golf and the company, whether I play good bad or indifferent.
I'll take some time out again at the end of the year to reflect again (don't groan) and see where the latter half of the season took me and how 2017 treated me as a golfer on the whole. For now, thanks as always for taking the time to read my humble offering (and thanks for watching the videos if you clicked on the links). I hope your own 2017 golfing season has been good for you and if not, that you can rally and have a big push in the last throes of the season. Happy golfing.
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