Club Championship Weekend - Round Two - Yang

What a difference a day makes. Five words that accurately sum up the second round of club championship weekend at Royal Ascot. The opening round had seen your narrator in a cool, calm place, in warm up and especially on the course. There were still some poor holes (isn't there always) but I'd let these sweep over me. Mistakes were forgotten and by and large I was extremely happy with how I'd played on one of the warmest days of the year.

However, sitting out in the heat of the afternoon sun enjoying a few cold ones and then adjourning to the in-laws and spending several hours entertaining my niece and nephews who are over from San Diego for the summer wasn't clever. I got home and knew I'd been out in the sun and was already feeling the effects.

Having had a good first round and sitting comfortably in sixth place, I was out towards the end of the field in net score order and just in front of the final twelve in the filed in contention for the gross prize. I work up feeling tired and listless and definitely paying the price for my exposure to the sun. I usually get to the club about ninety minutes before my tee tine, prepare slowly before going out to warm up and hit a few chips and putts. On the practice ground I couldn't find a spark. I was bored, dis-interested, lacked timing and cohesion and to be honest the warm up wasn't going as planned and I was getting edgy.

Walking onto the first tee, I wasn't feeling it. Where my opening drive twenty four or so hours before had found the green, this was a weak push straight right towards the line of trees that protrude some forty yards right as you can see below

The view from the first tee - an intimidating 229 yard opener

While I wasn't happy with the opening shot, we all assumed it hard at least got through or over the trees and shouldn't too bad. How wrong we were. Clearly it had scurried through, just where the trees rise in the middle of the picture, and had stopped and then rolled back down the bank the trees are perched on and was nestled firmly against the trunk of one of the trees. I had no shot, no option. I couldn't even get into it to make an attempt and so already at this early juncture in the piece I was taking a penalty drop. I salvaged a five (double bogey) but it had done nothing to help and my mind was definitely not on the task at hand.

I found the safety of the fairway at the next and then pushed a five wood perilously towards the out of bounds that runs the length of the hole. On the plus side it was in play. On the down side I had an overhanging branch ten yards in front, a bunker short, some forty yards from the green that took out the low running shot and a lush lie play from. I elected to hit nine iron from 112 yards and it came out well but missed the green left. I chipped and two putted for net par but I was making this hard.

The pattern had been established. Fairway at the next, missed green, this time into sand and although the recovery was good it was a net par when better was there for the taking. I went left off the next, and left on my approach but a fine chip and run to six feet and a putt made a par. Was this the catalyst? I was only a shot back off my handicap and so despite everything I wasn't too far off where I needed to be.

If you've read part one (Club Championship Round One) you will be aware that the fifth had caused issues when I found the bunker right of the green and then thinned the bunker shot miles too far and into deep ferns and a lost ball. What a difference a day makes. I was safely on the green in regulation this time. Granted I was forty feet away and had two tiers to negotiate but what could happen. Walking off some five minutes later having taken four, yes four putts it was another double bogey.

I had a head full of chocolate frogs coming to the sixth. It's a hole that historically I've struggle with. I try not to carry any baggage with me but this 178 yard par three just gets inside me. It doesn't suit my eye in any way and I will always take a bogey four and move on. A par always feel like a half shot gained for me. In truth, having pulled a hybrid, I simply put an atrocious swing on it and sent it sharp right out of bounds. Reloading I hit it better but sliced it and it failed to clear the trees right and suddenly I'm out of bounds again and five off the tee. Switching to a four iron. I simply stood there and swung. Ugly, quick and so many moving parts and feeling my face flushed with embarrassment I hit it forward short left. I chipped it up an two putted for a snowman (8) and a five over par score. That was my day done. My head was a mess. I had no swing, no timing and my head was anywhere but on the course. I threw another double in at the next, a bogey at the eighth and did finally manage a par at the ninth having found fairway and green in regulation. All in all my front nine was 49 shots (+14) and all my handicap allowance had been swallowed. It was a back nine simply for pride.

I had to swallow a large chunk of that at the tenth. Right off the tee and left in my approach into sand, I then repeated the error from day one and thinned a sand shot miles over the green. Given the length of grass, lack of options even if by some miracle I'd found it and the fact I was mentally shot, I took a penalty drop played a far better shot and walked off with a seven (+3).

The golfing gods have a macabre way of mocking the struggling golfer and so it was no surprise my tee shot at the par three eleventh would find sand. It's one of the deeper bunkers on the course but I played an exquisite recovery to three feet and saved par. My driving was the only thing holding together and I found the short grass again. I made bogey, net par but at least I had hit the ball better momentarily. In fact I started to look like a golfer. Par on the 186 yard par three, having found the green off the tee and the fairway at the next which should have led to par but for a poor second, and the card looked a little smarter. It was too little too late of course.

On the fifteenth I found the fairway and my second was in prime position about eighty yards short. Nothing to worry about. And then the idiot golfer returned. I chunked my approach and came up short, chipped on and walked off with another bogey from nowhere. I managed a par at the seventeenth thanks to an up and down and managed to hit the last in regulation. Given the ragged nature of my round it was no surprise when I then three putted. I was back in 43 shots. All in all it was 92 (net 79 +9). Another 0.1 back on the handicap and I went tumbling down the leader board to finally finish 27th place in the net event.

Club Championship Statistics - Round 2

Definitely not my finest moment on a golf course. In my defence, I wasn't feeling it and was definitely off colour. It started poorly and never got any better. The funny thing is as you can see from the statistics is that off the tee I was great. It hit 83% (8/10) in regulation and even my greens in regulation was better than normal at 22% and equates to my handicap. Sand saves was 33% (1/3). Despite that nightmare four putt on the fifth and the obligatory three putt at the last I only had thirty six putts in total which wasn't a disaster. Not as good as I'm use to but still two putts per round. What it does show, was that when it goes wrong, it goes wrong in grand fashion and is still something I need to eradicate from my game.

It wasn't my year but I'd done well in round one and need to simply park the second day and move on. There was enough out there to keep me interested and happy. I am still working hard on my short game and feel that sooner or later the improvements I'm seeing in practice will translate to saved shots on the course. My driving was as good as it could be. I need to continue to find a level of consistency in that area. From there I need to find more greens. Of course I'm disappointed and the effects of the sun the day before didn't help.

I'm not a million miles away from where I want to be. There are still health issues that are simmering below the surface which aren't helping and yes, the mockers will point to the ever increasing handicap, but while the pursuit of single figures remains parked until I get the clear health bill, I am actually encouraged, nay enthused still. In practice I am hitting it well. I just can't take it to the course and that's an area I need to look at and something Andy Piper and I will work on as part of a winter programme to strip away the imperfections layer by layer.

Definitely a ying/yang weekend and a competition of two halves. Keep the good stuff and find a way to make a score, eradicating the rubbish. Get the head right, even if I'm not feeling it. Learn to make a score. All stuff to keep working on. As you'd have gathered I love the journey and I'm not going to stop. I'm still going to get to where I want to go.

Club Championship Weekend - Round One - Ying

Last weekend was the club championship at Royal Ascot. Played in blistering hot conditions, on a course set up to absolute perfection, there were two prizes on offer. There was the gross prize, the club champion, and one for the best net score. Clearly, there is only a handful that are really in contention for the big prize but there's always a fierce battle for the net prize and it does give everyone something to aim for and makes it an inclusive event. As always, it was played over two days with a halfway cut for the top sixty and ties with the scores out in reverse net order apart from the top dozen contenders in the gross prize which are sent out last to duel it out for the spoils.

As always, the aim is always to not play yourself out of contention in round one and remember you can't win it on day one but you can give yourself the Sunday off. I haven't played too much since my lesson with Andy Piper and so there was an element of doubt about what version of my golfing incarnation would turn up. Sometimes I can be excellent in warm up and play like a drain on the course or I can struggle for timing and tempo on the range and then string an acceptable score. Of course sometimes I can turn up and look like I've never picked up a club before.

However, last Saturday I arrived with an absolute air of tranquillity and calm. I started working on my putting, hit a few chips and then took a large bucket of balls to the practice ground. A few stretches and pitch shots to warm up and then into my routine. I was hitting it like a dream. No really! It was calm, in sync and going great. As it was so warm I left a lot of the balls, having hit a few bunker shots and retired to the cool clubhouse to prepare and get my card.

If you have followed my ramblings over the years, you'll be aware that the first at Royal Ascot asks some tough questions from the outset. Playing 229 yards off the whites, there is out of bounds right, a pond short and left, a line of trees right that jut out from the out of bounds towards the green and will catch anything pushed. Add in two bunkers left, another right and a lateral hazard left from the pond and behind the left hand bunkers and it's perhaps harder, at least mentally than the SI 10 on the card. In my calm state, I took a five wood, pegged it up and put it on the green some twenty feet from the flag to set up an early par.

I was only one over gross after the tricky opening quartet, and spurred by a great up and down for par at the fourth from behind the green to save par it was onto the fifth a 503 yard par five that offered a chance to make more progress. I was green side in three in the bunker. And then the air of calmness vanished as I bladed the sand shot through the green into deep foliage and a lost ball. In the end I did well to keep the damage to a double bogey. However it was the start of a scrappy run (bogey, double, bogey) from the sixth to the eighth. I was on the ninth in two after a good drive and majestic four iron from 188 yards. I walked off after three putting. Out in forty three and one over handicap. Not a disaster especially given the two doubles and that pesky three putt.

I blew a chance at the tenth missing the green on ten but made a solid par at the eleventh hitting the heart of the 178 yard par three. Another fine drive followed at the twelfth, SI 1 which was testament to Andy Piper's tuition in the lesson. I hit what I thought was a fine four iron high and straight expecting it to bounce onto the green from the baked approach. It dug in, caught some fringe grass and came up short. A good chip but a missed par. If I had made a few unforced errors to date, I was truly unfortunate at the 13th, another 178 yard par three. I hit a hybrid which just ran through the green. When I got there it was in a massive divot. It had looked like someone had tried a Phil Mickleson flop shot and taken a huge chunk of turf which they didn't replace. I couldn't get any iron behind it, nor a hybrid or fairway wood. In the end I tried to blade a seven iron, half heartedly and it came up short for a rather undeserved bogey.

I was nice and steady until the sixteenth, usually a hole I struggle with off the tee. With out of bounds tight left, no more than fifteen yards left, two large oaks on the right of the fairway at around the 220 yard mark and a number of young trees and lush rough on the right for those determined not to go left it is arguably the hardest driving hole on the course. I hit another fairway, missed the green from 198 yards but produced another up and down for par

Club Championship Round 1 Statistics

The last two holes were net pars. I hit the poorest drive of the round at the last into the right hand rough. I moved it forward but left myself around 165 yards. With a pond cutting into the green from the right, today wasn't the day to take this shot on. Saturday morning roll up and I'd have pulled a five iron and gone for it with gusto. The calm persona had returned and I just wanted to lay it up towards the fifty yard mark to leave a simple pitch in. I pulled it horribly and it was lucky not only to miss the bunkers short and left but to not kick on into the heavy rough separating the last from the ninth. Perhaps it was reward after my bad break at the thirteenth. I pitched on safely, two putts and time to shake hands.

When it was all added up, I'd come back in 41 which gave me a gross 84, net 71 (+1) and a decent sixteenth place after the opening round. It had been a good round, arguably the best I've played in the 2016 season. It was certainly the best I've felt about myself on the course, and made some very good decisions and executed with precision. I don't know what was different and as we'll find out later, it's something I wish I had bottled for future use.

My driving was much improved and the changes from the lesson have clearly paid off hitting 58% of the fairways. I even managed 28% of greens in regulation which is significantly improved on anything I've had all season. The only down side was the 35 putts and I really couldn't make a putt all day with many grazing the hole but refusing to drop, and the scrambling statistics with only 15% of up and downs. My bunker play was poor all day, prompted by that nightmare on the fifth after which I was tentative and nervy.

I was very, very happy. It was a good round that could have been a few shots better but I doubt even in my wildest dreams if it would have got close to the net 65 (-5) posted by the first round leader. On the plus side I was safely ensconced into the second round with a relatively late tee time. I left the club in the same calm state I'd had on the course and returned home thinking of daring deeds to come in round two and hoping a low score could have me right in the mix for the net prize. What a difference a day would make.

Back To School Again

Despite my last lesson with Andy Piper, my game hasn't really kicked on as I hoped. I've been struggling to get much golf in which hasn't helped but what golf I had managed wasn't good. I had already had a catch up with Andy booked in. The driver had still been misbehaving and I wanted a different look at bunker technique. This is the one area of the linear short game that hasn't gelled since my lesson in any fashion and I just wanted to see if a simpler approach would help.

The curious thing is despite having played poorly, the swing didn't feel miles off. It was just that the bad shots were catastrophic. There was some good stuff chucked in there and the linear chipping has come on but I couldn't buy a putt.

I have bought a DST compressor eight iron (DST Compressor) to improve my strike and get the hands forward as Andy Piper had been asking at it's been starting to work and improve my striking and getting me in a good position (review will follow in due course). When I started hitting balls in my lesson, Andy was happier with my set up and more importantly my impact position. However there were still issues. In particular I still set up with the heel of the club totally flat on the ground which seems to set the hands rather high at address. Andy wasn't happy and explained it could lead to the toe coming in first given my swing and path. He got a small coin and wanted me to lift the toe enough to slide that under and hit shots without touching the coin.

Setting up properly with the toe off the ground

By lowering the hands a fraction and at the same time softening the right elbow into the body a fraction I could feel the arms and shoulder begin the swing and that the club was turning much better. From the top, it was about my old friend tempo, and making the swing and turn smooth and not a rushed move, lunging forward but trying to stay on top of it. Suddenly with a couple of subtle changes I was chasing range balls towards a target at 150 yards with a seven iron. That's long for me.

Softer right elbow - I need to be aware of not turning it open and keeping it more on top.- this one is a fraction over cooked

Having got the seven iron singing, we move onto the driver. This is a real troublesome club at the moment and either finds the middle of a fairway or is so far right it's in the knee high stuff never to be seen again. No middle ground and I've no idea hole to hole what's coming next.

As expected I hit the first one relatively straight, short but you'd find it on the course. The next couple were carved right, with a bit of right and some additional right on it. Now bearing in mind I'm six feet tall and Andy Piper is several inches shorter. He measured where I was standing at address with the driver and he got in and set up and I was actually closer that he was. I needed to step back, give myself more room  and use my longer arms as levers to generate the power and the ability to hit through freely.

As with the irons and as I've said many times before, Andy Piper doesn't make huge changes unless absolutely necessary and it tends to be simple nips and tucks to get a golfer's swing back. The driver started to fly much higher and longer. I still had a miss right but it was now more of a block and Andy quickly spotted that I was simply holding onto the shot and not releasing properly. I've a couple of drills now to work on that but when I let it all flow, I was ripping it. There is more to come but now I've got the tools to start getting the job done.

That was two easy fixes and so onto the bunker. If you've been following my exploits. you'll know I've been using the linear method of short game and had a lesson with Gary Smith the guru of this style of playing short shots. We looked at bunker play and during the lesson it had worked perfectly but in the weeks since then, issues have crept in and my bunker play hasn't been as good as I'd like. The pitching and chipping are fine but I'm not happy with how the technique translates to the sand. I asked Andy to look at a conventional methods, having shown him my linear. method. He understands it but thinks I can make life simpler. He went through the set up and simply wanted me to turn the body as I have a tendency to just use the arms and not turn through. I was popping them out sweetly, very sweetly to within several feet. Of course this now throws an interesting conundrum about sticking with linear or doing what Andy wants and keeping it simpler.

Another superb hour of tuition was over in a flash but I walked away on a cloud and so much more in tune with my game. The down side is health issues have robbed any opportunity of putting this into practice on the course. In practice, this has still been working fine but I need to find game time. It's club championship weekend next weekend and so I need to find time after work to go out and work hard and get some on course work in. It's a two round event with a cut after round one and the top sixty (and ties) get into Sunday going out in score order so the highest from round one get the early start times. I've made good progress in recent years having not missed a cut and don't intend to break that now.

That's the tuition done for a while. I just need to get the health back to full golfing fitness. It's coming and so with a week to get my game in shape before the club championship I hope to finally get the season off and running. Sadly it has felt so stop/start all year. The handicap has quietly risen from 12.2 to 13.0 and the form has been patchy. It hasn't been all plain sailing and I feel to a degree I've let myself down a little in 2016. However with the big events now here, starting with the club championships at the weekend I still have a chance to get the handicap moving in the right direction. Working with Andy has really helped and I just need to find a way of translating this onto the course. In fact I just need to get out on the course. It seems to be the odd roll up and competition for a few weekends and then something getting in the way to prevent me playing for a while. I work hard on the game, not always successfully and then go out, under prepared and not fulfilling my potential and generally making mistakes and playing poorly.

I've enjoyed my golf to date and really enjoyed my tuition. I've often been accused of getting too many lessons, paralysis by analysis and over complicating things. That's possibly very true. I do like to practice hard and very much like Padraig Harrington (a favourite of mine) enjoy the tinkering process. I stand on the first tee and I never feel overly concerned and worried. I see the first shot, rehearse and commit. It's been known to be a good day. Too many bad days for my liking this year but I still have a committed belief in my ability and once I'm back to full fitness (not long now) I'll be back. I need to take just get my range game onto the course but that's been the story for far too long. Let's see what this week brings, how my game develops and whether I can survive the cut and play both rounds of the club championship. That's my first target. Play well and as I've said before handicap cuts will come along of their own accord.

Gary Smith - Linear Method

As regular followers will know, I've been dabbling with a very different method of playing all things related to the short game, the pitching, chipping and bunker shots. It's called the linear method as advocated by Gary Smith, a Golf Monthly top 25 coach and coach to the England Golf Squad. If you search linear method on here there are numerous blog pieces going back a number of years.

You may even recall that I was given an hours tuition with Gary as a Christmas present from my wife and so with Royal Ascot Golf Club difficult to get to amidst the mayhem of the Royal Ascot race meeting I opted to take it on Friday 17th June. It was booked for Gary's teaching base at Sutton Green Golf Club near Guildford in Surrey and all was set.

I have dabbled with this method on and off and feel I've ended up being caught between two stools, trying to persevere with the linear version, self taught via a Gary Smith DVD and utilising something far more conventional for which there are ready made coaching solutions should it go wrong. However mentally, the linear method sits better in my head and I feel it gives me more margin for error.

As always with a lesson I arrived early to get my bearings and warm up. I was shown to the their dedicated short game area. I started hitting pitches to a target approximately 30 yards away using the technique I've adopted. It was all going rather well. I ventured to the bunker, where things weren't quite so good. Finally I finished off with some chips around the green which were a little hit and miss but why panic when you are in the capable hands of an Advanced Fellow of the PGA. Bang on time Gary wandered across and with the introductions over, it was time to show him what I had. I don't normally get nervous in lessons but meeting someone with Gary's reputation and resume, and knowing that potentially I had bastardised his fantastic technique with my own take on things, this time was different. Fortunately the first couple flew off sweetly as he stood on and watched. I threw in the inevitable thin and fat to show him the full gamut of my short game repertoire.

Fortunately, he seemed suitably impressed with my overall interpretation and that all in all the fundamentals were sound. He made a few changes to the set up, standing a fraction taller, but more importantly getting my hips far more to the left to help promote a better turn. We tweaked the head at address and then he got me to hit some more, concentrating on simply letting the body turn and the right hand control the shot.

Gary Smith - pitch technique

It was then off to the bunker. As per my warm up this was a real mixture of the good, bad and indifferent. Again, my major issues related to set-up and posture and I need to stand taller and as per the pitching, adjust my hips and head. This felt far more alien than it had on the sanctuary of a mat but once I "felt" it and got use to turning and releasing with the right hand, the ball popped up softly and I produced bunker shots I'd only dreamt off. It just seemed so easy. Even moving onto the dreaded long bunker shot of some twenty five yards I put three balls down, on target, no more than a sand wedge apart. Simples

Linear method - bunker shots

Gary wasn't changing much at all. It was simply tweaking and improving what I had already and I felt pleased that I hadn't been off point too far. The ball position at address was perhaps the strangest looking thing as the hands were definitely placed a lot further behind the ball. It looks weird, weight forward, hands back and it's one thing I've been self conscious of taking it out on the course. I understood even better, how the correct set up now promoted greater use of the bounce and how in both sand and off grass, it really could work. It cemented in my head the thought that this technique was what worked best for me. I had been asked on the Golf Monthly Forum (http://forums.golf-monthly.co.uk/) about how this shallow of angle of attack would work off compact wet sand. The bunker was suitable wet and Gary quickly knocked up a compact scenario and we gave it a go. As the right hand keeps the loft on the club, even on hard, wet lies, it was still possible to take a shallow divot and allow the ball to pop up. I hoped it would be that easy and like the standard shot I was still able to escape with a slightly lower trajectory but which landed softly and stopped.

Our final stop was the putting green to sort my chipping out. Situated near the first tee at Sutton Green my air of self consciousness was heightened with a society mingling around ready to tee off. However, Gary and I got to work. The chipping method is marginally different, as there isn't the need for so much momentum to propel the ball forward.

Linear method - chipping technique

I'm not sure if it was the fact that others were watching on intently or I wanted this to work so well, being the weakest part of my short game but I struggled early on and the swing was too quick and dis-jointed. I kept at it and with a few tweaks, particularly softening the hands, it started to come. As the lesson ended and Gary and I shook hands and discussed what we had covered I decided to stay put and plug away. As Gary disappeared behind the club house, I holed one and then three balls later another. Dream land.

Unfortunately my playing opportunities have been somewhat curtailed in recent weeks and will be again this weekend. However I have managed a few practice sessions after work. It hasn't been as good as I'd hoped especially the bunkers but in my defence, the practice bunker has normally been partially flooded due to the huge rainfall we've had in June. The pitching has been there in fits and starts and is still a work in progress. I did play in the monthly stableford last weekend (the less said the better about my general game) but I chipped stone dead at the first for par, got up and down at the next and ended up making two out four (50%) sand saves. Although my up and down statistics weren't great overall, I chipped with more confidence than I have lately. I needed to putt better but that will come and is usually a bedrock. Sadly my long game is in sharp decline and hasn't picked up or kicked on since my lesson with Andy Piper. I don't know what the problem is and we're having a catch up next week.

I'll try and work on it this weekend, although health issues are making my playing and practice time sporadic. If I do, I'll try and get some video footage up. As I've mentioned, I'm not there technically yet. It will come. It sits right mentally, and Gary has given me more confidence to go out and work on it until I am happy and it stands up under pressure on the course.

It was a real pleasure to meet Gary Smith. He has developed a radical method but it works. He is a very good teacher, having seen it all before. He seemed pleased I had taken the first steps to learn the linear method and was happy to add meat to the bones. As one of the best coaches in the UK it could have been rather off putting but he was concise, friendly, open and able to pitch his teaching method perfectly to my learning style. All in all, it was an eye opening experience, one I enjoyed hugely and one I plan to repeat in a few months time to get Gary to monitor my progress. His rates are at the higher end of the scale but you do get what you pay for. Top quality coaching. All in all another very satisfied customer.

Back To School

It doesn't seem so long ago, that my golf game seemed to be in a good place and I was finally making some good scores. Granted they were often blighted by one or two nightmare holes but that's been an ongoing issue for a while and nothing new. However, if you cast your mind back to my last humble offering, I'd come off the back of a lesson with Andy Piper, the professional based at Lavender Park Golf Centre in Ascot I regularly use for tuition. He'd changed a lot in terms of set up and losing a cupped wrist position at address and at the top of the swing. Things hadn't been going well and I struggled on my trip to Kingswood. Things back at my home club, Royal Ascot, hadn't got any better, culminating in an all time low point total in the second round of the Stone Cup over the bank holiday weekend.

The set up changes seem to have led to weak cuts. Distances with all clubs are down and the driver has a mind of its own, determined it seems to carve the ball as far right as possible into the deepest rough each hole has to offer. To be honest, Royal Ascot Golf Club is now looking an absolute picture, the best it has since it moved to the new course and we started playing in August 2005. However accuracy is now at a premium, and if I was to err on a note of slight criticism, the semi-rough is too long and it's a lofted club to get the ball forward. It really needs an intermediate cut, then this depth of rough and then the real bundra we have, which to be honest, if your ball goes into it, you deserve to be reloading. Of course that muttering is just my point of view although I know it's a view others have voiced in the 19th. Maybe the word will get back. Maybe the club just have a sadistic streak and not happy with taking our subs annually enjoy watching us suffer each weekend as well!

This week is the world famous Royal Ascot horse racing festival. Although the club is technically open, playing on a reduced course, to be honest the aggravation of getting to and from the club with revised traffic flows, huge crowds and a lack of practice facilities, mean I tend to give it a wide berth each year. We do have a number of reciprocal agreements and many use this week to take advantage and travel to sample other courses.

As my game has unravelled a little, I'm using it to have a number of lessons. On Tuesday (14th) I had an hour with Andy Piper to sort all that ailed my game in recent weeks. On Friday I am having an hour with Gary Smith, an England Golf coach, a Golf Monthly top 25 coach and inventor of the Linear Method of short game. This is down at Sutton Green Golf Club in Guildford and has a designated short game area (Gary Smith in Surrey Golf Magazine - turn to page 26/27).

I have spoken many, many time about Linear Method pitching and chipping and it's a technique I feel more comfortable with than a more conventional method. I've been working on it, self taught via an instructional DVD, but now I've a chance to get the top man to make sure I am doing it properly, give me the absolute chapter and verse on this (the search on the front page of this site will give you all you need to know about all things Linear). That's still to come though. This was about getting my swing back on track.

As well as a teaching professional, with a portfolio including many single figure golfers and professionals, and being an examiner and coursework assessor for the PGA, Andy Piper teaches golfers at all levels under the ethos of "Enjoy the Challenge" and tailors and approach to suit golfers of all abilities.

Andy Piper - the name in charge of trying to sort my ailing golf swing - Brave man!

I'd hit a few balls in warm up and it wasn't going too badly. Andy arrived and watched me hit a few. It didn't take long for Dr Golf to deliver his prognosis. We started with an old friend, poor posture. Too stooped over with the shoulder in front of the feet. From there, I'd over egged the pudding from the last lesson. I got the hands too far forward which had now opened the shoulders. From that position it was inevitable that I'd get ahead of the ball and so the weak fades and lack of distance was a foregone conclusion.

The cure, as always with Andy was simple. We started by getting taller and closer to the ball so the shoulders were much more over the top of the feet and not in front. From there, we tweaked the hand position at address and moved the head position slightly back. Think the iconic Jack Nicklaus head turn. From there it was simply a case of making the same swing I had, ensuring I stayed behind the ball at impact and bingo, the ball began travelling straighter and further. In fact distance was a few yards up on what I'd consider my average per club. There were still some bad shots, but these derived from a poor tempo, far too quick in the takeaway. We call it the excited puppy, where I see progress, and like a puppy get way too excited and so don't go through the checklist in set-up and swing way too quickly.

Having tweaked the irons we moved onto the driver. As I alluded to earlier, the semi-rough we currently have at Royal Ascot is rather long and penal and finding where the mower goes is vital. We didn't play around too much with the set-up we'd created and it was a case of simply swinging smoothly, feeling the toe of the driver was taking over through impact as I had a tendency to want to hold onto it and push it down the line instead of letting it release. Again, distance returned and dispersion was far tighter.

This was an hour long lesson. Like the usual thirty minute ones, time flew by and it was over so quickly. I feel back in tune with my game and plan to work hard over the next few days to get the set up changes in place before the course re-opens fully next week and I can get out and test the revamped swing. I don't feel we've re-invented the wheel with the changes and I haven't got a plethora of swing thoughts in my head. I've a basic checklist to go through, mainly about the initial address position and standing closer and taller, then trusting it and letting it flow.

So far so good with my return to school week. I've a new swing aid to tell you about once I get it for my 50th birthday tomorrow (16th) and I've given it a test. I've also got the hour of tuition with Gary Smith on Friday. This I'm really excited about as I feel the Linear Method is far better suited to my short game. It sits better in my head and I feel I can commit better to the shots. I'm self taught to date and so hopefully Gary will add some meat to the bones and he'll tweak what I've done myself and get my short game really firing.

I've a lot of work to do in the next week or so to make these changes from both lessons feel natural and get them working out on the course. As always, I'm committed to the challenge and while the odyssey towards single figures remains in hiatus with health issues curtailing as much playing and practice as I'd like, its still game on as far as that's concerned. For now, I need to get the ball into play off the tee more often, something I feel more than capable of doing, and then using the new set up to stay behind the ball and deliver a solid strike onto target. After Friday if I do miss the target, my new short game skills should see me right. After all, what can possibly go wrong?

Kingswood Golf Club

My golfing exploits have been curtailed recently and appearances on the course have been sporadic at best and the games I have played have left a lot to be desired. I had a recent lesson with my usual teaching professional, Andrew Piper at Lavender Park. We changed the set up and in particular getting rid of a cupped left wrist. However, since then, I've struggled and have little confidence in what I'm doing and even less confidence taking it out on the course. It's a work in progress and something that I understand can lead to a variety of swing issues, but I'm struggling to feel comfortable at address, make a committed swing and find a way to deliver the club back to the ball properly.

I have had a long standing game arranged with my oldest and best friend at Kingswood Golf and Country Club, located in Tadworth, Surrey, very close to the world famous Walton Heath Golf Club and next door to Surrey Downs. The journey there was fraught with the M25 struggling to cope but once there, I received a warm welcome from the receptionist and professional. The locker room was spacious, with a large number of visitor lockers available. Having got there early and to get the journey out of my body, I ventured to the practice ground. It's a fairly small range and if I had a gripe, it was that the quality of the balls wasn't great. However, it did the job and I was actually finding the centre of the club on a regular(ish) basis.

I wandered back to the clubhouse, as the practice ground is set a five minute walk away, past the tenth tee and halfway house. I met up with my friend and an old acquaintance from a previous society day, paid my green fee, discounted to £33 and got ready to do battle with the course.

The course was designed by the famous designer James Braid and he oversaw the work while serving as head professional at Walton Heath and it opened in 1928. He was also responsible for the likes of Carnoustie, Gleneagles and Hoylake. Kingswood has undergone a re-design by Howard Swan and the course now boasts ninety nine bunkers strategically placed to capture errant drives and misplaced approach shots. Even off the yellow tees it's a long and testing examination (Kingswood Scorecard).

It's a parkland layout with mature trees lining both side of the fairway and along with the excellent positioning of fairway bunkers, asks a lot of questions on each tee shot. Get it right and the hole is always there in front of you with nothing hidden to trick you. Miss the fairway and while the rough isn't penal in terms of depth, which makes finding errant shots relatively easy, the number of trees ensure that even if you have a full swing, there isn't an easy route back into play. The greens are relatively generous, well guarded, and although they weren't frightening in terms of speed, there were subtle breaks on every one. They were extremely firm and even well struck irons would release on landing and so it made club selection difficult.

The first in a gentle opener over the brow of a hill. I got a good opening drive away splitting the fairway which settled the nerves. Despite it being a Friday afternoon, at the start of the bank holiday, there wasn't too much pressure in terms of the number of players and the pace of play was good. I had my normal array of good, bad and indifferent shots on the front nine. We stopped at a pleasant half way hut by the tenth tee and enjoyed a very nice bacon bap and drink. The break and food did nothing for my game and I struggled early on over the back nine.

The back nine is longer than the front including a stretch of long, testing holes from the fourteenth to the sixteend, that run along the side of a valley and which finishes with a 430 yard par four. Playing into a breeze it would require two lusty blows to get home. As I missed the fairway, the green wasn't on my agenda.

The last hole plays uphill to a green set in front of the clubhouse and so any putting indiscretions are played out in front of a gallery but it's a wonderful setting. I can imagine that if you have a good competition card in hand, especially in a big honours board event or the club championship, with a large crowd watching it could well be a nerve jangling conclusion to the round

Kingswood putting green and club house

Like many courses, Kingswood is one of those that you really need to play more than once, to work out which bunkers you can take on off the tee and which you need to avoid. You also need to know where position the approach shots to let it feed towards the hole and the greens will take several rounds to learn some of their nuances. That said, it's an excellent course, beautifully maintained, and one that gives a visitor value for money and is fair and honest test. The club house and locker room are clean, airy and welcoming and the staff are friendly and attentive without ever being obtrusive.

They have spent £500,0000 on upgrading the course and since then it has been selected to be a qualifying course for the 2011 Seniors Open and hosted the Surrey Amateur Championship and PGA Surrey Open in 2014. Kingswood have plans to build on this and make it not only a must play for the visiting club golfer, but to host more prestigious events.

The day itself was fantastic. Brilliant warm sunshine, great company and a well presented course, that on the back nine at least, proved far too good for my struggling game. I can't wait to get an invite back again, (especially as my friend has now become a member), as long as the M25 behaves (two and a half hour return journey that should have taken fifty minutes). I did get a discounted green fee and they offer a mid-afternoon rate of £45, although I'm not totally convinced it would be worth the full £70 quoted on their website even given the quality of the layout. That of course is just my opinion, and I have a reputation of being financially prudent (tight as some would say) so maybe it's just the thought of me parting with my hard earned cash

Course presentation, layout and condition 8.5/10
Practice facilities 5/10
Halfway hut food and service 7.5/10
Welcome and service 8.5/10
Access and easiness to find 7/10
Food and drink 7.5/10

Overall mark 7.5/10 (well worth a visit)

The Circus Comes To Town

I am pleased to say that for the most part, I've carried the good form from my previous post onwards and that I played last weekend, in both the Saturday roll up and the monthly medal on the Sunday. However it's not all tickety boo in the golfing garden as yet again a mental meltdown cost me dearly. More of that later. Also, I missed out on any playing this weekend just passed although I did get some practice in, not all of it as good as I wanted. However I'm getting ahead of myself.

The Saturday roll up is a relaxed and friendly format, stableford off club handicap, and is usually run as an individual winner takes all, and a team event depending on how many three/four balls we have. If scores are tied, it's one tied all tied, and we usually invest the funds into lottery lucky dip tickets for those partaking that week, in the hope of the "big one" and using any tiny prizes to fund a Christmas drink for all members of the roll up. I say it's friendly but the banter on the course and especially in the 19th after is biting, with no quarter given.

I had been playing well as I alluded to in my last offering. In glorious, nay, barmy weather, I started with a net par and then went on a roll. Par, par, birdie, par, birdie. That meant standing on the seventh I was one under gross. Unheard of, certainly in recent memory. Now I know what you are all going to say, I bet he thinks about it too much. I know the mental side of it and still try to stick to New Golf Thinking (search it on the blog, there's several posts about it) and the old cliche of one shot at a time. No excuses for taking a double then, especially having found the fairway off the tee. Par and then another double, courtesy of a duffed pitch and another par and I was out in 38 gross (+3) or 21 points. There was definitely a lower score, maybe not level par, but definitely lower, in that nine.

Do you know the funniest thing? I wasn't actually striking it that well for the most part. It was scrappy but I was getting it around. I started the back nine with another double but kept the net par scores coming. I did find the green at the par three thirteenth a tricky 186 yard hole I don't get a shot at (SI 17) and while I dropped a few more shots, I managed to sign off with a par at the last. It wasn't pretty. The whole round hadn't been. It was still a respectable seventeen points coming in, for thirty eight in total. I was in the box seat sitting in the bar all the way until the last group when another player matched my efforts. One tied, all tied so the money was invested in the lottery. As I'm typing this you can safely assume we didn't hit the big time.

Naturally, I was in a positive mood going to the medal the next day. The day was even warmer, and for the first time (hopefully not the last) the sun cream was out. Take care out there guys. I was hitting the ball reasonably well, certainly better than the day before, but not as well as I can. However it took me until the fifth to make a par, followed by another at the next. I made a big mess of the shortest hole, the 139 yard par three. Big hook off the tee, trying to go flag hunting, two duffed chips and two putts for a double bogey. The ninth always plays into a breeze even on the warmest of days and it took two of my Sunday best shots to find the fringe left, pin high. I walked off with a par and was level handicap. In a medal I'd take that every time.

Playing the eleventh, the wind picked up. I took an extra club, the hybrid. I cannot lie (well I could) it was a bit of hook but held up in the wind, landed on the front and ran up to three feet. It certainly fooled my playing partners who thought I'd played for it. I knew I'd dodged a bullet. It didn't stop me draining the birdie putt though.

Remember back at the start of this ramble I mentioned a mental meltdown. Those of a nervous disposition should stop reading now. The twelfth is stroke index one, 409 yards in length although it can play shorter if you take on the line of trees to the right of the hole. There is then a ditch some ten yards over the trees that also runs the length of the hole, and so if you're going to take it on, make sure you get hold of all of it. I had already opted to play straight, hope for a small fade if possible, and go from there.

The view from the 12th tee. Only the big boys should take the carry on.

I actually hit a nasty weak slice towards the tree line. I had it already mapped out in my mind. Take your medicine, hit a chip and run with a four or five iron towards the hundred yard marker, pitch on, two putt and no-one need know. When I got to my ball it had actually run further through the trees than I thought. Not a problem, stick with the plan. For no explicable reason, and having found I was capable of making a full swing without catching any limbs, the plan evaporated. I suddenly thought I was Seve reincarnated and could hit a low fade some 170 yards under the limbs in front, move it past the bunker short right and run it up the entrance and to the flag. What could possibly go wrong? Walking off with a nine, yes nine, including the obligatory three putt, it was clear I didn't have an iota of Seve's talent. Why do I never learn. The chip and run forward meant a double was the biggest score I could make. In my (feeble) defence, this particular road crash was a moment of craziness and I am usually so much stronger mentally than that and my normal bad scores come through poor technique. This was a rare moment.

I think they call it bounce back ability and to my credit I realised immediately it was a moment of golfing insanity and not a loss of form. For the second day running I made par at the thirteenth and although my game was getting ragged in the heat, both in the midday sun and the midst of the battle, I was hanging tough, despite a silly bogey at fifteen and a double to follow. I closed with two net pars and so despite the twelfth hole signed for a net 72 (+2) and safely in the buffer zone. I came sixth in division one. The winner, with a marvellous net 66 (-4) was never going to be caught but second was level par. I could have been right in that mix and in line for a top three finish. As you can imagine, the post round beer didn't taste as good as it could have.

As I mentioned I never really felt I was in control of my swing completely, Not during that birdie blitz in the roll up or the true test of golf in the medal. However as you can see from the statistics below, I was hitting all my targets, bar the driver. If I can do that and not feel I'm firing on all cylinders then it has to bode well for the rest of 2016

7th - 8th May statistics

I didn't play this weekend. Life got in the way. That was annoying as it was the monthly stableford and I wanted to get back on the horse and see what I could do. I managed some practice. The short game, and in particular bunkers and pitching with the linear method was better, but my swing was off, and too many moving parts again. It felt I was swaying off the ball in the takeaway which was a fault from a recent lesson. I started hitting it better yesterday but had to really grind it out and so have booked a lesson with Andy Piper, my regular teacher to see the problem and the fix ready for the weekend.

The biggest regret though of not getting a game was the chance to play the course as it was. We have the Jamega Tour (Jamega tour website) in town for a professional event at Royal Ascot. The tour is an initial feeder tour for up and coming professionals to try and make a name and move upwards towards the Europro tour, the European Challenge Tour and then a chance at the big time. Yesterday was official practice day for the Jamega competitors and the course had been set up perfectly. It definitely looked a picture and by all accounts played even better. Greens had been mown and rolled and fairways cut and defined. I tried to listen without showing too many green tinges of jealousy.

I've seen some of the scores from round one and apart from a blistering seven under, there were only twelve under at par or better, proving once again, and something we the members feel every time we play, that the course is no push over. If the professionals can struggle (and there were some big numbers in round one as you'll see on the website) then it gives renewed hope to my own efforts.

I'm looking forward to my lesson this week. It's been a while and Andy Piper has a knack of watching, usually without even filming the swing, making a couple of changes, usually to posture (my biggest issue), tempo or takeaway, and suddenly the ball is flying laser straight. You stand there and wonder what's just happened. It doesn't feel as though anything has altered, certainly after a dozen or so dead straight shots. and you feel six inches taller. I usually hit a small bucket after, just to reinforce the change, and to get it bleeding into my swing. This means I can usually hit the course, or practice ground, confident in the new swing.

As a bit of light relief, I came across this recently. Watch it as I'm sure there is part of you in here. I certainly recognise a few traits myself. As someone who enjoys working hard on his game it was actually a bit of a kick up the backside and a reminder that to get better it isn't about working harder necessarily, but definitely about working smarter. Enjoy. Five Reasons You Don't Get Better At Golf

As I'm in a jovial mood, chipper from recent exploits I'd also like to share a link to a blog Using The Bounce from a regular Golf Monthly Forum member by the name of Chris Swanson. He's as mad about golf as I am and loving the ups and downs of being a handicap golfer. He's set his own targets for the season and has his own thoughts on this great game but his latest offering was so funny but resonated so accurately it needed a bigger audience. I hope you enjoy this ditty about how time consuming golf is Time Consuming Game

So the Jamega circus has come to town. I've played the clown, yet again, albeit a week early, with that madness. For the club it puts us on a bigger golfing map and will increase the profile even further. It's reinforcing how much the course has come on in the last few years and the reputation for being no pushover and it's a prestigious event for a club only into it's twelfth year in its new home. For my part, my golf has got to be seen as moving forward again. I could have done with playing this weekend but that's gone and I need to take the changes from my lesson, work hard and get out next weekend and make some good scores.

I am still working hard on all things linear for my short game. Pitching is coming on and the last week seems to have seen it getting better. I can still get it wrong but it's an ongoing piece of work. Bunker play is good and I can escape every time. I've been trying to learn a specialist drop and stop bunker shot for when I find myself short sided. It's in there, just very hit and miss at the moment and it's not something I'd consider in competitive play unless absolutely necessary for a bit. For a general escape from sand, I am far more consistent but just need to add finesse and distance control. The chipping remains the weakest element and is perhaps something to which I've not allocated as much time as I should have. That is the next thing to be addressed in the coming week or so, weather permitting as even I'm not going to go out after a hard day at work and stand in the rain working on my chipping. So why mention this? Well the loyal amongst you (and I'm truly grateful as you must be long suffering by now) will remember my lovely wife got me a lesson with Gary Smith, the inventor (for want of a better word) of the linear method. I'm now in the process of contacting Gary to arrange to use this, hopefully the week beginning June 13th, when the Royal Ascot race meeting is on and using the golf course becomes mission impossible with the crowds and congestion.

All in all though you find your narrator still in positive mood. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks and getting fully into my golf now the main part of the season is imminent. I've no idea what happens once the circus leaves town this week other than leaving the course in tip top condition and there for me to get out and take on with renewed vigour. I hope you enjoy the other links I've served up for you and I'll see you next time for the next update on this pursuit towards single figures, or at least a single round without a pesky car crash hole or two.