Winter Games

The snow that blighted London in the middle of January has finally eased, and I’ve played 6 times in the last 23 days, which is 4 times more than the same period in 2009, and 2 more than my target for 2010.

A football game being unexpectedly postponed on 23^rd January meant I was able to practice for a couple of hours, and it was good to get the swing in groove again after a couple of weeks off. A 76 followed the following day, which included 11 pars in the final 12 holes, after a disappointing bogey laden start – a symptom of 2009 that I was hoping to reverse.

The following week I played a 4-ball better ball match in a new competition. It’s within my golf club, and was started for single figure players, to try and get some semblance of team spirit and camaraderie by playing against each other occasionally. I’m all for it, and I have paired up with the player who vies with me for being the lowest handicapper in the club. However in our opening group game, we both played pathetically and slumped to a 2 hole loss. We’ll just have to make sure we win our remaining 2 group games to win our group and get a place in the semi finals.

It was the first medal of the year the following Saturday, and due to a lot of water in the ground, the course was playing looooooooong. The greens were also in a bit of a mess due to being hollow tined over the previous 2 days. So I was delighted to knock it around it 74 shots, coming back in 1 under par. My net 71 was enough to win the money from the 21 of us who turned up to play at lunchtime, and it also won the Best Gross of the overall competition by a clear 6 shots. It’s very satisfying knowing that I took considerably less shots to complete the course than the other 73 people who tried on the same day. For the handicap prizes, I finished 5^th out of 74, which is pretty good considering there will always be some higher handicappers coming in with their round of the year.

Sunday 7^th was the first 1^st team match of the year, in the Daily Mail 5 man team. 935 clubs in the UK have entered a team in this competition, where 5 singles matches take place over 18 holes. I was hammered in my match without playing badly, by an 8 handicapper who was 4 over par for the 16 holes we played. He won’t be playing off 8 for much longer if he keeps that up! However, the overall match was tied 2.5 – 2.5, so I was called on to play a sudden death playoff against my original opponent (it’s decided in advance that the 5^th match will play sudden death should the game be a tie, that’s why I was chosen to tee off 5^th).

Not perturbed by my earlier beating, I went out and hit a lovely 3 iron down the fairway, followed by a 9 iron that pitched about 2 foot from the hole. My opponent missed the green having been put under pressure, and my birdie putt somehow remained above ground, despite looking destined for the centre of the hole when it was a couple of feet away. My opponent was left with a 12 putt to keep the game alive, but on hollow tined greens that was a near impossible task, and I had wrapped up a place in the last 512 teams. The adrenalin of playing in a sudden death play-off, knowing that all of your team mates are watching and relying on you, is a buzz that gets better every time it happens, and lucky for me (or maybe it’s experience now?), I’ve now won 2 out of 2 sudden death play-offs for the 1^st team.

Today was a 3 club (plus putter) competition. I’ve never played a 3 club competition before, so there was a bit of guesswork in choosing 3-wood, 7 iron and pitching wedge. Breaking 80 would have been considered an achievement, so I was delighted with a 76. Ironically, I hit 13 greens in regulation, more than any other game so far in 2010, it was my putting that was the cause of the 5 dropped shots. I finished 7^th of 45 competitors, and had the best gross score again, but today was intended as a fun game, and it was a good reminder about the need to shape shots and use my brain on the golf course. If I can go round in 76 on poor greens in winter with only 3 clubs and a putter, then surely in summer, with a full set of clubs, I should be breaking par more often than not?

On the back of those 6 games, I’m really happy with my game at the moment, and I don’t even have my new irons yet. Everything is shaping up better than I could have hoped for this time of year……..