18 Months To Go

3 days into British Summer Time (BST), and I’ve already used two of those evenings to take advantage of the extra daylight and get some practice in. The S in BST is a bit deceiving, seeing as it was pouring with rain on Monday, and the temperature was 5C (41F) this evening as I hit another 147 balls. There is a certain sense of satisfaction practising when the weather is awful and no-one else is out, if there is any justice, or karma, or (whisper it) even the development of a skill due to repetition, then this should come back to reward me in the summer months.

It occurred to me today that my deadline for getting a scratch handicap is the last day of September 2011; exactly 18 months today. So I thought it apt to do a 3 month review to see what I have done, and what I have learned.

What I have done;

- Played or practised 22 times. Considering that due to snow, work trips abroad, and darkness, there have only been 26 days that I could possibly have played on, I’m pretty pleased with that.

- Bought a new set of clubs. Still early days, still paying for them, but I certainly have more control of the ball than I did with my old set

- Increased my handicap by 0.1. Only played 4 competitive rounds, gone up in 2, come down in 1, no change in 1.

- Got myself a job at the Open in July. This is something to look forward to for the next 3½ months, it should be one of the highlights of the year.

What I have learned;

- You don’t get anything for nothing. I will only get better if I practice, even (and especially) when I don’t want to.

- The mind as well as the body needs trained. Reading Your 15^th Club has opened up my mind to various psychological aspects. All of them make perfect sense, they are very clear in my mind, the first test of them will be when I get in a real pressure situation. The picture to the right is something I have put up in my bedroom, next to other golf items (the item above it is a certificate of an 80 around the Old Course when I was 15). It’s the first thing I see every morning when I get out of bed, so the constant reminder is there of what my goal is. It's tacky, but it works.

- I am mortal. I knew this already, but my left knee has reawakened me to this. It may decide whether I’m able to play golf at all, never mind get down to scratch.

- I was nearly a scratch golfer last summer. Calculating my USGA handicap let me see that I would have got down to 0.9 at the start of August last year. No reason why I can’t do better this year.