A Snap Decision

UK Handicap; 3.4 USGA Handicap; 4.4

I played a friendly match for my club yesterday, the overall match finished 2.5 – 2.5, myself and my partner won our match, which takes my record in matches representing my club to 16 wins out of 24 matches. It is always interesting to go to other clubs and see how they do things, the practice facilities at our location yesterday were absolutely fantastic, the course wasn’t as interesting as my home course, but the subscriptions were slightly less than I pay at the moment. The course also seems to be a lot busier at weekends from what I could gather. Take the course layout and availability of tee times from my course, with the subscriptions and practice facilities from the course I played yesterday, and you would be onto a winner.

Today I hadn’t planned to play, but woke up feeling that there was a really good score waiting to get out, so I made a snap decision to play.

Hit the ball well from tee to green, but three putted the 1^st, 10^th, 15^th and 16^th. I also hit a 4 iron to 3ft on a 201 yard par 3, the ball finished behind the hole and must have missed being a hole-in-one by a matter of inches. I then proceeded to miss the putt for a birdie 2.

It was whilst walking from the 16^th green to the 17th tee that I made another snap decision. To be more exact, I made a decision to snap.

I very calmly put my putter at a 45 degree angle to the ground, stuck my right foot halfway down the shaft, and pushed down with my foot and up with my left hand. The laws of physics then kicked in, and my putter was in 2 bits a few seconds later. I had wanted to do that for months, I already knew that my putter, and my inability to use it, was hampering my game, in fact I blogged about it last month. This just speeds up the process of getting a putter that is more suited to me. Both parts of my ex-putter are now in a bin on the 17^th tee, in fact I might even see them tomorrow as I pass at about 11am. I’ll be using a replacement 33 inch putter that I borrowed tonight, I may not have used it before but at least I know it is the right size for me, and not far too long.

There was no temper involved in this, the putter didn’t break because it had been thrown anywhere, it was a deliberate act to get the putter in 2 pieces so that I didn’t have to use it any more. I was perfectly calm during and after, except I felt like a weight had been lifted as soon as it happened.

I have 36 holes to play tomorrow, starting at 8.06am. As far as my body clock is concerned, this is actually 7.06am, as the clocks go forward tonight at 1am. This is why the last Sunday in March is The Best Day Of The Year. On Friday just passed, the sun set at 18:24, offering no chance to play golf in the evening. On Monday, the sun sets at 19:29. This hour makes a massive difference, I can clock off work at 5pm and get a good 2 hours of golf in, in a week’s time I’ll be able to play 18 holes after work. The season really starts tomorrow, up until now the vast majority of golf has been played at the weekends, now the opportunity to play 7 days a week really opens up. It also means that the hard work and motivation needs to kick in as well.