The Need For Speed

UK Handicap; 3.7 USGA Handicap; 2.9

After the depression of Saturday, it was time to see if the pep talk I gave myself had any positive effect on Sunday.

One thing I failed to point out about Saturday’s round was that I was out in the last group of our regular roll-up, the pace of play was very slow, and I was playing with a slow player. There wasn’t a great deal of conversation on the way round, and while that lack of conversation may have been driven by me, I don’t think the overall environment helped my attitude at all. It took 4 hours to get around the course as a 3 ball playing in amongst other 3 balls, which is slower than it should be, although having said that I think I must have changed timezone somewhere on the course as it felt as if it was at least 5 hours.

I cannot abide slow play on the golf course, but it’s important to define the difference between thorough and slow. A four hour round when the players are being thorough and are preparing for each shot properly, like the county championships a couple of weeks ago, or the club championship in two weeks time, is perfectly acceptable. A four hour round because people are walking slowly, or aren’t clearing the green quickly after putting out, or are leaving their bag in the wrong place and keep having to make a detour whenever they need a different club, or aren’t ready to play when it is their turn, is not acceptable. Saturday was definitely the latter.

The round on Sunday took longer; four and a half hours, as a 4 ball playing amongst other 4 balls, yet felt about an hour less than the Saturday round, because two things were different. Despite having to wait on several holes for the group in front, (who lost 3 holes on the group in front of them, and incidentally included Mr Slow from Saturday), it never felt like a slow round as my playing partners were aware of their status on the course and ensured that they were in the right place, ready to play, at the right time. They were also good company and for the first time in a while I had a laugh on the course and there was plenty of encouragement going around.

I also tried my new (un)patented fruit gum relaxation method. Basically, I’ve felt like a coiled spring recently on the golf course, so I decided that when I hit a bad shot, instead of letting it get to me, I’d have a fruit gum instead. It seemed to generally (but not entirely) work, there was the odd moment of irrational madness that bubbled up from the pit of my stomach, but generally I was fairly chilled.

The end result of all this was that I was round in 3 over par 74, not brilliant, but not a disaster either considering that when I dropped 3 shots from my 7th – 9th holes to go from 1 under to 2 over par, my round could have quite easily slipped away from me. But I dug back in and came back with 8 pars and a bogey, to get the 0.1 that I had given away on Saturday reduced back off my handicap. There is no doubt that I need to be shooting better than 74, but it’s a start, and regardless of what I think I should be shooting, it’s a lot better, both numerically and mentally, than it was on Saturday.

After a couple of days playing golf in the sun, the hamster wheel has been crawled back onto. I write this whilst on a train to yet another nondescript industrial English town to deliver some training to some of my colleagues. It is very difficult to keep everything in focus when there is too much work to do, not enough time to do it in, and only 2 days of golf for every 5 that I spend working. With every passing day I am getting more and more jealous of the people who aren’t chained to a job whilst trying to keep their heads above water; - those people who can choose to play golf whenever they want. I’m finishing my working week so tired that golf feels like a chore, and I don’t want it to be like that. I need to bust this habit, and have been thinking about ways of freshening things up, like maybe practising in the morning instead of the evening, get out there at 6.30am and get a couple of hours hitting balls before starting work at 9am. Early starts aren’t my forte, but it might be time to turn things completely on their head.

This week probably contains no golf until a lesson on Thursday, to sharpen me up for the club championship 9 days later. There is a competition on Friday, but I am struggling to get time off work (surprise), and it’s unlikely there will be anyone to play with after work, as everyone will be watching the England v Algeria World Cup game instead.

There’s another chance to get my handicap reduced on Saturday, and I will probably practice on Sunday. I should be playing / practising 5 times a week at the moment, so I’m going to have to force myself to play on Wednesday and Friday evening to keep that ratio up, as unappealing as it looks now I’ll thank myself for it later.