Why Am I Not Getting Any Better?

UK Handicap; 3.7 USGA Handicap; 3.0

After the mediocrity of the County Championships on Friday, it was back to trying to get my handicap cut on Saturday, and a Tigers match on Sunday.

Having played 36 holes on Friday, my knee was quite painful on Saturday morning. It has been a lot better recently, and I have a follow up appointment with the physio on Wednesday, however it still gets sore if I play 36 holes in a day.

Saturday was destined to be a disaster from the start. I was extremely tired, and it was unusually hot and humid; never a good combination to top quality golf.

A double bogey on my first hole was a precursor for chucking away shots for the rest of the first nine, and my game was over before it reached halfway. I played a bit better in the back nine, coming home in 1 over par, but it was for a pitiful 81.

Sunday saw me back at Wyke Green for a match, hoping to get rid of some of the demons of my abysmal performance there last month. After losing the first 2 holes, and being 3 over par for them, I actually played alright after that, winning my match 5&4, and going round in 4 over par 73.

So in the last 8 days, I’ve played 5 rounds on away courses; 74 (blind), 72 (blind), 75 (blind), 75, and 73. However, the one round on my home course has been 81. If I’m able to turn up at a course I’ve never seen before and shoot in the low 70s, then why on earth can’t I break 80 on a course that I know quite well? My handicap is not reducing at the rate I had hoped or expected. To get down to 1 by the end of September this year is becoming a more difficult task by the day. In most years I have a couple of good runs of form that see me get my handicap cut considerably over a few weeks at a time, and at least one of these runs has happened by June. This year, despite all the extra work I have put in – more than any other year – there is no sign of one of these runs arriving, in fact I can’t even see it on the horizon.

In the next two weeks I have 3 rounds that will affect my handicap, so I reckon that another lesson is required, and then try and play myself into a bit of form and get cut at least once in these rounds, before the 36 hole Club Championship in 3 weeks time.