The Late Eight - Round 1

UK Handicap; 3.1 USGA Handicap; 1.9

The first of the ‘Late Eight’ – 8 competition rounds over my home course in 24 days that will mark the end of my season – was today.

Today was a sure fire indicator that winter is on it’s way as the temperature was a full 10C colder than any other round in the last 5 months. A fairly strong wind coming from the north and the occasional rain shower coming in horizontally only added to the difficulty of the conditions.

Despite my desire to reduce my handicap, I’m failing to do some of the basics, as I stood on the first tee today having not practiced since I played last Sunday, and having done no warm up at all. Both of these are purely down to time, having a full time job and trying to play golf at a half decent level gets very difficult as the nights start drawing in – no time to practice during the week, and midweek games have to start earlier to get off before dark, meaning that by the time I’ve finished a half day of work I have enough time to get to the golf club, get something to eat then jump onto the first tee.

Sounds like a load of excuses, and in some ways it is, but I’d love to be able to hit 100 balls every day instead of it becoming a weekend pursuit, as it will be for the next 6 months.

As for the golf, I felt that I played absolutely terribly, but I had some escapes, holing two shots from off the green. The reduced temperature also meant the ball was flying considerably less distance than it has been, and combined with the wet ground meant that the course was playing a lot longer than normal. A actually managed to play 14 of the holes in 2 over par, but the other 4 holes consisted of 3 double bogeys and a hole where I picked up, when I was on course to rack up a goodness-knows-how-many.

I hit a pitiful 6 greens in regulation, the worst since 3^rd April, but had 28 putts, the best all season. This made a terrible ball striking round look semi respectful but still not good enough.

So round 1 of 8 was unsuccessful, but there is another chance on Sunday, where I’ll make sure I’ve had a practice and a warm up before I start.

A Hungover Haze

UK Handicap; 3.0 USGA Handicap; 1.9

The reason for the lack of updates over the past ten days is quite simple – there hasn’t been anything to update.

Having finished at Carnoustie I spent another eight hours on the train back to London with mixed feelings. It’s always good to get home after a break, but having spent 30 of the last 66 days in Scotland, I’m aware that I’m set for ten months of relatively mundane practice and playing, until the same competitions arrive in July next year.

The week after returning was very quiet, with a practice on Friday being my first time hitting a golf ball since my 74 round Carnoustie eight days earlier (the card of which, incidentally, I have framed and hung up in my house. Sad, I know, but it’s a nice reminder.).

Having broken the 3.0 barrier with my handicap again, there was only one competition this week, on Sunday, to try and reduce it further.

I didn’t help my case by turning up with a stinking hangover, but I managed to play through a haze and get to level par after 12 holes. I really started suffering towards the end, and took two double bogeys on 13 and 16, to effectively end my chances of getting my handicap cut. A par on the last would have seen me in the buffer zone, meaning my handicap goes neither up nor down, but not for the first time this season, I managed to conjure a bogey from a relatively straightforward hole to make sure that I returned to 3.0. So ultimately it was a frustrating round, having promised so much and ended up with disappointment, but I only have myself to blame for having drunk vast quantities of alcohol the previous evening.

Although the week long competitions and trips to Scotland have finished, there are still some good opportunities left over the next month. With the way the competitions have been scheduled, I have eight opportunities over the next four weekends to play for my handicap at my home club. This weekend sees two, on Friday and Sunday, so although the competitive season is winding down, I need to remain focussed for a little while longer and still try and put in a bit of practice. I am pleased with how I am playing at the moment, my ball striking has been really good for the last few weeks, I now have a bit of a cash-or-bust over the next few weeks. It goes without saying that I want to reduce my handicap, how much I can reduce it by will depend on maximising my performance over the next month. There is no point in shooting 74 week after week, as that won’t reduce my handicap at all, I need to be shooting sub-par rounds to get 0.4 – 0.5 reduced at a time, as that’s where the real inroads can be made. Getting down to 2, even if it’s 2.4, would be great, and if I’m realistic about ever getting down to scratch then that is the worst place I need to start next season from. The worst case scenario for finishing this season is 3.8, but I’m not even considering that thought.

There will probably be one update a week for the next few weeks, and then I’ll think about what I’m going to write about over the winter, seeing as it will be dark at 5pm with very few competitions on from then onwards.

Craw's Nest Tassie Consolations

UK Handicap; 2.9 USGA Handicap; 1.8

After the disappointment of not qualifying for the matchplay stage, it was back to normal and trying to play for my handicap instead.
On Wednesday on the Burnside I played awful until I had a good old-fashioned scotch pie inside me which seemed to turn my game around, and I shot 74 to make buffer zone and ensure that my handicap didn't go up.
On Thursday, after a mix-up with the starting times, I eventually played the Championship course, off the back tees, at about 1pm, and played one of the best rounds of my life. A bogey on 2 was follwed by birdies on 3 and 4, and a bogey on 8 meant that I was out in level par. A silly bogey on 10 took me 1 over, but I got it back on 14. Standing on the 17th tee at level par I couldn't believe my luck, but unfortunately I finished bogey bogey, missing a 2 foot putt on the last for a 73.
74 is still my best score on that course by 11 shots, and will probably be my best score for the rest of my living days. With the SSS being 75, a 74 is a rare animal, and effectively means that I have beaten Carnoustie for once, something Sergio Garcia could only dream of in 1999 when he scored 81 and 89.
Having had a disappointing qualifying, it was pleasing to end the week with a lower handicap than when I started, and also to have won some money through my efforts on Thursday. Now I have the momentum it is all about getting cut to 2 - there is still hope left for this season.

The photo is from the 16th tee on the Championship course 'the hardest par 3 in golf' according to Tom Watson, with a rainbow starting from the end of the path and moving up over the hotel at the 18th.

Craw's Nest Tassie Update

The rain that plagued my round this morning passed a lot quicker than expected, so the lower handicapped players who teed off this afternoon (low handicaps nearly all teed off between 6.30-8.30am and 12.30-2.30pm today) had some more favourable conditions after their first few holes. As a result the scoring was much better this afternoon, with many people breaking 80 on the Burnside course, and now the scores are in and the relevant numbers have been crunched, I know that I didn't qualify for either knockout competition.

In the Tassie I was 81st out of 337, with only the top 64 qualifying for the matchplay stages.
In the Maulesbank (handicap competion) I was 79th, with the top 64 qualifying.

So instead of playing matchplay, I'll now have opportunities to play for my handicap in consolation events over the next 2 days, playing the Burnside on Wednesday and the Championship on Thursday. Having set my sights on qualifying for a matchplay run I'm struggling to motivate myself for them at this precise moment, but I'm sure by tomorrow morning I'll be back in the zone of trying to get my handicap reduced a little bit further.

One disappointment to get over is that a par on my last hole today would have got me into the Tassie, and a bogey would have got me into the Maulesbank. My out of bounds and eventual triple bogey 7 gets me into nothing. Having said that, it's too easy to just blame the 36th of 36 holes, there were a good 9 shots I could have taken off my score yesterday (4 x 3-putts, 4 x fairway bunkers, and 1 x double attempt out of a greenside bunker), and a good 4 or 5 today. Hopefully tomorrow will bring more success, and a bit less rain and wind.

Craw's Nest Tassie Round 2

I reckon I have played in the region of 1,600 rounds of golf in my life, but I have never played one in conditions like those that I encountered this morning.

The 5.45am alarm call wasn’t great to start with, but by the time I got onto the first tee I had been awakened by the wind. It has got progressively stronger all week, from about 20mph on Sunday, about 28mph yesterday, and today it was around 35mph, gusting up to about 45mph. The round stayed dry until we played the ninth, where the anticipated rain started. The remaining 9 holes were the worst conditions I have ever played golf in. Wind I can handle. Rain I can handle. Rain and wind together are just a complete nightmare. Within 2 holes, even with waterproofs on, I was completely soaked, and the grips on my clubs were completely wet. Trying to dry them with a towel had absolutely no effect as they were wet again within a matter of seconds. By the time I played the last it was just a case of putting out and getting off the course, I was as wet as I could possibly have been, and with the combination of rain and wind, on the east coast of Scotland that also means cold, so was absolutely freezing too just to round things off.

As for the golf, it didn’t seem like a game of golf today. There were very few standard golf shots played. Downwind everything was a little chip, landing it miles short of the green and letting it run and run and run. Into the wind it was just a battle.

Some examples of the extremes; downwind on the 2nd hole I drove the ball 345 yards, and that was with it hitting into an upslope on its first bounce. But on the 14th, playing 168 yards today, I hit a 3 wood that finished just short of the flag. The par 4 17th was a driver, 3 iron and a 5 iron for me to reach the front edge of the green, and the 18th was the piece de resistance. Having hit a ball out of bounds, I left myself 120 yards to the flag with the drive of my second ball. I hit a punched 5 iron, off the back foot and hit very well, and it came up about 40 yards short. That’s a full punched 5 iron a grand total of 80 yards. I swear it was actually coming backwards before it came down.

I scored 84 in the end, and that was down to putting like a demon, I holed several 10-20 foot putts today. A total of 169 over the 2 rounds may not sound very good, but it may well qualify for the last 64. There were dozens of people walking off the course as we finished, and anyone teeing off after 9am would be doing very well to shoot less than 90 on the Burnside course, and 100 on the Championship course. We estimated the Burnside had an effective par of 79 today.

There was a rumour that today’s round was going to be cancelled and played tomorrow, with the matchplay being top 32 instead of top 64, but nothing has been confirmed, and if the greens aren’t flooding (which they won’t) and the ball is not moving of it’s own accord on the greens (depends what the wind does), then I don’t see how it can be cancelled when several groups have managed to successfully complete their round. It is still raining now and will remain raining for the rest of the day. So at the moment I don’t know where I stand, but one way or another hopefully I’ll be playing golf tomorrow, when the wind is forecast to drop down to about 20mph again, and it should remain dry.

Craw's Nest Tassie Round 1

UK Handicap; 3.3 USGA Handicap; 2.0

I’ve played 3 rounds since my last post, each quite interesting in their own right.
Saturday was a competition at my home club, and although very successful, could have been the best ever.

Teeing off first thing in the morning, I found myself at the unheard of position of being 4 under par after 5 holes, having had 4 consecutive birdies from the 2nd. I parred the next 7 holes, missing 2 short birdie putts in the process, and stood on the par 3 13th tee still 4 under par. I then stood on the 14th tee at 1 under par, after racking up an out of the blue treble bogey 6, on the back of a slightly pushed tee shot. I managed to compose myself for the last 5 holes, making 4 pars followed by a tap-in birdie on the last, for a gross 2 under par 69, and 43 stableford points. My best round of the season by some distance, but tinged with a little bit of disappointment in that, had I just hit my tee shot on 13 a little bit further left, and 2 putted for a par, I would have broken the course record, and also gone all 18 holes without a dropped shot, a topic I have talked about before. It turns out that the 13th was the only green I didn’t hit in regulation all day, and instead of it costing me a shot, it cost me 3. However, I think my 43 was good enough to win a competition (if anyone has beaten it then well done to them, they deserve it), and it got a massive 0.7 reduced from my handicap.

I was out first thing as I had to get the train up to Dundee straight afterwards, so that I could play a practice round for the Craw’s Nest Tassie on Sunday. It was quite windy on Sunday, and I enjoyed playing the Burnside course, in good company and in a relaxed mood. The course itself was in fantastic condition, and the greens were as you would expect from an Open venue – fantastic. The golf was alright too, a 75, which included 5 dropped shots on the last 5 holes as I started trying a few different things out.
This morning I played the first round of the Craw’s Nest Tassie, on the Championship course, and I’ll cut to the chase straight away – I shot 85, which sounds a lot, but is actually tied 54th out of the 170 people to complete the Championship course today. The wind was incredibly strong, and was from the south east, the absolute worst direction imaginable for playing this course. Apart from the 4 3-putts that I had, I actually hit the ball really, really well all day, it’s just that Carnoustie Championship in a strong wind is just one of the most difficult courses in the world. I started off with a 3 putt bogey, and then managed to par the next 4, which looking back was some achievement. A few dropped shots followed, but I was standing on the 12th tee 5 over par. The last 7 holes of that golf course are just so difficult, it’s impossible to convey in writing. You won’t understand it unless you have played them. A few examples; 12th, boomed driver, fairway bunker. 14th; boomed driver, fairway bunker. The par 3 16th was playing 214 yards to the hole today as the flag was on the front of the green, I hit a driver out of the bolts and got 20 feet past the flag (I didn’t help myself by 3 putting). The last hole typified the strength of the wind. It was 396 yards to clear the Barry Burn in front of the green today. I hit my two best shots of the day, a driver and a 3 wood, both straight and as long as I could humanly hit both clubs, and my combined distance of them was 394 yards, with the ball pitching straight into the water. Another 2 yards and I would have had a short birdie putt, as it was, after I’d fished my ball out of the water (unfortunately there was a bit more water in it today than when Jean Van De Velde went in for a look so I never got the chance to make a scene), I managed to get a good up and down for a 5. 4 really good shots to get a 5.

I did a little comparison of the round over my home course on Saturday, and my round on Carnoustie today, looking at the club I used for my regulation shot into the 18 greens. On Carnoustie I drove into 4 fairway bunkers, so where my regulation shot was a hack out sideways with a sand wedge (because you can only go sideways from those fairway bunkers), I have used the club that I hit for my next shot.

The graph below shows the variance between the two rounds, and it’s quite easy to see the pattern. Replace a 6 iron on my home course with a driver at Carnoustie, replace 7-9 irons with a 3 wood and 3 iron, and replace a pitching wedge with a 5 iron. The scariest thing to remember is that from the green tees Carnoustie is actually 100 yards shorter than my home course.

In terms of qualifying for the matchplay stages, I’m not in pole position, but I’m not out of it either. One thing is for sure, and that is I need to play well on the Burnside course tomorrow, ideally shooting 70 or less, but certainly no worse than 74. I may have one massive advantage over most of the rest of the field. The weather for tomorrow is forecast to be absolutely awful, very heavy rain and 35mph winds. However, the rain is not due to start until mid morning, and I am teeing off so early tomorrow that I may well be finished without getting wet. If this rain comes (which it will), and the wind stays at 7 on the Beaufort Scale (technically a ‘moderate gale’), then the scoring will go absolutely through the roof. I am praying for it to start the moment I sink my last putt on the 18th green in around 14 hours time.

Craw's Nest Tassie Preview

The Intro

The last of my major competitions of 2010 is the Craw’s Nest Tassie at Carnoustie from September 6^th – 11^th.

The Background

I grew up near to Carnoustie and saw the press coverage of the Tassie every year, thinking it would be great to play in it one year. In 2009 I had a conversation about the tournament with someone from another club, which got me thinking that there was no reason for me not to try and enter it this year.

The Location

Carnoustie doesn’t need much of an introduction, having hosted the Open Championship several times, most recently in 1999 and 2007. Situated on the east coast of Scotland about 10 miles northeast of Dundee, it is a traditional Scottish town with its golf courses within walking distance of the town centre. The town itself is these days very much a commuter town for Dundee, with over 40% of the working age residents working in Dundee. Previously it was heavily involved in the textile industry, with tourism being the secondary source of income for the town.

The location hasn’t helped the tournament in recent years, with severe flooding causing chaos last year. The Championship course was reduced to 16 holes as 2 holes were flooded, and the Burnside course was abandoned and replaced with the shorter Buddon course for the other qualifying round. Touch wood, but the weather forecast is much better for this year, with little rain forecast and light winds.

The Course

The first two days of the competition are qualifying, with one round each on the Championship and Burnside courses. The Championship round will be played from the green tees, making it 6,400 yards, par 70, SSS 73. What makes Carnoustie so difficult is the positioning of the bunkers, especially the fairway bunkers. They are everywhere, and are positioned so well that finding a safe spot off the tee is one of the greatest challenges. Another difficulty is the size of the greens, some of them are absolutely huge, finding the green isn’t good enough, you need to be close enough to be able to get down in two shots. Any round on the Championship course without a 3-putt is a very good round indeed. The Burnside course is just over 6,000 yards, par 68, SSS 70. Although seen as a secondary course to the Championship course, it has some incredibly difficult par 4s, with lengths of 450, 460, 432 and 473 yards. The greens are much smaller than on the Championship course, and with there being five par 3s, good iron play is an absolute must.

The Competition

The Tassie has been going since 1927, and is now a bit of an institution in the amateur golfing calendar, not least for the quest to get into it. Unlike most other competitions of this standing, it is the first 350 applicants that get into the tournament, not the 350 with the lowest handicaps. Over the last two years the average handicap of competitors has been 7.7. This year the 350^th and last entry was submitted 4m 57sec after the website went live. After the two qualifying rounds, the top 64 scratch go into matchplay from Wednesday – Saturday over the Championship course. The top 64 handicap scores who don’t qualify for the Tassie will play in a handicap competition called the Maulesbank Trophy over the Burnside course. Players who don’t qualify for either matchplay competition get to play consolation competitions on the Wednesday and Thursday, meaning that every player is guaranteed 4 competition rounds, with at least 2 over the Championship course (except for the 32 players who get past the first round of the Maulesbank Trophy). There is also a practice round available on the Sunday before, I missed the boat for the Championship course spaces, but am perfectly happy to play a practice round over the Burnside course, as I haven’t played it for quite a few years whereas I played the Championship course last year. The finalists of the Tassie will get 7 or 8 rounds over the Championship course, and 1 or 2 rounds over the Burnside course, all for the £185 entry fee.

The prize fund is around £3,800 in total, which is around 6% of the entry fees, a lot lower than most competitions. However, considering that Carnoustie Links are losing visitor revenue for a whole week, and competitors are getting at least five rounds at Carnoustie, with at least two on the Championship course, for an equivalent green fee of £175, it still represents excellent value.

The Target

As detailed at the start of the year, my target is to get to the last 32 of the Tasssie matchplay. Looking at the previous 2 years results, there are defined lines of who is likely to qualify and who isn’t. In each year the 64^th lowest handicap has had a handicap of 4. Almost all players with a handicap of 1 or less got through qualifying, dropping to 79% of 2 handicappers, 63% of 3 handicappers, then a dramatic drop to 32% of 4 handicappers, 19% of 5 handicappers, and very few thereafter.

Although based on historic data, this is all theory, it’s up to me to perform during qualifying. Whether my handicap is 3.4 or 3.5 won’t make a 31% difference whether I qualify for matchplay or not. In terms of what I will need to shoot in order to qualify, it’s difficult to tell because of the change of plan last year, and the fact that this year the Championship round will be entirely played from the green tees. The weather conditions can make a dramatic difference as well, but based of all the available information at the moment, I will make an educated guess that the 64^th and last Tassie matchplay spot will go to someone with a qualifying score of 153.

I’ll be updating the blog after each round, and the scores will be published on the Carnoustie Links website.