UK Handicap; 3.3 USGA Handicap; 1.7
Another week of weekend-only golf, and as so many times last year, it was a mixed bag.
I had a match yesterday, a fourball match where myself and my partner play against two people, the best net score on each hole counting. Having coasted to a comfortable 3 over par round in my last game a couple of weeks ago, it was a bit of a surprise how badly I played, shooting 12 over par for the 16 holes of the match.
I left my partner with too much to do, and despite his best efforts, his back must have been sore from carrying me all the way around, and we slumped to a 3&2 defeat. Our opponents played well, but we made it fairly easy for them.
It's difficult to pinpoint where I went wrong, it was just awful all over. I struggled to get the ball off the tee (6 out of 13 fairways), struggled to hit greens (5 out of 16), and struggled with putting (2 x 3 putts and only 2 x 1 putts, both of which were tap-ins).
I hadn't intended on playing today, and didn't want to, but having played so badly yesterday, and been giving a kick up the backside by someone over my motivation, I forced myself to go out and practice for a couple of hours.
This will become a running theme over the next couple of months. When it's cold outside and gets dark early, my warm living room and watching football on television is a much more appealing prospect than going out and hitting golf balls. I have to force myself to do it. This is where I admire the top pros, they put in hour after hour, not seen by the cameras, doing mundane practicing in order to find an edge and give them the best chance in competition.
As it is, I was glad I made myself practice today, as I hit the ball beautifully, the best I've hit it in months. Being able to strategically place my phone on my golf bag and film myself hitting shots is also a great benefit, as it breaks up the monotony of hitting golf balls. It allows me to work on some things, view a few shots, keeping working on it, keep reviewing, and so on.
Whenever I practice I always like to play 2 holes at the end, and put the swing I've been working on into action, hitting real shots at a real target. Today I hit 3 balls down each of the last 2 holes, and flushed every driver and iron shot I hit.
Today really brought it all back how fragile this game is, the difference from one day to the next, and how confidence can influence perception of where my game is. Yesterday I was on a bit of a downer about my game, today I have seen that I can still hit a golf ball in a straight line and that has given me the confidence that will see me through the week, knowing that when I play next Saturday and Sunday I do have the ability to knock it around in a low number.
Sunday 23 January 2011
Monday 17 January 2011
The Power Of The Web
UK Handicap; 3.3 USGA Handicap; 1.7
The last week has seen me start to enter some of my competitions for next year. It's interesting to see how golf clubs market themselves differently, and the varying degrees of importance they place to their web presence.
Some club websites I visit haven't yet posted the dates of their tournaments for 2011, some have the dates up but no entry forms, and the two that I have managed to enter so far have given a very different user experience.
I posted last year about the race to get an entry in the Craw's Nest Tassie, a 6 day event played at Carnoustie in September. I made it in last year, and was primed for the entry form going live at 7pm last Monday.
As expected, the website started slowing down nearer 7pm as traffic to the site increased, but come 7pm itself the site was barely responding to requests, and I had a nervous 5 minute wait for the entry form to even appear. Wait that long last year and you were on the reserve list.
When the form appeared, I quickly put all my details in and pressed submit. Like before, the site was barely responding and I had the dilemma; is it my connection, my processer or the Carnoustie website. I run my laptops off fast processers and 20Mb broadband, so I suspected it was the Carnoustie site. Fortunately, 4 minutes later, and before I even received a message on my screen, an email popped through to my Blackberry informing me I had been successful and was in the competition. The confirmation screen appeared a few minutes later and I was able to go through and pay my entry fee.
Or so I thought. When I was diverted through to the payment site, it was hooked up to a test server, instead of a live server that could accept real money. It was 22 hours before an email came out asking people who did submit a payment to resubmit on the now correctly hooked-up payment server.
Also, every time I navigated to the Carnoustie website, even if I didn't type anything, I got another copy of the confirmation email telling me I was in the tournament. I ended up with 9 of these emails by the end of the week.
The bottom line is that I got into the tournament, so all's well that ends well. I feel bad criticising Carnoustie about this, because they are trying to make things easier, and I'd give them 10/10 for trying, but in terms of execution, the process was a shambles. I've spoken to people who had to wait a lot longer than I did for the entry form to appear, and it appears that the system was not tested properly before it went live.
The following night I had a look at the Monifieth Links website, as I will be playing in their 18 hole open at the start of August. They have recently gone live with a booking system, it is operated by BRS Golf, who provide this service for over 500 clubs in the UK and Ireland.
I have to say I was absolutely astounded with how good the system is.
Members and visitors alike can view and book available tee times months in advance, and Open competitions can also be booked and paid for online. I entered the Open competition for 2 people, chose my tee time, and paid for it in the space of 5 minutes. No forms to fill in, nothing to send, no waiting about to see if I got in and what my tee time is.
This is a really progressive piece of software, and is obviously used by clubs who are aware of the importance of moving with the times and giving power to the people to see and book what they want. The more transparent clubs are with their availability and ease of booking tee times, the more tee times will inevitably be booked. Tee times aren't a secret, I guess that some clubs feel that they are losing control if everything is visible on the internet. The reality is that clubs don't lose any control, they just pass the functional processing on to the end user instead of requiring staff to do it all for them.
As for the golf itself, another quiet week, hitting 100 balls on Sunday was all that happened, this weekend sees a match on Saturday, and again, due to being dark by 4.30pm every night, that will be it for the week.
The last week has seen me start to enter some of my competitions for next year. It's interesting to see how golf clubs market themselves differently, and the varying degrees of importance they place to their web presence.
Some club websites I visit haven't yet posted the dates of their tournaments for 2011, some have the dates up but no entry forms, and the two that I have managed to enter so far have given a very different user experience.
I posted last year about the race to get an entry in the Craw's Nest Tassie, a 6 day event played at Carnoustie in September. I made it in last year, and was primed for the entry form going live at 7pm last Monday.
As expected, the website started slowing down nearer 7pm as traffic to the site increased, but come 7pm itself the site was barely responding to requests, and I had a nervous 5 minute wait for the entry form to even appear. Wait that long last year and you were on the reserve list.
When the form appeared, I quickly put all my details in and pressed submit. Like before, the site was barely responding and I had the dilemma; is it my connection, my processer or the Carnoustie website. I run my laptops off fast processers and 20Mb broadband, so I suspected it was the Carnoustie site. Fortunately, 4 minutes later, and before I even received a message on my screen, an email popped through to my Blackberry informing me I had been successful and was in the competition. The confirmation screen appeared a few minutes later and I was able to go through and pay my entry fee.
Or so I thought. When I was diverted through to the payment site, it was hooked up to a test server, instead of a live server that could accept real money. It was 22 hours before an email came out asking people who did submit a payment to resubmit on the now correctly hooked-up payment server.
Also, every time I navigated to the Carnoustie website, even if I didn't type anything, I got another copy of the confirmation email telling me I was in the tournament. I ended up with 9 of these emails by the end of the week.
The bottom line is that I got into the tournament, so all's well that ends well. I feel bad criticising Carnoustie about this, because they are trying to make things easier, and I'd give them 10/10 for trying, but in terms of execution, the process was a shambles. I've spoken to people who had to wait a lot longer than I did for the entry form to appear, and it appears that the system was not tested properly before it went live.
The following night I had a look at the Monifieth Links website, as I will be playing in their 18 hole open at the start of August. They have recently gone live with a booking system, it is operated by BRS Golf, who provide this service for over 500 clubs in the UK and Ireland.
I have to say I was absolutely astounded with how good the system is.
Members and visitors alike can view and book available tee times months in advance, and Open competitions can also be booked and paid for online. I entered the Open competition for 2 people, chose my tee time, and paid for it in the space of 5 minutes. No forms to fill in, nothing to send, no waiting about to see if I got in and what my tee time is.
This is a really progressive piece of software, and is obviously used by clubs who are aware of the importance of moving with the times and giving power to the people to see and book what they want. The more transparent clubs are with their availability and ease of booking tee times, the more tee times will inevitably be booked. Tee times aren't a secret, I guess that some clubs feel that they are losing control if everything is visible on the internet. The reality is that clubs don't lose any control, they just pass the functional processing on to the end user instead of requiring staff to do it all for them.
As for the golf itself, another quiet week, hitting 100 balls on Sunday was all that happened, this weekend sees a match on Saturday, and again, due to being dark by 4.30pm every night, that will be it for the week.
Saturday 8 January 2011
Déjà vu
UK Handicap; 3.3 USGA Handicap; 1.7
Difficult to believe, but it’s over 6 weeks since my last post on this blog. A large part of the reason for that has been the weather – there have been two separate lots of snow in that time, and the course has been closed for an extended period of time. Below is one of the pictures I took of the course under snow, although to be honest I could have taken this photo on any day out of about 14 and the date wouldn’t be identifiable.
The first golf ball I hit in December was on the 26th of the month, and even then it was off a mat at a driving range. Normal service should now be resumed, both on the golf course and this blog.
The day after my last posting I woke up with snow on the ground, and 7 of us, who really should have their sanity questioned, decided to go out for 9 holes. It is the one and only time I have ever played golf in a scarf. Maybe there is a market for golf snoods similar the ones English Premiership footballers are wearing, much to the disdain of the more traditional members of the football fraternity. Playing golf on frozen, snow covered ground, is just a complete write-off. It’s nothing like anything encountered in the summer. Allowing for the ball bouncing 40ft in the air when it lands on a frozen green takes a lot of the skill out of the game, but one positive it does have is that you feel much better when you complete your mission and reach the warmth of the clubhouse.
After a completely blank December, other than those 50 driving range balls, I have managed to play twice in January so far.
Monday ended up in a round of 78 at my home course, on 18 temporary greens. Unsurprisingly, it took a little while to get going, and I reached halfway in 7 over par. I started to find a bit of rhythm on the back nine, and returned in level par, with a nice run of 3 birdies in 4 holes. Ultimately, the quality of golf wasn’t particularly great, but expectations have to be adjusted at this time of the year, at the moment it’s all about getting out there and keeping some semblance of a half decent swing going until it warms up a bit.
Today I played the first competition of the year, and the good news is that my handicap didn’t go up.
Where’s the déjà vu as alluded to in the title then? Well, like so many rounds last year, I found myself chasing the game very early, finding myself 3 over par after 6 holes. I then got it back to 1 over par after 11, and standing on the 18th tee I was 2 over par. A par or better required to get cut, anything higher to remain static. Well, to keep the déjà vu theme going, like so many times last year, I managed to completely blow an opportunity to get cut by taking a double bogey six, after chopping a drive into the trees then taking a couple of shots to get out. Completely daft, wasting a good round on the last hole, and definitely something I need to eradicate this year.
Having said that, although the course was playing very short a 4 over par 75 was better than I was expecting and isn’t a disaster.
The last, and most worrying, aspect of déjà vu is that my left knee became very sore in the hours after I finished playing. I had this problem at the start of last season, to the extent that I saw a knee specialist about it. I’m guessing that because I’ve not been playing, and haven’t been doing much exercise at all in the last 6 weeks, it’s going to take a bit of work to get my knee accustomed to the twists and turns of playing golf again. I need to get into a regime of exercises to strengthen my knee, as with the diary I have planned for this season I don’t want to be in pain throughout it.
The physical pain can be sorted by exercises, the mental pain of throwing away good rounds may be tougher to overcome.
Difficult to believe, but it’s over 6 weeks since my last post on this blog. A large part of the reason for that has been the weather – there have been two separate lots of snow in that time, and the course has been closed for an extended period of time. Below is one of the pictures I took of the course under snow, although to be honest I could have taken this photo on any day out of about 14 and the date wouldn’t be identifiable.
The day after my last posting I woke up with snow on the ground, and 7 of us, who really should have their sanity questioned, decided to go out for 9 holes. It is the one and only time I have ever played golf in a scarf. Maybe there is a market for golf snoods similar the ones English Premiership footballers are wearing, much to the disdain of the more traditional members of the football fraternity. Playing golf on frozen, snow covered ground, is just a complete write-off. It’s nothing like anything encountered in the summer. Allowing for the ball bouncing 40ft in the air when it lands on a frozen green takes a lot of the skill out of the game, but one positive it does have is that you feel much better when you complete your mission and reach the warmth of the clubhouse.
After a completely blank December, other than those 50 driving range balls, I have managed to play twice in January so far.
Monday ended up in a round of 78 at my home course, on 18 temporary greens. Unsurprisingly, it took a little while to get going, and I reached halfway in 7 over par. I started to find a bit of rhythm on the back nine, and returned in level par, with a nice run of 3 birdies in 4 holes. Ultimately, the quality of golf wasn’t particularly great, but expectations have to be adjusted at this time of the year, at the moment it’s all about getting out there and keeping some semblance of a half decent swing going until it warms up a bit.
Today I played the first competition of the year, and the good news is that my handicap didn’t go up.
Where’s the déjà vu as alluded to in the title then? Well, like so many rounds last year, I found myself chasing the game very early, finding myself 3 over par after 6 holes. I then got it back to 1 over par after 11, and standing on the 18th tee I was 2 over par. A par or better required to get cut, anything higher to remain static. Well, to keep the déjà vu theme going, like so many times last year, I managed to completely blow an opportunity to get cut by taking a double bogey six, after chopping a drive into the trees then taking a couple of shots to get out. Completely daft, wasting a good round on the last hole, and definitely something I need to eradicate this year.
Having said that, although the course was playing very short a 4 over par 75 was better than I was expecting and isn’t a disaster.
The last, and most worrying, aspect of déjà vu is that my left knee became very sore in the hours after I finished playing. I had this problem at the start of last season, to the extent that I saw a knee specialist about it. I’m guessing that because I’ve not been playing, and haven’t been doing much exercise at all in the last 6 weeks, it’s going to take a bit of work to get my knee accustomed to the twists and turns of playing golf again. I need to get into a regime of exercises to strengthen my knee, as with the diary I have planned for this season I don’t want to be in pain throughout it.
The physical pain can be sorted by exercises, the mental pain of throwing away good rounds may be tougher to overcome.
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