Adjustment required; 3.4, Competition rounds; 73, Ratio; 0.047
I’ve played 3 competition rounds in the 2 weeks since I last updated, and I don’t have any good news to report from any of them.
Last Saturday I played in the morning, and the only positive I can think to take away from the round was that I played the first hole well. If the peak of the round is the first hole, it doesn’t bode well for the rest of it. I started hitting everything completely fat. That is, I was hitting the ground before the ball. The most worrying aspect of this was that it was happening even with my tee shots, where the ball was teed up off the ground and I was using a driver. I rely on my driving quite a lot, I’m not the longest hitter by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m normally fairly consistent with it and the more fairways I can hit the better. To put it more accurately, the more fairways I miss the more trouble I am in, as I’ll be struggling to hit the green if I’m off the fairway or get an impure strike (like a fat shot).
This week I had competitions on Friday and Sunday, and I didn’t get the best preparation by being ill all week. I felt better by Friday, but I was still a bit energy sapped.
I’m not going to detail each round individually, but the grand total of the 36 holes was that I was 17 over par, and went up 0.1 in each round.
In total I dropped 20 shots (as I had 3 birdies), so I had a look at what club cost me each of those 20 shots.
Shots with my driver cost me 3 shots, but none of these were in the last 8 holes I played today. I figured out my stance was too narrow again so I made my feet a bit wider and started hitting the ball much better off the tee. If I can keep doing what I was doing towards the end of today then it’s not a problem.
2 of the dropped shots were caused by hitting a 3 wood off the fairway. I’m not unduly concerned about these either, both were from well over 200 yards from the green and they weren’t particularly bad shots.
Iron shots up to a 9 iron cost me 3 shots, which over 36 holes is quite good. In fact, I hit 19 of 22 greens where I was hitting a 9 iron or more into the green. For a change I’m happy with this part of my game.
Wedges cost me 2 shots, with a wedge in my hand I hit 8 out of 10 greens. That is not very good, there isn’t really an excuse for missing a green with a wedge in my hand, and some of the greens I did hit weren’t particularly close to the hole.
1 shot was dropped where there wasn’t a bad shot that caused it, it was just one of those things.
So that’s 11 of the 20 dropped shots accounted for, with the only concern being wedges (on the basis the driving is sorted).
The remaining 9 dropped shots were all caused by 3-putting. Having 9 occasions where I take 3 putts to get down once the ball is on the green is suicidal golf. That’s one every four holes. Although I missed a few short ones, the underlying cause was my distance putting. The greens at my home course, which have long been criticised, are in the best condition in the five springs I have played on them, but I seem unable to judge the pace of anything. A 30 foot putt for me is more likely to go less than 24 foot or more than 36 foot. I’m not overly bothered by the line at this stage, I’d just like to be able to hit it the right distance. I spent 30 minutes practising my distance putting on Saturday, having seen it cost me 3 shots on Friday. After 30 minutes I thought I had it sorted, I was able to putt 3 balls 30 foot and get them to finish within 2 foot of the required length.
Fast forward 24 hours and instead of having three 3 putts, today I had six.
I’m not quite sure how to resolve this. Practice seems like a good idea, but in a live environment you only get one opportunity at each putt, and that involves reading the pace of it. Practising invariably involves hitting the same putt several times on the same line, and getting used to the pace of that putt. I don’t have access to a putting green where I can practice many different putts without getting a rhythm for that putt as opposed to the stroke.
All this is going to have to go on the backburner anyway, as I am out of the country with my work next weekend, so I’m not going to be able to play for 12 days now.
The weekend after next is all systems go, the clocks go forward, at least two competitions every week, practising before breakfast every morning.
The last 3 months have just been a warm up.
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