A Lull In Competition

UK Handicap; 3.5 USGA Handicap; 2.8

After the excitement of last weekend, it’s back to a relatively mundane next couple of weeks. I went out last night and played 6 holes with 2 balls each, it wasn’t up to much and I wasn’t particularly focussed. I was grateful for small mercies, as whilst playing last night, and having hit a drive perfectly into the middle of the fairway right in full view of the clubhouse, I had an almighty shank. The ball zoomed off at a 45 degree angle into some trees, and I was left being thankful that at least I didn’t do that on Saturday, and no-one saw me do it last night.

Another silver cloud on an otherwise gloomy horizon (that sounds more depressing than intended) is that after Saturday’s results I’m back as the lowest handicapped player in the golf club. I’m not sure how long it will last for but it’s satisfying anyway, although to be fair there aren’t too many clubs where the lowest player is off a handicap of 4. In some other clubs I’d be struggling to get into the top 10 players with a handicap of 3.5.

The focus for the next month will to be to continue to try and eradicate the thing that has plagued my season so far – the disaster holes. On Saturday I played 37 of the 41 holes in 2 over par, but the remaining 4 holes were played in 10 over par. I can’t expect to win much with two double bogeys and two treble bogeys on my card. Three of these four disaster holes were from absolutely perfect locations in the middle of the fairway, the other was a par 3 where my tee shot was only marginally left of target. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s obviously not sunk in yet; I need to be prepared to accept a dropped shot, instead of chasing an impossible par and ending up dropping several shots. I had 6 birdies on Saturday, so I’m evidently capable of getting the shots back if I drop one.

Having just found some form, it’s disappointing that I’m not going to have many competitions in the next 10 days to try and work on getting the handicap down to somewhere near where it should be. There is one this Sunday, then 2 the following weekend, although both are on courses I haven’t played in at least 15 years so I don’t expect much from them, and then I have no competitions the following week as I’ll be at St Andrews working at the Open Championship.

It’s not until 23^rd July that I get a good run at competitions, and I have 5 consecutive days where my handicap can be adjusted, the first two at my home course, followed by an Open competition the following day in Perthshire, followed by two strokeplay rounds the following two days at Montrose.

So in the next month there are 8 opportunities to get my handicap reduced, but only 3 on my home course, the other 5 will be extremely difficult to get my handicap cut in, simply because I don’t know the courses very well at all. Having said that, my best round of the season so far, at Strathmore, was on a course I’d never set foot on so with a positive frame of mind who’s to say I won’t end July with a significantly lower handicap than I currently have.

Club Championship Post Mortem

Whatever I write now, or in the future, will not change the outcome – I lost the Club Championship on the fifth playoff hole. But my inability to sleep tells me I should get the post-mortem out of the way sooner rather than later, so that I can forget about it quicker and get on with things.

As mentioned in a previous mobile post, my first round score was 79, including a spectacular mini-collapse over 5 holes in the back nine where I went from 1 under par to 7 over par. As it happens, my playing partner and eventual winner, let’s call him R for the sake of repetition, did exactly the same thing and played the same 5 holes in 8 over par to go from 1 under to 7 over.

I made a conscious decision between rounds to get away from the golf environment (I three putted 4 of the last 5 greens), so instead of having a break in the clubhouse, went up the road to the local high street and got my lunch there. I had to do it, as I needed to come back fresh, knowing that somehow I was only three shots off the lead.

It didn’t have an immediate effect in the afternoon round as I three putted the first green in the afternoon for bogey, meaning that I had three putted 5 out of 6 greens. In mitigating circumstances, and as previously detailed, some of the flag positions were absolutely insane, not in a negative way, but just incredibly difficult. Most players were struggling with them, but I think that’s exactly how it should be, the course is meant to be set up difficult for a Club Championship, and it certainly was. All of the tees were as far back as they could possibly go, and the course was the best and most challenging condition I have seen it in the 3 ½ years I have been playing it.

After the initial blip I steadied things and was level par after 9, only to take a treble bogey 7 on the tenth hole, from the middle of the fairway 140 yards from the green.

Once again I came back with a birdie straight away, and the lead changed hands between the three of us in the final group several times.

I was two shots behind after 34 holes of regulation, and stuck my approach shot to 1ft for a birdie on the 35^th hole, which coupled with R’s bogey meant we were level going down the last. A couple of regulation pars later and it was time for a playoff.

I looked at my score later and it was 3 over par 74, the best 18 hole score of the day, with that stupid treble bogey. I played the other 17 holes in level par. As things turn out, I also for the first time this season exactly hit both my targets for greens and putts – 14 greens in regulation and 32 putts.

The format for the playoff is 4 holes, and if the scores are still tied after that then it goes to sudden death. As it was, even if the playoff had been sudden death right from the start we still wouldn’t have been separated, as we halved all of the first 4 holes in regulation pars. We both had chances to win it, but the putts just didn’t want to drop. My best chance was a slight lip-out on the first playoff hole.

The fifth playoff hole was the first hole on the course again, and having hit my driver 3 times down the fairway already on that hole during the course of the day, I stuck with it. This time however it came out of the heel of the club and into a stream about 110 yards from the hole. There was about 1/6 of the ball above the surface of the water when I reached it, and having looked at the options for taking a penalty drop and seen that they were not good, I decided to play it out of the stream. Fortunately my golf shoes are still waterproof and the water level was just below the top of my shoes, and after a couple of prayers and an explosion of water, I had moved the ball 90 yards towards the hole into a greenside bunker, although still about 20 yards from the hole. R was safely on the green for 2 with an almost certain 4 on the cards, so I knew I needed to get up and down. I hit a good bunker shot, the distance was perfect but the clubhead was slightly closed and it went about 9 feet left of the hole. I was left with a putt on the same line, but shorter, than the putt I had on the first playoff hole. I hit it well, it looked in with a couple of feet to go, so much so that I started walking after it to pick it out of the hole, only for it to veer right at the end of it’s breath, and lip out exactly as it had done on the first playoff hole. Game over.

So that in a nutshell is how I lost it. I’ve played 4 of my 7 major competitions this year and I have not achieved one of my targets yet. R played well and deserved to win, he will win many more club championships as he has quite a big learning curve, I don’t have many more chances to win it so need to grab every opportunity I can, which I didn’t today.

I’ll finish with some pros and cons about today, maybe they’ll help me see things in an objective light;

Pros;

- My handicap was cut, probably to 3.5

- I won some money (I really couldn’t care less about this, you don’t play a Club Championship to try and win the cash prizes)

- I conducted myself in a dignified manner in adversity and defeat

- I went down fighting (this pleases me, I was 1cm away from getting the best par 4 of my life, and I was down and out after the 7 on the tenth hole, only to fight back again)

- 29 of 41 holes were par or better, including 6 birdies

Cons;

- I didn’t win

There are more pros than cons in there, unfortunately the con carries more weight than everything else combined. As has been said about 200 times now since I came off the course – there’s always next year. Say it enough times and I might start to believe it.

Playoff result....

I lost on the 5th extra hole, there's always next year! (As I've said to about 50 people in the last 10 minutes through a forced smile).
More details to follow, probably tomorrow.

In a playoff - Arggghh!

4 hole playoff with one of my partners from today. Shot 74 this afternoon, we tied on 153.

Club Championship Round 1

The absolute sublime and ridiculous in the first round. All 3 of us in the final group birdied the first hole, and on the fourth tee I was 1 under par and a clear last of the 3 - the first 3 holes consisted of 6 birdies and 3 pars.
I was 1 under par after 11, and then the wheels came off completely. A double bogey on 12 was followed by a par, but then I went bogey, double bogey, triple bogey, all of which were 3-putts, just to add salt to the wounds.
My playing partners also succumbed to the 3 nasty flag positions, we played the par 3 15th in 7 over par combined, having played the first 3 in 6 under par combined! Some of the flags were in unbelievable positions, but it's the same for everyone I suppose. I finished things off with a stupid 3 putt on the last for a 79. Ridiculously, I am only 3 off the lead in 4th place, but I'm going to have to play exponentially better than the 11 greens and 36 putts from this morning to have any chance.

Club Championship Preview

The Intro;

The fourth of my major competitions of 2010 is the Club Championship at the golf club which I am a member of.

This is a 36 hole strokeplay event played this Saturday.

The Background;

This will be my fourth year playing in the Club Championship. Last year it was experimented with playing over 2 days, 18 holes on Saturday followed by 18 on Sunday, however this year it has reverted back to 36 holes on the one day. In the three previous years I have been 13^th, 7^th, and 3^rd. My score has improved by 5 shots each year, from 161 in 2007 to 156 in 2008 and 151 in 2009.

The Course;

The course is one of the longest in Middlesex, at over 6,500 yards. There are 6 par 4s over 400 yards, and a par 5 which is one of the longest holes in Middlesex. Because this competition is open only to club members, knowledge of the course isn’t that big an advantage as all of the competitors know it well.

The Competition;

The maximum field is 60 players, although this year it looks as if only 40-45 players will be taking part. The groupings are done in reverse handicap order, so I will likely be out in the last  group.

The winning scores in the last 3 years have been 150, 148 and 150. Last year I shot 70 in the first round, only to collapse spectacularly in the 2^nd round to shoot 81 and lose by 1 shot. That was a disappointment that I can’t really adequately convey through this medium, I hadn’t done myself justice and I knew it.

The Target;

The only way the day can be considered a success is if I win, although that is a long shot currently. In 2009 there were 3 players playing considerably better than everyone else in the weeks leading up to the tournament, and those 3 people finished 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd. This year there are a couple of people scoring better than everyone else in competitions, and I am not one of them.

All I can do is try my best and see what happens. I have the ability, as do many other people in the competition, it’s a case of performing on the day.

Updates will appear here at about 2pm and 7pm on Saturday.

More Of The Same

UK Handicap; 3.7 USGA Handicap; 3.1

It’s been another week of mediocrity; I’ve not had any disasters, but I’ve not exactly been pulling up trees either.

I practiced on Wednesday night for a couple of hours, I think I hit the ball okay but I can’t really remember, I’m at that stage of the year where one evening blends into all the others.

I then had a lesson on Thursday, which could have gone better. I understand the changes that were made, and why they were made, but I hit the ball absolutely terribly. Many people, having had a lesson and then shortly afterwards find that they are hitting the ball worse than before, will lose faith and go back to what they know. My opinion is that, if you are paying a professional a not insignificant amount of money for their time and expertise, should have complete trust in what they say and you have to stick with it. One of the changes we made was to weaken my left hand grip. Retrospectively, this makes perfect sense, as my left hand was too strong (the “V” formed between my thumb and index finger was pointing too far right), which is the cause of my bad shot that goes left. The downside of making this change is that, because my swing made an allowance for this, weakening my grip has caused my bad shot to now be a short, right shot. The only way to get round this is to practice, and build up muscle memory of making the right swing, and to that extent I’m going to have a follow-up lesson in a few days time to review what I’m doing and ensure I’m doing it properly.

I practiced on Friday night again, and also went out and played ball 1 v ball 2 for 9 holes. The two balls were 1 over par for the 18 holes between them, without doing anything spectacular at all, and the course was absolutely deserted due to the majority of members being English and therefore watching England’s World Cup snoozefest against Algeria.

There was a competition today, in which I was struggling to get a game until one of the pros, getting ready for Open Championship Qualifying on Monday, asked if I wanted to go out for a game with him, which I was only too happy to oblige.

Once again, I hit the ball terribly, managing only 8 greens in regulation out of 18. However, as often happens in this bizarre game of golf, my short game was suddenly really, really good. During my lesson on Thursday we spent a couple of minutes on chipping, and it was like a moment of clarity. So I’m now missing greens, but I’m absolutely confident of getting up and down. I had 29 putts today, my first time under 30 putts since last July, and the 29 is more down to my chipping close rather than holing long putts.

The end result is that I was round in 75, bang on my handicap, in quite windy conditions. My playing partner beat me by 3 shots, but he gets paid to play golf and I don’t so I can live with that.

I turned down a game at another course in a match tomorrow, as I don’t like the course, it’s slopes are what first caused my knee to get injured, and I need to practice instead. The Club Championship is next Saturday, which I’ll talk about more during the week, but I’ve not actually committed to playing in it yet. I almost certainly will play in it, but I’m actually fairly underwhelmed by the whole thing at the moment. Last year I was really excited by the prospect, I was playing well and I was convinced I would win it. This year I’m making it fairly low-key. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to win it, but I’m going to have to improve on the 74 and 75s that I’ve been consistently shooting over the last couple of months to stand any chance. A top 5 finish is well within range, but I’d have to be considered an outsider to win it at the moment, despite being the joint lowest handicapped player in the golf club. In a week’s time we’ll know if the work I’m putting in has started to pay off.

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.

The Problem With Perfection

UK Handicap; 3.8 USGA Handicap; 3.1

I’ve played 3 times since my last update, all at my home course, the first two being quick run-around games in the evening, followed by a competition game today.

The first game was a mediocre five over par 76. It was nothing special, I didn’t think I played that well, but looking back on what I know now maybe that’s the type of round I need.

I went out on Thursday evening and played 18 holes. Well, actually, I played 9 holes, but what I often do when I don’t have much time is play two balls on each hole and play 1 ball versus the other, ProV1 versus ProV1X. On this occasion the match was a tie, both balls played 9 holes in level par, in quite difficult conditions.

So it was set up nicely for a competition today, but as far as I was concerned my round was over after the first hole, which I double bogied from nowhere. Looking back, I played alright in spells today, but mentally I was awful, and have been in competition for a while. I am trying to have a perfect round, and as soon as I drop a shot, or something goes against my plan, my brain explodes and I find it hard to recover.

I need to re-learn, pretty quickly, that I’m going to drop shots during a round. That may sound a bit paradoxical, but I’ve never had a round without a dropped shot, so it’s natural that it will happen. Obviously I want to limit the dropped shots to as few as possible, and have the confidence that at some point I have the ability to maybe birdie some holes. I have unreasonable expectations currently, if I double bogey the first hole then instead of thinking that my round is over I should be thinking about, well, nothing. There is also no point in thinking that I must get the shots back in the next 2 holes, as that is just heaping more pressure on myself and setting myself up to fail.

The thing that frustrates me about my mental implosions is that I already know about everything that I have said, I’ve blogged about how hard it is to go for a round of golf without dropping a shot, and I’ve blogged about how I should be thinking when on the course. I’ve just got sloppy about it recently, and additionally I’ve been putting excessive pressure on myself to have a sub-par round, as I’m very conscious that my best round on my home course is a poor 73 this year, and my handicap is higher now than when I started this blog. However, this is the whole purpose of this blog, when things aren’t going well I can review what things were like when things were going well. So that’s exactly what I’ve done, re-read a few posts and a bit of a golf book that helps me psychologically, and all being well I’ll play in another competition tomorrow with a clear, positive, frame of mind. The ability is still there, I know it is, it just won’t come out to play whilst my mind is putting unreasonable demands on it.

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.

Middlesex County Championship Round 2

I followed up this morning’s 75 with………. another 75. This afternoon’s one was quite similar, I frittered shots away I the front nine, and then held on in the back nine. I didn’t have a capitulation for a few holes like this morning, it was just consistent shots being dropped. I should have figured that it wasn’t going to be the round I had dreamed of, when after hitting a cracking drive, and an eight iron to 2ft on my first hole this afternoon, I missed the putt.

I left before all of the scores were in, but some things are definite; I have not finished in the top 16 so have missed my target for this competition. However I have definitely improved on my previous finishes; I’m definitely in the top 32,  more than likely I have finished in around 28^th place.

The course was in good condition, and the greens were very fast and true. The layout was quite tight, you are always walking past another fairway or green and have to be really aware of everyone else on the course.

My stats for the day were; Morning, 13 greens in regulation and 32 putts. Afternoon, 11 greens in regulation and 32 putts. From looking at those stats I should have scored better than 75 in the morning, but it was the triple bogey 8 on the 18^th that was the cause of the pain, when for 5 minutes I morphed from a golfer into a hacker with the little known combination of hook, shank, hack out, shank, hack out, duff, chip, putt.

Playing on quality greens, and I mean real quality, makes a massive difference, as I didn’t feel that I putted very well today yet had 32 putts in each round. At my home course 32 putts would be a great success.

All in all, I have mixed feelings, I could have scored a lot better, but it wasn’t a total disaster. I’ve played 3 courses blind in the last 6 days and my worst score is 75. Hopefully when I get onto a course that I know well again tomorrow things will all fall into place. I’m sure I’ve said that before.

Middlesex County Championship Round 1

5 over par 75 this morning, which on the face of it looks okay, but was a bit of a recovery job to be honest. Started fine, but dropped 5 shots on my 7th, 8th and 9th holes, which were all easy pars, and was 7 over par after 10. Then birdied 3 out of 4 to get things back. Need to be under par this afternoon to have any chance of qualifying, a very long shot but you never know.

Middlesex County Championship Preview

The Intro;

The third of my major competitions of 2010 is the Middlesex County Championships on Friday 4^th June.

This is a 36 hole strokeplay event, with the top 16 going into knockout matchplay thereafter, this year held at Bush Hill Park Golf Club from Friday - Sunday.

The Background;

The County Championships are generally one of the main events for a low handicapper during the year. I have played in the Middlesex County Championships in the last 2 years.

The Location;

The venue rotates each year, and this year Bush Hill Park has been chosen. It is just south of Enfield, so is in the very North East corner of the county.

The Course;

I have never played the course before, and don’t have time for a practice round either. It is a par 70, although the SSS is only 68. It has 4 par 5s and 6 par 3s, and at under 5,800 yards is very short for a County Championship venue, and puts the focus on accuracy rather than length – maybe not a bad thing for me when the young guns can knock it 40 yards past me.

The Competition;

The maximum field is 72 players, and there will be prizes for the strokeplay on the Friday, and for the matchplay stages too. I don’t know what the prizes are, and to be honest it doesn’t really matter, in this case it’s the prestige of a County Championship that matters.

The qualifying score for the top 16 is consistently 6 over the SSS for 2 rounds, which for Bush Hill Park would be 142.

The Target;

In my first year playing in this tournament I finished in 40^th place, and in the 2^nd year improved to….. errr…. 39^th place. In each of those years I had a disappointing first round which knocked me right out, before having a much better second round. I would love to finish in the top 16 and come back on Saturday for the matchplay, I will have to play as well as I did last weekend to have a chance of that.

Updates will appear here at about 2pm and 7pm (UK) on Friday.