Progress, Closure and USGA Scratch

UK Handicap; 1.9, USGA Handicap; 0.8

I thought it was about time for a bit of closure on this blog, seeing as my last post back in June was a negative, depressing tale of woe.

The last 5 months have been an overall success, and whilst I did not make it down to scratch on the UK handicapping system, I did get down to a low of 1.6. Although not the original target, on 19th August 2011 I made it to becoming a scratch golfer based on the US system. I managed to maintain this over the following 3 months, reaching a low of 0.0, and it has recently crept up to 0.8 as a consequence of winter golf being a bit more tricky to score in.

In the three weeks following my last post, I played in 5 qualifying competitions at my home course and got cut in all 5 of them, moving me quickly from 3.7 to 2.5.

The target of a playing handicap of 2 eluded me for a couple of weeks, but eventually I made it to 2.4 with a round at my second course of Monifieth in advance of playing in the Montrose 5 Day and Nairn Dunbar 5 Day opens.

Montrose was a good week, I made it to the last 8 out of 195 players, before losing in extra holes in the quarter final. I played well throughout the week but the strain of solid competitive golf every day, moving to 2 rounds a day later in the tournament, took its toll.

I then went up to Nairn Dunbar the following week and, after a nightmare 1st qualifying round where anything that could go wrong did go wrong, managed to put in a good second round to qualify in 25th place. In my first round match I played a home player, playing off a handicap of 4. I played to my handicap but he was 4 shots better than his handicap, resulting in a 2&1 loss. It was just one of those things, playing Nairn Dunbar was a pleasure in itself as it is such a fantastic course.

A couple of weeks later, back at my home course, I made a real breakthrough.
Sitting at 2.1, I was round in 3 under par 68 (net 66), getting me down to 1.6. This round was also an achievement as it was the first time I have ever gone round 18 holes on a full length course without dropping a shot. The scorecard of 15 pars and 3 birdies is now framed in my house, as it has long been a goal of mine to have a blemish free scorecard.
I milled around for the next 3 weeks before going back up to Carnoustie to play in the Craw’s Nest Tassie.

I played the Championship course on the Monday, going round in 72. Yes, that’s right, 72 shots round Carnoustie Championship course. Later in the same month, world number 5 Dustin Johnson and Open Champion Darren Clarke would take more shots to go round the same course. I played really well, and finished with a delightful 4 pars on the toughest finish in golf.
The second round was on the shorter Burnside course on Tuesday, and the weather was just horrific, especially on the second nine holes. The wind was incredibly strong, which resulted in me putting from 70 yards short of the green as it was the only way I could get the ball to stop in a reasonable amount of time. I was round in 75, which was pretty good considering the conditions, and when the overall scores were added up, I qualified in 4th place out of 338 players.

My first knockout match on the Championship course on Wednesday was played in quite a strong wind, and I had the biggest win of the day, 6&5. I was round in 75, which although 3 shots more than my round on the Monday, was one of the best rounds I have ever put together. I was striping the ball as well as I have ever done at this point.

My second round match was played in beautiful conditions, and was virtually over by the turn, I was 2 under par after 6 holes which put me 4 up, and I coasted around from there, eventually winning 4&3.

In the last 16, played in a drizzle and breeze (you may be getting the whole concept of the weather changing every day on the east coast of Scotland), I just didn’t turn up. I was struggling all the way round, and made 3 or 4 cardinal errors from no danger at all, and went down 3&2. I was really disappointed with this, as I know I am capable of much better and the person who beat me, who eventually won the tournament, was playing off a handicap of 4 compared with my 2.

Having said that, if at the start of July I had been told that at the end of the Carnoustie tournament I would be playing off 1.7, would get to the last 8 at Montrose and the last 16 at Carnoustie, I would have said thanks very much.

Since Carnoustie I have lost a little momentum, going up 0.1 on 5 occasions, coming down 0.1 on 3 occasions, and making buffer zone on 5 occasions, however maintaining a handicap of 2 is pleasing in itself as it proves to me that it was not a temporary peak in form, I am a solid 2-handicapper who, now I have maintained it, can focus on getting to the next stage.
This year I played in 72 qualifying competitions, and went up in 36 of them, made buffer zone in 15, and was cut in 21 of them. This compares with being cut on 12 occasions in 2010.
The graph below shows my handicap adjustments in 2011, compared with 2010 in the shaded areas.

Split out by category (up, buffer zone, and down) it looks like this;

My average score at my home course this year has been a record low since I took the game up again in 2007, and has continued my decrease every year (2007; 78.63, 2008; 77.95, 2009; 76.54, 2010; 76.26, 2011; 75.83).

I don’t think it is any coincidence that my golf has significantly improved since I removed the pressure of updating this blog every week. It’s a paradox; I want to share what I am doing, but by sharing it I am making success less likely.
The graph below demonstrates just how my form has turned since the last update;

To that end I am going to close this blog now, and give it one more year to get down to the ultimate goal of 0.4 or lower. As much as I love playing in the week long competitions in Scotland, I am going to cut back on them next year as a) I’m struggling to have enough holidays to play in them and b) the greens at my home course are starting to get better after 5 years of being appalling, so I am going to focus on my home course as this gives me the best opportunity to get cut.

So there we have it, getting down to scratch in the UK handicapping system is a monumentally difficult achievement. Whilst there are still people who think it is fairly easy (see any number of ridiculous ‘novice to scratch’, ’18 to 5’, ’10 to scratch’ blogs where people are simply deluded in what they think is achievable), I hope most people have seen by the progress of this blog just how difficult it is. I was starting at a handicap of 3, and am happy with progress in “just” getting down to 1.9. Hopefully next year I can take it to the next step and reach the ultimate goal.

The Main Pain Is Rain

UK Handicap; 3.5 USGA Handicap; 2.1

Adjustment Required; 3.1, Competition rounds; 74, Ratio; 0.042

Another week, another baby step closer to scratch.

Nothing changed Monday – Friday, it’s still too dark to practice in the evening, so it was another weekend where I had my only opportunity to play.

My plan to practice all day on Saturday took an early blow when I woke up to quite heavy rain, but I spied a break in the clouds at lunchtime so decided to wander along to see if I could get some practice in.

Fortunately the rain did go off, and I managed about an hour’s practice before it came on again. A 45 minute hiatus in the sanctuary of the clubhouse allowed the shower to pass, and I went back out, but onto the course this time.

I mentioned several times last year that I often play two balls, and have a match between the two of them. This helps me to treat everything as if it was a competitive round, and play everything as it lies – it’s too easy otherwise to give myself good lies, and get out of serious play mode. I just need to remember to use two golf balls with different numbers on them.

I played 11 holes on the course, 22 holes with the two on each hole, and finished 6 over par in total. Nothing spectacular, but my first ball was level par and my second ball was 6 over par.

The *plan* for today was to go to a local range, which has excellent short-game practice facilities, and spend several hours honing my skills on everything 50 yards and in. However, I’m not the most assertive of people, and eventually caved in to playing a round of golf instead, on about the fourth time of being asked.

The weather was much better this morning, and I decided to put in the first of my ten available supplementary cards for the year. I’d been playing half decent yesterday, and with the drier weather I thought I could knock it around in a decent score.

After 9 holes this was looking like an extremely good decision, and I reached the turn in 3 under par. This is massively better than anything I have managed so far this year and, although I sank 3 very good putts along the way, that doesn’t detract from the fact I was hitting the ball very, very well.

Just when you think you have it mastered, something comes up and bites you. Towards the end of the first nine holes it started raining, and by the time we reached the 9^th green it was very heavy, and the temperature had dropped by about 10 degrees.

I ended up playing the back nine in 6 over par, to finish one under my handicap, and to get a reduction of 0.1 to take my handicap back to 3.5. As traditionally happens, the rain stopped just as we were on the final green.

Of the six shots I dropped, four of them could be directly attributable to the weather, which for most of the back nine was utterly miserable. One of the par fours became out of reach, despite two of my best shots, and I hit a tee shot on one hole where pitchmark was actually further than where the ball finished.

There has been quite a bit of rain recently, and the course has been saturated. It didn’t take much rain to re-saturate it again, which made playing very, very difficult. In four years playing at my home club, today was the first occasion I have ever seen water lying on any of the greens, they can normally take as much water as mother nature can throw at them, and they will drain straight away. I also had several lies where the ball was lying directly and wholly on top of mud. People generally imagine playing a golf shot off of grass, but playing off mud, especially around the greens, is a whole different ball game.

There are several attitudes I could have to today, including;

- I blew up, I could have got 0.7 or more off my handicap

- I was only in a good position to start with because I sank some putts

- I was unlucky

- I was lucky

- I played well, but the weather accentuated any loose shots that I may otherwise have got away with

- I played brilliantly considering the conditions

The attitude I will take away is the second last one. I did play well, 2 over par for the back nine, taking out the weather affecting shots, would have been very good and would have got a 0.5 reduction for my handicap, but the conditions meant that any shot that wasn’t bang out the middle of the club, and even some that were, was an instant bogey. These things happen, nothing I can do about it now.

A very quick analysis of my round tells me that in my eyes I hit 22 good shots, 9 average, 6 bad, and 5 that were affected by the underfoot conditions. I hit more good shots than everything else combined. During the week I finished off re-reading the Bob Rotella book I often go back to, and it reminded me that the mechanics of a good golf shot are nothing short of a small miracle. Watch a beginner try and make contact with the ball and you’ll soon see what I mean. For me to hit more of them well than anything else is something I should be proud of, regardless of my standard and the score I end up with.

We’ll give it another go next week, maybe I’ll be 3 under par after 9 again, and the weather will stay fair.

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.

A Supplementary Bonus

First of all, happy 100^th blog post to me! It’s taken less than a year, and although I’m well behind my target golf-wise, I’m pleased with my persistence with this blog, as many other blogs on a similar subject have come and gone without a trace. Here’s to the next 100 posts.

I have started planning for next year already, which has thrown up some interesting logistics, and an unexpected bonus.

As has been previously detailed, after my last qualifying competition for 2010 which takes place tomorrow, I will have played in 56 qualifying competitions. This is quite a good number, but I need to really ramp that up next year, together with a lot of hard work, if I want to progress. There are several ways I am going to make this happen.

Firstly, I am going to join a golf club in Scotland that has qualifying competitions every Saturday and Sunday. In fact, there are two on a Saturday as there are two courses, and you can play on each. So if I am in Scotland playing a Monday – Friday tournament (of which I have 3 of these planned), I can travel to Scotland the Friday evening previously, play in 3 qualifying rounds on the Saturday and Sunday, then play in the Mon – Fri tournament, then another 3 qualifying competitions the following weekend, before heading back to London on the Sunday evening. Very tiring, but it gives me the opportunity to bookend my week long tournaments with 6 qualifying rounds.

In addition to this, I have already gone to extreme lengths to maximize the number of qualifying competitions I can play in. There is one particular weekend where I have a 36 hole competition in Scotland on the Sunday, followed by a bank holiday Monday competition at my home club. So I have bought a 7am flight from Dundee – Birmingham, then train to London, then underground train to my golf club, so I can get there by midday and play in an extra competition.

Secondly, the golf diary at my home club is a lot better for 2011 than it was in 2010. When I first joined this club I was baffled by the lack of qualifying competitions, 23 between April and September, next year there are 39, and are much better spread throughout the calendar. With these club competitions, and week long tournaments, I have already submitted my annual leave from work for 2011. Before the year has already started, I only have 2.5 days left from an entitlement of 28 days. So I’d better hope I don’t need any more time off work in the next year, as I’m not going to have the availability to take it. I also did a check of Friday afternoons, and from mid-April to end of September, I am going to work on 9 of them, and be off for the other 14. So if any work colleagues need me, don’t need me on a Friday afternoon!

Thirdly, I heard today that CONGU, the UK handicapping body, have made some amendments for 2011. In 2008 they introduced a system called Supplementary Scores, where players with a handicap of 6 or higher (i.e not me), who played less than 6 qualifying competitions in the previous year (i.e. not me), could submit up to 10 extra qualifying scores without a designated qualifying competition taking place. There are additional rules, such as a maximum of one per week, and you need to designate before starting that you are submitting a Supplementary Score. The good news is that as of 2011, they have opened Supplementary Scores up to players with a handicap of less than 6, and have scrapped the rule about having played less than 6 qualifying competitions in the previous year.

So that means that every player, including me, can now submit up to an extra 10 qualifying scores per year.

The end results of these 3 changes are that my diary now shows that I currently have 83 opportunities to play for my handicap in 2011. Even I have to admit that is quite a large number. It’s worth remembering that I played in 56 this year and didn’t reduce my handicap, so the number of competitions and handicap reduction are not directly correlated, but if the goal of my journey is to get down to scratch, then the vehicle that can help me get there is the number of qualifying competitions. And I’d rather be travelling in the Porsche of 83 competitions, than the Astra of 56.

Dark Matter – Night Golf, Putting & Holes in One

UK Handicap; 3.3 USGA Handicap; 1.3

I played Night Golf for the first time ever on Friday night. As you can imagine, Night Golf is exactly as it sounds. The tees, greens, bunkers and flagstick are lit by luminous markers, and the golf balls glow in the dark. Other than that it is completely pitch black. We played an event over 8 holes, all fairly straightforward par 4s, and I really enjoyed it.

It was a bit nerve-wracking standing over the first tee shot, having to trust your swing, but I hit a good one down the middle and soon got to grips with it. The balls only go about 70% of the distance of normal golf balls, so the clubbing needs adjusted accordingly. It is the sort of game that isn’t very enjoyable if you don’t hit the ball well, but fortunately for me I actually played quite well, and would definitely play again. It was also a great confidence boost knowing that I can trust my swing, and my ability to hit a ball is driven by a natural swing, rather than a visual adjustment.

On Saturday morning I played in a stableford competition, and once again managed to throw away a good round into the most frustrating result possible – missing buffer zone by one shot.

The main problem was putting; I missed 4 putts of 3 foot or less. When I only get 3 shots to play with in the course of a round, then losing 4 shots so easily is not going to lead to a happy ending. This may have been caused by me, but I’m fairly certain that the condition of the greens was also a factor.

There have been ongoing problems with the greens at my course for years, and a recent agronomist report was quite scathing. The short term impact is that tons of sand have been put on the greens, making short putts quite difficult as some of them break quite a lot and some others stay straight. I have 2 more competitions in 2010, so in theory I could be back up to 4 at the turn of the year, but I’m playing well enough to avoid this, and if I can sort the putting out then I don’t see why I can’t get cut.

I have never named anyone on this blog, but this next bit merits an exception. The round on Saturday was also notable for being the first time I have played with someone who got a hole in one. Having narrowly missed a hole in one by about a foot on the 13^th hole (our 4^th, as we teed off on the 10^th), two holes later Steve Pope hit a beautifully crafted shot that landed on the green, disappeared over a slight slope in the green, and wasn’t seen again until we reached the green, couldn’t see his ball, and peered into the hole. Well done Steve, I enjoyed sharing your celebratory drinks too!

The Cost Of Golf

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have done quite a lot this year; various trips up to Scotland to play, new clubs, lots of tournaments, several lessons. It got me thinking about how much I’ve spent on everything golf related during the course of 2010.

I have been tracking my competition profit and loss, to the penny, all the way throughout the year, so I’ll start with that first.

For the purposes of this exercise, when I enter a competition not all of the fee will be used in prize money, so I split it out between how much of my entry fee goes into the prize fund, and how much is used for other purposes, like green fees, trophies, or any other expenses that the competition organisers incur. For example, the Craw’s Nest Tassie had 345 people playing £185 each, giving an income of £63,825. But only £4,320 is paid out in prize money. So of my £185, only £12.52 (4320 / 63825 x 185) gets attributed to prize money, with the remaining £172.48 going towards green fees.

My fees that went towards prize money this year were £195.61, and I won £458.10 back in prize money, a very healthy return of 134% profit! I split out the ‘Magic 2s’ entry separately (‘Magic 2s’ are where competitors pay an entry, and a dividend is paid out for any 2 that is scored during the competition), and they show an entry of £37.00, and a return of £140.95, this time a profit of 281%!

So overall, my competitive profit and loss was +£366.44, or 157% profit. It’s worth reinforcing that I don’t play golf to win money, anything I do win is a nice bonus but it is not expected and is not the reason I spend hundreds of hours practising each year.

The reason the competition profit is not the be all and end all is because it barely makes a dent in my overall spending on golf over the course of the year.

The full cost of my golf for 2010 comes out at £3,261.60, and is split out into the following categories in the table below;

Based on the number of hours I’ve spent playing golf this year, I calculate that golf costs me £6.85 per hour. A completely uninteresting fact, but a fact all the same.

I put together a short comparison with other hobbies, and how much I estimate they cost per hour;

- Watching Chelsea; £31.00 per hour

- Watching non-league football; £6.00 per hour

- Going to the cinema; £5.05 per hour

- Going to the pub; £5.00 per hour

- Hillwalking; £3.00 per hour

- Going to the gym; £2.60 per hour

- Watching tv; £0.34 per hour

Although golf is more expensive that most of the other hobbies on that list, for me it represents that best value for money by far, due to the combination of the health and social benefits, and the availability of it. Going to the gym is the only other one that I think represents value for money, but is restricted by the number of hours that can physically be completed in a given time period.

I have put together a template budget for next year, which shows a very similar bottom line as 2010, but with the component parts being made up differently;

2010 was an extremely expensive year for new equipment, 11 of the 13 clubs in my bag, as well as the bag itself, were bought this year, and that will not be repeated in 2011. I also won’t be spending so much on green fees as I won’t be going away to play other courses, other than the courses already accounted for in the competitions line.

The saving of over £900 on equipment and green fees is offset by several cost increases for next year. The main three items that take up this cost are; increased membership fees; as I’m going to join a course in Scotland as well as my current home club, as this will allow me to play in a lot more qualifying competitions. Travel & Hotels will take up more cost due to the diary I have planned. Competition profit & loss is budgeted to break even instead of the £366 profit from this year. I certainly expect to make some profit on this item, but like football clubs who budget on being knocked out in the first round of the cup, any profit will be a nice bonus.

So 2011 will cost another £3,200, but it will be worth every penny, and if I get down to scratch then it will be priceless.

The Late Eight - Round 5 + Am-Am

UK Handicap; 3.3 USGA Handicap; 1.9

There was just the one handicap qualifying round this week, but two rounds in total on Saturday, as I was called up to play in an Am-Am on Saturday afternoon. An Am-Am is where 3 players are grouped with a top amateur, there is a team event but the amateurs also play between themselves for separate prizes.

First of all the morning round, and with the course set up for the Am-Am later in the day it meant the tees were just about as far back as they could go, and some of the flags were in particularly difficult positions. When playing 36 holes in one day, it is generally a good idea to wake up more than 35 minutes before the first tee time, however I didn’t do that today so meant that it was a bit of a rushed start, which may explain why I found myself 3 over par after 6 holes.

I managed to steady the ship a bit after that, 4 pars then a birdie, before dumping an approach shot into the water on the 12^th. Not for the first time this season, I took the plunge and played the ball out of the water, making it to just off the back of the green, and then proceeded to waste the recovery by taking three more to get down. So 4 over par after 12 wasn’t exactly a great position, but I managed to par the last 6 holes for a respectable 75, meaning my handicap goes neither go up or down.

For the Am-Am, I was one of the ‘top amateurs’, so knew I needed to perform to justify my selection. It was also a chance to compete against some of the top amateurs in the county, and see where I am in relation to them.

I started quite well by sinking a monstrous putt for birdie on my first hole, and followed it up with 5 pars before an unusually volatile stretch of birdie, bogey, birdie, bogey, bogey to get me back to level par, before 7 pars in a row saw me finish with a 71.

For the second Saturday in a row, my first round of the day counts for my handicap and I don’t get cut, and my second round of the day doesn’t count for my handicap, and I would have been cut if it had. It’s very frustrating, I am showing that I can shoot the scores, I’m just doing it in the wrong competitions as far as my handicap is concerned.

When I got into the clubhouse I was delighted to see that the lowest score was 71, with 4 people including me having shot that number. With there being 4 prizes it was decided to pool the prize money and split it equally, rather than doing a countback of the best last 9, 6, 3 and 1 hole. So I was a joint winner out of the 17 amateurs, and picked up a bit of cash for it too.

This is a great confidence boost, I now know that I can mix it with the real top amateurs. Okay, I had local advantage, and it’s only a one-off, but the bottom line is that I shot the joint lowest score, and shared the prize with people who have won 4 County Championships between them in the last 7 years, as well as beating some really good players by several shots.

Next week is potentially a big week, with competitions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I need to try and retain this good form and make sure I can replicate it when it matters for getting my handicap reduced.

Oh No - Not This Again

6 months ago I wrote a post about the administration of the golf club of which I am a member, which turned out to be quite controversial.

I basically highlighted the regular errors made in administering the golf aspect, wrong handicap adjustments, arbitrary cuts in handicap, wrong winners of competitions being announced, and despite being anonymous (I have never named any individual or body negatively on here) and factually correct, some people it appears don’t embrace being told of errors. I can understand that attitude. However, the post achieved its goal in that these errors were brought to the surface, and I believe that an effort was made to try and improve things.

It’s disappointing and frustrating then, that 6 months later, that things appear to have slipped again.

The first competition I played in last Saturday was for all of the stableford winners of the previous 12 months, a total of 29 possible entrants, but excluding multiple winners the maximum field was probably in the region of 24.

The first contact to the people who had qualified to play in this wasn’t until Wednesday, less than 72 hours before the competition. This didn’t give people much time, and I’m sure that with the lack of notice some people, who would have been available if notified 2 weeks ago, were now no longer available to play. The final field on Saturday was a pitiful 7, a real devaluation of the competition which should be one of the main competitions of the year, after all it is effectively a ‘champion of champions’ event.

Furthermore, and I can’t state this as fact but I believe it to be true, whilst on the first tee there were other people playing a normal Saturday morning social game going down the tenth hole, who said that they had won a stableford during the previous 12 months but hadn’t been contacted at all to see if they were available to play.

Some people may say that I shouldn’t complain, as it’s easier to win a 7 player event than a 24 player event, but that isn’t the point. Everyone who qualified should be given the full opportunity to play, and given as much notice as possible.

I also mentioned earlier this year about how I was presented with the Order of Merit last year despite proving that I hadn’t won it. This year’s order of merit finishes a week on Sunday, and so far 28 of the 30 events have been played. So how am I doing this year? Well, I haven’t got a clue, as there has not been a single update posted in the clubhouse of the current scores after any of the 28 events played so far. Like the other competition above, the Order of Merit should be a big deal, that people can aspire to winning and check their placing in the table as the year progresses. What use is a year long competition if no-one knows how they are doing?

Last year I calculated the Order of Merit results myself by downloading the results, and then using a bit of Excel wizardry. So why haven’t I done that this year? The reason is that the online results facility has been out of action for a full 8 months now. Originally this was due to an intellectual property rights issue between the software providers, these things happen, but I would expect a resolution in less than 8 months, whether it be with the current providers sorting their issue proactively, the golf club applying pressure for it to be fixed, or terminating the contract and moving elsewhere. 8 months without the ability to look at results is a really poor show, regardless of the reason given. The only way of finding out a result is to go to the golf club once the results have been published. Importantly, no online access makes it much more laborious to find out the CSS of a competition, which is required when I am in Scotland and have a competition the following week; I need to know what my adjusted handicap is.

As I’ve said before, some people want to play social golf and couldn’t give a monkeys about competitions and handicaps, and that is absolutely fine, but those who do care are being short changed, and deserve better. I believe that this feeling is growing amongst the golfers who are competition and handicap aware, and I am not a lone voice.

I really hope I’m not sitting here in another 6 months writing about the next multitude of problems, maybe with it being the end of the season there is the opportunity for stock to be taken and improvements developed over the winter. I hope so.

The Late Eight - Rounds 2-4

UK Handicap; 3.3 USGA Handicap; 2.2

I’ve played three rounds since the last update, and as you can see by my handicap above, the target of getting down to 2 by the end of the season is fast evaporating. That’s not to say it’s all doom and gloom, as there has been some half decent golf, but in true sods law format, it hasn’t reduced my handicap.

Round 2 was last Sunday, and once again I managed to use all 3 shots I receive in the course of a round by the time I walked off the 2^nd green. Getting off to a good start is vital with such little room to manoeuvre, and dropping any shots early on creates an uphill battle. By the time I reached the ninth tee I was 7 over par, and all hope of cutting cut, or even maintaining my handicap, had gone. With the pressure off I managed to play the last 10 holes in one over par, but it was too little too late.

Rounds 3 and 4 were both played yesterday, and the first round was played in a combination of weather, from thick fog at the start (see photo), to glorious sunshine, to cloudy and breezy.

I managed to scramble it around the first 8 holes in 2 over par (including another 2 on the 3^rd hole, my 10^th 2 on that hole in 43 times I’ve played it this year), and with 3 easy holes to come I was confident of being no worse than 1 over par on the 12^th tee. Whether it was complacency, whether it was just poor golf, goodness knows, but I played these three holes in 4 over par. I have to admit I lost interest a bit after that, as the round had gone, and I just played my way in without much focus on my score.

Round 4 was a 35 player event in the afternoon, which due to the nature of the event (full handicap stableford) I gave myself no chance of winning, but thought I could go out and give my best and try and get my handicap cut. Well, that was until I found out that it wasn’t a qualifying competition, and the scores would not count towards handicap adjustment. This isn’t a moan about this round in particular, I accept the decision that it wasn’t a qualifying competition (I was sure the same competition in previous years was a qualifying competition, that’s why I thought it would count for handicap this year) or a criticism of anyone in particular, but the UK really needs to review what counts as a qualifying competition. As far as I am concerned, where there is a group of people playing in a group for a prize, and the competition states that the rules of golf are adhered to (i.e. all holes are putted out, there isn’t a restriction on the number of clubs used, etc etc) then I don’t understand why it isn’t mandatory for the scores to be submitted for handicap adjustment. In 2010, with the advent of Inactive Handicaps for players who haven’t submitted 3 qualifying scores in the past year, it should be doubly relevant.

Anyway, back to the round, and on the back of the news that this wouldn’t count for handicap, I went out and played really well to score 38 points, which would have got at least 0.2 reduced had the score been submitted. I had 3 birdies and 4 bogeys, hitting 13 greens in regulation and 32 putts, very very close to my standard target of 14 and 32.

To my utter amazement, although with hindsight maybe because; the conditions were difficult with some rain, the course was playing long, and the greens were like putting on a pinball machine, my 38 points was good enough to win the competition. Playing against 34 players with higher handicaps, there is generally at least one person who has a good day and comes in with a score well better than their handicap. But it didn’t happen yesterday, so I was delighted to pick up the trophy.

This blog focuses on my handicap, I see that as my trophy. I’m not normally bothered by actual physical trophies, in the 3.5 years I’ve been in my current golf club I’ve won; A silver plate, a carriage clock, a glass decanter, a set of 4 crystal tumblers and on 7 separate occasions a crystal glass for winning a monthly medal / stableford, with another trophy of some description on the way for a competition I won a few weeks ago. They sit in a cupboard in my house, most have never even been looked at. This is the first time I’ve won an actual trophy, something with two handles and a cup, so it’s gone in pride of place to be looked at for the next year, where I’ll either have to give it back, or try and win it for another year.

So, four competitions rounds left, one of which is next weekend, then a triple header of the following Friday, Saturday and Sunday to finish the competitive season.

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 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.