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.

Time Available < Time Required

UK Handicap; 3.5 USGA Handicap; 3.1

Another day of aching limbs after 36 holes the previous day, and the prospect of 6 hours sitting on a train as I head back to London.

After leaving Strathmore yesterday, we headed to Kingennie, a 3 year old 9 hole course on the outskirts of Dundee where a friend is a member. It was another course I hadn’t set foot on before so this was another blind experience, at least for the first 9 holes until we went round the second time for the “back nine”. Playing a nine hole course all of the time would drive me nuts, it must get so repetitive having to play each hole twice to get an 18 hole score, although the one advantage it does give is the knowledge of flag positions etc the second time around, as well as the motivation of improving on the first nine score. 18 holes and 72 shots later, and I was absolutely done for. The wind at Kingennie was extremely strong, and the hard ground, coupled with the new turf not being fully mature yet, made scoring very difficult. Par and SSS are both 68, so my 72 net 68 would have got me cut back to 3 had I been a member of the club playing in a competition. From looking at the scores from a members competition being played, the CSS increased to 71 due to the conditions. I would have counted this score towards my USGA handicap, as my rules for this handicap are that any round at my home course, and any round at another course which has been USGA rated (generally rounds in Scotland, where all courses have been rated), count towards my USGA handicap, but I cannot find the Kingennie Course and Slope Ratings anywhere so I’m unable to calculate it.

The CSS at Strathmore stayed at 72, so I have been cut 0.2, back to 3.5. This is still higher than I started the season at, but I’m starting to come into a bit of form, 4 of my last 5 rounds have been in my best 10/20 for USGA calculation purposes.

It’s getting to that time of year where there is not enough time available to do everything I want to. There is a competition today at my home club, but I can’t play as I’m up in Scotland. The County Championships are on Friday, and I won’t have time for a practice round beforehand, meaning I’ll be playing yet another course blind. The Forfar 36 Hole Open has been rescheduled for Saturday 24th July, which I can’t play in as I have a competition at my home club that morning, and have already booked a train up to Scotland that afternoon in advance of a competition I have starting the following Monday. If they had rearranged it a day later everything would have worked out perfectly, I’m going to have to just accept I’m not going to be able to play Forfar this year.

The next item on the agenda, as mentioned above, is the County Championship on Friday. It’s kind of crept up on me this year, however maybe that’s not a bad thing, as yesterday showed that the less time I have to mull things over in advance can work in my favour as I don’t have the opportunity to over-analyse things.

Strathmore 18 Hole Open Update

Having a short notice change of plan can work to an advantage on occasion. That certainly happened today, as I played Strathmore blind. It is a tough trek, well worthy of it's rating, and the greens were in good condition with some really heavy but subtle breaks. It was quite windy as well, which didn't help playing conditions. I found myself hitting the first 7 greens in regulation, and being 2 under par on the 8th tee. The next 7 were fairly poor, resulting in 2 three putts and 5 bogeys to put me 3 over par. But the ship was steadied and I finished with 3 pars then a birdie on the last, for gross 74 net 70. I hit 14 greens in regulation, which is really pleasing for the conditions, the 36 putts wasn't great, but the greens were quite contoured.
As things stand, with about 85% of players in, I am tied 2nd overall, although there are 5 players on 74 and I don't expect to win anything on countback as my back nine was poorer than my front nine. I have the 5th best net score in the clubhouse too. The best thing, other than playing really well, is that I will get my handicap cut by at least 0.1, possibly more. Makes up for the early disappointment of this morning's cancellation.

Change Of Plan

So, the day of the Forfar 36 Hole Open. Except I won’t be playing in the Forfar 36 Hole Open as it’s been cancelled due to torrential rain last night. I got the call just after 8 o’clock, and was surprised to say the least. I know it rained last night, but never in a million years did I think the competition would be cancelled because of it. It will be rearranged for another date during the year, but that’s not much use when I have a 1,000 mile round trip to play in it, and have already shelled out for said trip this weekend.

So as not to waste the weekend, the internet was quickly consulted, and we are now playing in the Strathmore 18 Hole Open in about 90 minutes time. The power of the internet is brilliant, 10 years ago you would never have been able to know, at 5 minutes notice, what competitions were on. So we’re going to try and make the best of a bad situation and enjoy the day. I have never played Strathmore before, it is par 72 SSS72, so I expect nothing, but sometimes that’s when magic things can happen. We shall wait and see…..

Forfar 36 Hole Open Preview

The Intro;

The second of my major competitions of 2010 is the Forfar 36 Hole Open on 30^th May.

This is a 36 hole strokeplay event played at Forfar Golf Club.

The Background;

I haven’t played Forfar in about 13 years, but it was always a really popular venue when I was a junior golfer. I won the under 15 years old handicap prize of their Junior Open in nineteen ninety *cough* something. With the day after this year’s tournament being a bank holiday, it means that I can travel up to Scotland on the Saturday afternoon and travel back down south on the Monday, without using any holidays from work.

The Location;

Forfar is a small market town in Angus. The nearest major city is Dundee, 15 miles south. The famous links of Carnoustie is 13 miles south east. The course itself is located to the east of the town, and is contained within a square area, in keeping with the farming area that surrounds it, and the way land and fields are split up between owners. Despite being inland, the setup makes it play like a links course, but with a lot less wind. Because it is inland though, it doesn’t get the same reputation as other courses nearby, as the Angus coast is famed for its seaside courses.

The Course;

Although housed within a square area, the course itself has quite bit of variety. Square shaped courses can easily get caught in a trap of playing one hole one way, then the next hole in the opposite direction, so you spend 18 holes going up and down and up and down. There are some small hills on the course, and there is an abundance of scots pine trees. 10 of the 13 par 4s are under 400 yards, so it is very much a course where if you can get your driver and short irons (8, 9 PW and SW) working then there is a chance to shoot low. By my reckoning, if the driving is reliable, then there are only 4 holes where an iron longer than a 7 iron will be required. The par is 69, and the SSS is 70.

Because of the relatively low profile, the course is absolutely a hidden gem, a day ticket costs £42 ($61) during the week. If I ever move back to anywhere within 60 minutes of Forfar, it is the course I will try and join. A full membership costs £420 ($608) per year, for a fantastic layout in fantastic condition.

The Competition;

The maximum field is 90 players, and 10 of them will win prizes. The prize fund is £780, with the overall winner receiving £130. 43% of the entry fees go back into the prize fund, meaning that the green fees for 36 holes cost around £11 to each entrant – it’s value for money regardless of how you play.

The winning score is generally 138, which is level par.

The Target;

I’ve never played in this event before. Going on the basis that the winning score is around 138, I would like to finish in the top 6 places, as that would represent a solid performance.

I am really looking forward to playing in this competition for a variety of reasons; I haven’t played the course in years, I generally play well on it, it is fun to play, it is always in great condition, and I have been paired with a friend of mine so it will be quite a relaxed atmosphere. Updates will appear here at about 4pm and 9pm (UK) on Sunday.

Look Back To Look Forward

A couple of posts I made last week got me interested in how I am playing compared with previous years, and the difference in play between the start of a year, and the peak of the season, which is normally the June – August period.

I have played 23 rounds on my home course this year, so I have taken those 414 holes and split them into how I played them in relation to par. I then took the first 23 rounds in each of the previous calendar years I have data for, and completed the same exercise. Finally, I looked at the 23 rounds in the peak of the season for each year.

The first graph shows the comparison between the start and the peak of the season.

Unsurprisingly, it confirms the theory that there is a peak in each season. The number of pars or better is 13% higher in the peak of the season than in the start of the year. Interestingly, over the 3 years, the rate hasn’t been a consistent 13%, it has been 8% in 2007, then 12% in 2008, then 19% in 2009. This is a good trend for me at the moment as it shows that, regardless of the difference in standard at the start of each year, the better I get the more of a difference it makes in the peak.

So where am I this year? 

Looking at the next graph, this compares the first 23 rounds of golf in each of the last 4 calendar years. From 2007 to 2008 the main improvement came from turning disaster holes (red) into bogey holes (orange). From 2008 to 2009 the main improvement came from turning bogey holes into pars. From 2009 to 2010 there hasn’t been a significant difference, the only thing that shows up is that there is more inconsistency; the number of birdies (green) and disaster holes (red) have both gone up; although the birdies have gone up by more, giving me a slightly lower score average.

The peak of each season gives a much clearer picture of how I have progressed. The number of birdies and pars are both up year on year, and the number of disaster holes is reduced year on year. As my 2010 start is similar to my 2009 start, I can expect the graph for the 2010 peak to look similar to the 2009 peak, but with a slight improvement.

The last thing I looked at was a comparison of the average and median gross scores from the first 23 rounds of each year, and the number of those 23 rounds that contained a disaster hole.

This shows a very clear indicator. In previous years, there has been a direct correlation between the average gross score and the number of rounds containing a double bogey or worse. This year, the number of rounds with a double bogey or worse is vastly higher than the trend in previous years suggests it should be (trend would suggest 10/23 rounds so far in 2010 would contain a double bogey or worse, actual figure is 17/23). My overall average scores are reducing year on year, but the number of disasters are increasing. What does this mean? 

Well, previously, I would have either a good day, or a bad day that might contain several disasters. Now, I’m less likely to have multiple disasters in one round, but in each round there will be the odd one. I don’t know what is causing this, but if I had to guess I would suggest it is to do with putting excess pressure on myself. At the start of previous years I have been playing off a higher handicap, so I was expected to drop more shots. Now, playing off of 3 or 4, if I get into trouble I am taking more risks to try and salvage a par, as every dropped shot counts massively. However, when the risk doesn’t pay off I am dropping at least 2 shots. I need to get back to the stage of only taking calculated risks, and being prepared to drop shots, knowing that I have the ability to make a birdie to get it back later on.

Frequent Flyer

UK Handicap; 3.7 USGA Handicap; 3.4

It’s been a busy week, on and off the course, meaning that a) I have a lot to update and b) I am absolutely and completely shattered.

Knowing I was going to be away from Tuesday to Friday, I took the opportunity on Monday to get a quick 18 holes in. I used to quite regularly go out and race around 18 holes in about 2 hours in the evening, but hadn’t at all in 2010 as I’d opted to practice instead. The golf wasn’t exactly stunning, but it got better in the 2^nd half, and it was good to play 18 holes for a change with no pressure, no company, and no waiting.

The most exciting thing about Monday was that when I got to the club I was told my new putter had turned up, so I used it for the first time. The most important thing for me was that the putter was the right length and lie angle, my previous putter was too long at 36 inches, this putter is 33 inches and feels much more comfortable. A couple of photos of the new putter are below;

Tuesday saw my meeting about my knee. I met a very amenable physiotherapist, who after looking at my knee and doing tests from every angle imaginable, came to the conclusion that my knee pain is caused by the joint of the femur and the patella, and the best course of action is to build up muscle around my knee to hold my kneecap better in place. So I still have anti-inflammatory tablets, and now also have these exercises to do, and we’ll review the progress in 3 weeks. The diagnosis ties in with something I have been working on in my golf lessons, namely my weight distribution. Because I use my right leg to bear more weight during my (old) golf swing, the muscle in the right knee was built up more than in the left knee. The swing changes I’m currently trying to perfect should even this out, and build up my left knee in the process.

So bearing my knee in mind, spending over 14 hours on trains over the next 3 days wasn’t the best treatment, but unfortunately I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

Arriving back in London already extremely tired last night, I then went and played 36 holes today. Sometimes I get so tired that I don’t think I could walk another 100 yards, but the weather in the London area was absolutely beautiful today, and it would have been a shame not to spend all day in the sunshine playing golf.

This morning was a stableford, and I managed to get 37 points, which should get 0.1 reduced from my handicap, although I’ll have to wait until the results are published and the Competition Scratch Score is generated to find out for sure. I played the difficult holes very well, and dropped 5 silly shots on some of the easiest holes on the course. The 18^th (which was my 9^th as I started on the 10^th) saw me get a flyer with my second shot. This means that grass gets caught between the clubface and the ball, and grooves on the club do not take effect. The effect is that the ball goes further than expected and doesn’t have any spin on it so will run further too. It can’t really be pre-empted, it just happens occasionally. Unfortunately, the 18^th hole at my course has out of bounds about 7 yards off of the back of the green. I’ve never seen anyone hit the ball out of bounds in that spot……… until about 11.15am this morning. So there is 2 shots gone just like that, without even hitting a bad shot, and ultimately the chance of having my handicap reduced by another 0.2.

This afternoon was a match for the Tigers team, and I lost on the last hole. My opponent birdied the last hole, I only managed a par after getting another flyer. My shot was dead down the line of the hole, the extra flight and lack of spin took it 20 feet past, much to my surprise. I had two flyers all day, and each one was extremely costly. Looking at my stats, I have only won 2 out of the 8 matchplay matches I have played this season, surprising as I had won 14 out of 21 in the 3 years previously. Despite losing, I hit a fantastic 16 out of 18 greens in regulation (29/36 for the day), and only dropped shots on 2 holes. My putting wasn’t great, but I’m going to practice with my new putter this week.

I am hitting the ball really well now, but I have noticed a worrying trend. When I hit a bad shot previously, I generally recovered to only drop 1 shot. Now, the number of disaster holes (double bogey or worse) is crept up dramatically. In my first 23 rounds of 2009, 12 of them contained a double bogey or worse. In my first 23 rounds of 2010, a frightening 17 of them have contained a double bogey or more. I’m playing really good stuff for 95% of the time, but the remaining 5% is costing me lots of shots. I’m going to go into more detail about this over the coming week (I have graphs and everything, bet you can’t wait for more graphs!), but for the meantime I just need to sleep. zzzzzzzzzzzzz