April 15th 2010. The new handicapping system had a few surprised faces among the golfers on Sunday. Several had gone out 3-4 strokes and after the Stableford competition actually had smiles on their faces, having played at or just under their new handicap for the first time in months. The most disapointed golfer was of all things the club handicapper who has busted a gut over the past months getting his handicap down and he went out three strokes! He has kept his good humour about it and it is only the effect upon having reached goals set for himself and then having the achievement taken away that stung a bit.
For me I ended up dropping only one stroke, my scores over the past 3 weeks have not been good enough and the lower scores in my last twenty were all at the end of 2009 when in good form during the lead up to the Club Handicap championships. Not that it made much difference the last fortnight has had me laid up twice for two day periods with back spasms from the effects of the excercise routine from my doctor to strengthen the damaged lower back I have. This is all good in effect that this week I have had a remarkable return of flexibility and the stiffness is gone. The next four weeks will build upon this, and personally it just feels great to be able to have full movement again after so long.
The game was a struggle for me as I fronted up after Friday and Saturday being restrained to minimal movement between the lounge and bed with the back spasms. Even so it was good to get out and walk without to much discomfort, albeit very gingerly. Returning the result of 27 points given the events leading up to the round was no surprise. Even though I am an optimist there was times when it was bloody hard to see anything good about some shots. Putting was atrocious, pitching had so many where they were mis-hit and the longer shots really were a strain to play. Yet I had some great returns hitting greens in regulation, and drives that were on the fairway and long as well. The fact was I could actually move my body similar to how most players swing, it felt very strange after so many years of being restricted in the movements. Have done another video of my swing since the one at the end of March and it was great to see the front foot staying on the ground and the back foot and leg actually rotate on the follow through. Nowhere near as fluid and smooth as most golfers hahah it almost looks like an after thought in my swing because my body is surprised it can actually do this :)
Monday morning a visit to the doctor to get flu shots and get confirmation the discomfort and back spasms were actually a good thing resulting from the excercise routine. They are and here I am on Thursday and am totally relaxed and no vestige of stiffness. Went out and played 9 holes after seeing the doctor, Monday for a gross 47, Tuesday 18 holes for a gross 92 (38 putts) Wednesday 9 holes a gross 48 with 18 putts! The upshot of the last few rounds is that the new putter (mallet style) as good as it feels will be taken out only for practise and the one I have used for the past 10 months will be used in competition. Nothing wrong with the new putter it is just that I am more adept with the original one in getting accuracy and distance. To have finally managed to get lower that 30 putts a round was a big achievement for me over the past months and Tuesday I felt gutted with the 38 putt round. I hit 7 greens in regulation, not a single birdie! 5x three putts and 3x two putts that should not have happened. Back to playing as I did last year again for a couple of reasons, stacked on 5 kg in the past few weeks and playing every day last year did me the world of good when I first started. If it works why stop doing it because you think that fiddling with it is better that leaving it alone. Thankyou for your time and attention. Hit ‘em straight all
Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff
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