Monday, June 07, 2010

Golf - concentrate on the setup to win

6/6/2010 The past week of practise paid off on the course in todays competition.best round for a while admittedly only by one stroke and managed to drop from 21.4 to 21.3. The last 8 rounds I have played to the following handicaps starting on 21/3/10 – 21hcp, next 28hcp, 30 hcp, 34 hcp, 27 hcp, 24 hcp, 24 hcp and 23 hcp. on today 6/6/2010.


Today was a particularly enjoyable day as can happen on the golf course with good company. Which is an unspoken attribute to playing well at times, with the right playing partners a very comfortable attitude can establish itself that is a benefit to playing your game. The three of us are all around the same handicap and intent on improving them. This created a pleasant group attitude with a smattering of very good humour and support. In fact there was not one eruption of the F@#k volcano for any of the bad shots played by any of us. I did have a fair few “Bugger” moments though.

Came out of the blocks well, pars on the first two holes and a bogey on the third, with a start like that already two strokes under my handicap it was always going to be a reasonable round. The weather was superb, just enough breeze to be noticeable and refreshing in the sunny early afternoon. Made several very costly mistakes that affected my round. Two bad drives, one a hook off a par 3 out of bounds! This is not a major concern as it is a result of a grip change by me back to how I should hold the stick again. Amazing that the grip which we all know is the constant cause of problems, can be correct and then gradually a player starts to make subtle changes and have to go back to correcting it. In my case I have noticed the change happening and it is nothing but laziness that caused the problem. I made a change to my pitching and used the 7 iron for most holes and this was very effective in getting the ball inside the 2m circle around the hole on most holes. The greenkeeper has lowered the blades on the mower and the greens are a little faster than usual and this adds a challenging intrigue to putting. Especially how hard to hit the ball, they are so smooth the ball just keeps rolling and a lag put can very easily end up 2m past the target if struck a touch too hard. I did miss two very easy close putts through hurrying the shot. Also had two putts which literally stopped just short of the lip of the hole. Once again though it was not bad action but the mental actions that cost me dearly. The bad tee shots and the two missed putts all came from not setting up properly and causing the errors. How often is this important fact described in coaching and so easily overlooked and forgotten in the focus on swinging clubs and hitting the ball. Good thing I don’t play golf for a living, be eating a lot of 2 minute noodles for 3 meals a day if that was the case.

At the end of the day I came in tied 3RD place, two players tied for first six positions 2 on nett 70, 2 on second nett 71 and 2 (including me) In third nett 72.

=1 100 5101300219 N N 94 70 24.4 24 24 24.0 O

=1 100 5101300231 N N 80 70 10.0 10 10 9.7

=2 88 5101300211 N N 82 71 10.9 11 12 10.8 O

=2 88 5101300249 N N 96 71 25.0 25 26 24.9 O

=3 75 Geoff D. N N 93 72 21.3 21 23 21.2 O

=3 75 5101300264 N N 92 72 19.6 20 22 19.6 O

Two strokes too many at the end of the day that could have been saved with a little more mental concentration.

A lot more practise this week to do happy with my progress of late and this coming week is the Monthly Medal and it would be nice to win my first for the season. Main goal is to be in best form for the 27th of June, the next round of the DK Edwards trophy at the Keith Golf course. Best 6 rounds out of 10 competition played at different courses in the region. Thankyou for your time and attention, Hit ‘em straight all.Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff