Golf - Practice putting a ball in a hole

15th July Sticking with my golf program is not difficult with the use of little discipline in the beginning. After so many months of practice the routine is now established and is never an imposition which fits in very well with the enjoyment of playing golf as a whole. In reading many of the coaching guides and training books that are written with a more personal approach to the golfer, (as opposed to the books which are a one way lecture of do this and this and so on.... and miraculously at the end you will be hitting in the 70’s blindfolded.) authors often mention how golfers get on the range and hit the long irons and drivers and rarely put the same effort into their short game. This week is concentrating on the short game specifically pitching from 20m in to the green and putting.

There are still many parts of my game to be improved beside this that require some dedicated error/technique practice, it is only possible to do one a a time and benefit in my particular case and that is okay. No doubt there is many more able and talented golfers than I who can take control of their game development on a broader scale, I cannot and so for this approach is working. After the first couple of days today was the day when it was a pleasure pitching the ball to the target net. The swing was smooth the accuracy for 5m, 10m and 15m was very good by my standard, 50% of the balls went into the net the rest inside a 2-3 m circle. Best of all no mis-hit that dribbled forward, damn those are among the most frustrating errors to make. In a position to pitch onto the green and have an up and down chance for par, instead you dribble the ball forward up to a metre and are left with up and down needed for a bogie.

Did a little practice with the Driver and long irons to finish off today, been a few costly errors made in recent rounds that needed a bit of exploration. The Driver technique that worked so well had started to be eroded from my game. It was all in the mind, thought that the stroke was being played as the professional coaching lesson in January established. Truth was it was not and the occasional fade was beginning to become a slice again and giving me shots off the fairway from the tee as well as out of bounds results. Long irons were nothing major, mostly rushing the set up and not being settled for the shots. Hitting three to five fat long iron shots a round is the usual result and that has been expensive over all in the scores. With totals of gross 91-92’s the past 3 weeks, that is how fine a line it has been of late to breaking 90 and handicap. My next coaching lesson will include playing long iron shots in particular. Up until very recently my technique was the ‘scoop’ off the fairway, with practice now the stroke is more in the pure technique taking a small divot after hitting the ball on the downstroke.

Although reaching the green in regulation is now becoming a regular part of my round, without the stunned exclamation of, “How did that happen!!!” It is still a learning experience with a long way to go from being able to aim at the green and hit, to landing the ball on a particular spot of the green from 150 m out. Modest understatement is not a part of my nature in many things golf is an exception to that. False modesty is a trait that some people put out and that is not something that works in my opinion. Hence I can accept that my game is not rubbish but it is definitely a 20 handicapper game and improving. Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all.” Geoff