Thursday 14th April
Not been very satisfying performance wise on the courses for the past few weeks. A little mentally flat same as this time last season after Southern Ports, still put in some good rounds at the home track. Away from home though on different courses my play to say the least has been below average. It is still a novelty to look at my current handicap of 14 and picture this time last season when it was 19 or 20, 6 strokes higher!
Playing with the ability that has got scores in the low 80's has been a bit of a shock. Not that smart a golfer it is just practise that has got me there and a lot of luck on the putting green. Got away this week and did my now usual stop over on the way at the Mount Lofty Golf club for nine holes on Tuesday afternoon. The greens sorted me out being a lot faster than my home track. As a social hit though I had time to replay shots and get to understand how to play them. Simple enough really, putt so the the ball made it to a target chosen approx. half way to the hole, it just kept going and either went in the hole or within 15 cm. Still managed a 46 gross parring number 2,3 and 4 made that possible.
Got home around 1pm today and managed to get on the course around 2pm playing the front nine for a 41 off the stick. Pars on 4, 5, 6 and 8 and bogies on the rest was a good result with the Driver delivering the benefits after learning some very harsh lessons with my poor accuracy at Naracoorte off the tee. Same with the flat stick on the greens my technique improved and the rattle of the ball dropping was the payoff. Hitting greens in regulation helped as well.
Now to hold the concentration when playing for real on the weekend. That has been the main problem of late, unable to maintain the required attention on the ball especially when playing shots. Equipment wise the change to a smaller driver down from a 460cc Cobra S9.1, 9.5 degree to a HDD Tour 380cc. 8.5 degree has cost me perhaps 10-20m at times. Never been a big hitter of the ball and still manage to get the ball to travel 230-250m off the tee with the smaller driver and it feels a lot more comfortable and responsive when working the ball.
With my elimination final in the Handicap championships match play in the next week or so it is good to be finding some form again. My opponent is another of the golfers whom I have passed on my way down the handicap strokes in the past few years which does feel a little odd. Even so it will be a good game and I will have to give him a few strokes but not many I would guess. Thankyou for your time and attention, "Hit 'em Straight all." Geoff
