Still winning and improving as well...

3/7/12 Tuesday. A good weekend of golfing fun on Saturday and Sunday, with two different rounds score wise. Saturday Decided to play at Kingston and get in eighteen holes as the home track was well covered with water after the Friday rains. Apart from a few passing light showers the rainfall was negligible and even the wind was not too strong in affecting the golf played.

Scoring a credible 38 points in the Stableford round with an 82 off the stick and 27 putt was a good enough result to win on the day. It was a reduced field with the A, B and C grade golfers playing club championship match rounds. Over all I played consistent and effective golf. Mixed in with some good and bad shots it is encouraging to know that I have and can improve further. Sunday at Robe the course had dried out significantly since Friday and I was not as focussed on playing and that showed in the end result. While the 29 points was good enough to have me in the top section of the finishers I let myself down several times with inefficient shots. From poor tee shots, fairway play as well as chipping and putting.

Importantly I did have fun and on the eighteenth hole whilst I could have still played to improve my score, instead I decided to push my limits and go for distance off the tee. Two balls went out of bounds and I was not bothered in the slightest it was better to have played and lost than not taken the risk to see what the result would be. Next week is the third and final round of the John Leake Trophy and a score of 40 stableford points will tie with the current leader and 37 will have me matching the current second highest score. This is really an exciting opportunity to know what score I am chasing and being able to go hard for the title with a scope of 3 points to be in the running for a place finish.

This week I will be working on a specific section of my game. The shorter iron shots from 130m into 50m were a particular failing this weekend. This was also noticed at Keith the weekend before, playing off a 12-13 handicap I expect a certain number of errors. When one occurs often enough that by its result puts more pressure on the next shot it is time to target it for improvement. Previously I played very few second shots from 130 metres or less to the green, with the increase distance off the tees in the past 3-4 weeks though this shot has became more prevalent. Whilst golf is about consistency, at my standard the more often I play a shot the nearer I get to having a poor one occur.

Before the need was top play good #6 to #3 irons to the green and have a good chip shot when they missed. So I practised to get them at their best. Now it is time to improve the #7 to 56 degree Wedge shots in accuracy as this is what I am using for greens in regulation shots. It is possible to play them well now but the prevalence and expectation of them is too much for my current ability. The three highest lofted clubs rarely got much use in a round outside of chipping 20 metres to the green. Now they are the clubs that are first choice to hit the green in regulation and I have faltered badly in their use.

The current golfing level of play and practise is being maintained as I prepare for the Naracoorte Winter Tournament from 27th to 29th of July. The week before is the Lucindale CAVPower Tournament and all of this is preparation for the Club Championship qualifying rounds which begin on August the 19th. The week before on the 12th of August is the Millicent Open and I am entering as many of these as possible to really push myself against the A Grade sectional competition. At this stage I am playing well enough at the home club, Golf Link has my average finishing position as 4th place. This is not good enough though to compete against the single handicap golfers in A Grade, I can hold my own against some but the current and past champions are out of my league. Absolutely nothing is guaranteed in this getting me over the line in front but it is great fun devising the program and doing it to see if it works. Not to forget that I really enjoy travelling and playing in golf tournaments with or without the current reasoning. Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all”

 Geoff