15/2/12 Wednesday. Travelled to Kingston SE for an 18 hole stableford round on Saturday, still recovering from last weeks injury flare up and not 100% in much better condition after the game .That said the score was woeful 24 points. Missing putts was the biggest fault on the day with 36 total and no GIR, off the tee was good hitting most fairways and that is a crucial require for the coming tournament. Approach shots were erratic still, a little bit of a quandary mostly caused by the injury problem affecting the swing consistency. Hitting long is the fault that is creating the main problem, this is a result of the coaching improvements in January. With my body recovering from the increased training schedule since December it will be fine once the balance is restored in the coming week.
Having kept this diary on my golf since 2009, referring back to the corresponding periods in 2010 and 2011, I had the same injury problems and form. Whilst on the table having Bowen treatment this week I had my therapist check my previous year’s records and they confirm this conclusion. Which is why I am not concerned about the poor results in recent rounds and the physical discomfort. To draw an odd parallel, this is a consistent result and that is a requirement of good golfing. I am not having to deal with an anything unexpected a the minute and make adjustments.
With the changes to my stance and set up for strokes established, the latest practise on the range is still a pleasantly refreshing experience still. The ease of playing the strokes with less effort has added to it the ability to begin playing slightly adventurous shots in my opinion. Deliberately trying to play draws and fades is something that is occaisionally trialed on the practise range now. Mostly I keep to my tried and tested golf approach of hitting the ball forward and straight to the target. There is nothing impressive or special about my approach to golf, I am satisfied with a functional, minimal risk game to get the ball in the hole.
Yesterday I took a drive to Beachport the third course of the Southern Ports Tournament which is the second round in my grade. It is a nine hole course and each one is played twice to make up the eighteen of a round. Over the past three years the greens have improved considerably and are much truer and better to play on. This course is generally regarded as the easiest of the three played on in the week long tournament, yet plenty of players have crap rounds at Beachport as well. Having not been there for ten months the round yesterday was to refresh myself with the layout and the hazards.
There are five or six sand bunkers on the course and these are all next to greens. Made up of three par 3’s, two par 5’s and four par 4 holes it is a short course over all of 2711 metres x 2 for a total of 5422 metres. Being a small course it is very easy to cross over to adjacent fairways with inaccurate tee shots, there being just a line of trees separating most. These are the hazard that can tear a game apart if you approach this course with over confidence. Most are either gum or sheoak trees and tall enough to be difficult to play over and underneath them a full swing is not possible. There is also several patches of ti-tree to punish the golfer who is not on target. What appears on paper to be an easy course to negotiate is much more complex when playing around it. This is why I have made the effort to play all of the courses a few times before the tournament since 2010. It has helped a lot, coming runner up in 2010 and 2011 was not a result from poor course knowledge.
Yesterday I started out with two pars and that took a bit of a scramble on the first hole, no problems on the second, finishing up with a 42 after nine holes. There were several holes that I played poorly, straying off the fairways and having to negotiate the trees between the ball and the hole. It was not a difficult round. The mistakes made were all from testing the boundaries of playing the course efficiently or taking the temptation to dominate it. It was a valuable experience in preparing to play Beachport in the 2nd round. This week I am attempting to get to Kingston and play a solo social round, since playing the last three Saturday competitions it is time to have a casual amble around the course and put the game plan to work and see if it is as effective as envisaged. Thankyou for your time and attention. “Hit ‘em straight all.”Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff
