Standing up in the winter golf weather...

8.45pm Wednesday with a storm front forecast to reach here tonight the day was one with gradually increasing winds from 1pm onward. With a few jobs to get done it was not possible to schedule to a practise session. The difficulty was over come by making the most af a couple of half hour breaks to get in a chipping session and later in the day a good workout out with the 6 iron and four iron. That was an important one to do as it required hitting into the strengthening wind. Putting my rhythm and technique to the test for a pass mark. The wet conditions and playing in the rain I can deal with in the main. Fronting up to the brunt of the strong winds off the Southern Ocean here is the make or break game standard a coastal golfer has to have. The coming British Open is often remarked upon with the weather conditions the players have to deal with. The same applies here as well in the middle of winter. When man of 105kg fit and strong struggles to stay on his feet while playing a shot, let alone hit the ball forward 150m on the fairway or green, your game needs to be well tuned. The bonus today was I managed to get out for an hour session after 5pm. Put in a combined series of drills chipping and putting then out with the driver into the wind. Worked out very well especially happy to be hitting the driver the same distance as last week. Considering the wind strength it is possible that my new driver is becoming very effective in my hands. The experiment of the previous week and using low tees has delivered an effective result. Not at its best yet either so looking forward to more practise if possible weather wise this week. Together with what has been a very small change in my stroke play. All that entailed was where my eyes focus in the set up to improve my club head direction before and after impact. Thank you for your time and attention. hit the ball, find the ball, hit the ball Geoff

Saturday will be a trip to Kingston for the Shell Roadhouse Trophy (Stableford event) Won a Shell event last season in the Kingston Summer Open and hopefully will pick up a place finish on Saturday. Looking forward to playing a Stableford even the day before the stroke competition at Lucindale. Not positive why it is so, yet this mix is something that sharpens my competition play. A Par round encourages me to attack to get the + result, which is not my usual 'percentage' game play. Hence it feels uncomfortable in comparison to Stableford where I can get 2 points for a 'par' score yet have the possible 3 or 4 point return for playing better than handicap on some holes. Sunday is the Lucindale CAVPower open event. A popular tradition in the region for golfers. I enjoy playing the course with the fairways between towering gum trees and the greens which are prepared to a treat for the Open. The bonus being that the course has two days play on it before the open on Sunday. The pace is usually a little muted than on day one of the event. Having never played the early days I only have this on hearsay that the lightning fast greens carve up a lot of cards in the early pairs events. Lucindale Golf Tournament Proudly Sponsored by CAVPower 18th - 21st July 2013 Thank you for your time and attention. hit the ball, find the ball, hit the ball Geoff