Friday, March 18, 2016

Golf the game that makes life a bonus...

Dear readers, Time flies when you're having fun. The third and final round of Southern Ports was a battle, after a week of accuracy off the tee it disappeared as the dodo have from the planet. The one course where all you need is to put the ball on the fairway and the game is yours, was where the extinction accuracy decided to happen. Even so my game was not too shabby and I scraped together a passable score from regions of a golf course that are less visited by humans than the moon. The end result is of course all delivered at the presentation of the weeks trophies. In the over all tally finished a credible 7th place in the A grade nett score after the three rounds. the grand total of 6 strokes too many dear readers, quite simply two strokes too many on each day. There was definitely a period of reflection, mourning and analysis after coming so close once again. On the upside, there always is in golf for the second year in a row I won the Youngs Menswear trophy which is no easy task. Being a progressive nearest the pin for all three grades on one par three. Yes dear readers that was the epitome of my accuracy which was the linchpin of my game for two of the three days. It was only the absence off the tee on the third day which brought me undone. Moving on has been a gradual process since the first week of March, was simply golfed out in many aspects. and the hunger and passion to play was lacking. Even so I have ambled around for a couple of mediocre rounds and gradually returned to the practise areas to hone my game.As always the cycle resumes and success with it. Yesterday was a trip to Millicent a course which in my early days playing off high 20's handicaps destroyed my golfing game. Interesting experience with the past round knowledge. The accuracy off he tee is back and yet hitting the ball so well it was often going long off the fairway into minor trouble. It was then I recalled a couple of previous rounds at the Millicent Open playing with +1 golfers who used other clubs besides drivers off the tee. Golf is about a consistent routine and at times that can become a rut. Every course is different and the awareness of the difference can be buried in the myriad of other attention grabbers. It is one of the main reasons why I play other courses, it forces me to look at how I play golf in relation to a location instead of a generalised set of actions for the game. There is that moment of surprise still when i realise I can play the shots required to be a good golfer. The turning point for me was last Sunday battling around the course, that led to yesterdays success. It was with 4-5 holes to go the comment passed over my lips, "today is not so bad, hell only 3 years ago this would have been a good score for me!" Yesterday playing off a 9 handicap I scored 81 gross for a nett 72 par for the course. It took good shots with every aspect of my game, off the tee, off the fairway, out of bunkers and putting. Golf, it beats the crap outa reality. Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff