Three Sub par rounds in a row...

A lengthy discussion with the voices in my head today on whether to play or not. It was a close run yes in the end and for all the right reasons. This made it three 18 hole comp stroke rounds in four days and with the Southern Ports Golf week tournament coming up in first week of March, that was the deciding factor. Today was another success 77 off the stick (37 points) and a nett 68 to consolidate the single digit with at least 6 rounds to play and get a few more A Game scores. The work with the gym program is still first then on the range is still dedicated to chipping and putting. With the addition of more Tee shot driving workouts. Next weekend is the regional Champions Tournament all club champions play in a comp. and I am down for that on the Sunday. The game focus is on playing serious competition at the minute an pushing myself to the limit. Thankyou for your time and attention. Geoff

Fitter, stronger, better...

The past fortnights and more of golfing have been fun yet the scores terrible and rounds tiring. A combination of winter weather, adjusting to the new swing and fitness were the cause. Not a single moment of not enjoying being out in the weather, a times a struggle to stay upright in the winds. My game could not maintain consistency in these conditions. That was accepted by me very quickly and I still got out and kept playing as this is the only way to adjust to the changes. Importantly the fitness issue was identified early by myself and in the past two weeks that has countered a lot of the issue with struggling to play with the changed swing. Never would I have expected to make a note of my game in the same light as Tiger Woods. yet today I am. In the past week I came across an article on Tigers game and his swing changes. My changes began a few months ago and still I am struggling to play consistently and not fall back to the previous less effective and efficient swing. There are regular moments of erratic golf which astound me in past weeks while playing. Hitting several irons consistently and well and then hitting the same club so well it flies another 20 metres over a green. This eats away at confidence and has been a major influence on recent very poor scores. Again the weather has made it difficult to get out on the course practise area and hit balls and that has contributed a lot to the struggle. Then the fitness, it is not one thing which makes playing golf entertaining, and engrossing. The regular walking each morning had been a good thing, the omission of my regular strengthening exercises was not even noted. Until I started doing them again and the difference in my game play was literally immediate. Straight away my chipping returned to the previous accurate effectiveness around the green. The consistency with the full swing also had an immediate improvement. Doing strength building exercises makes it possible for my arms and body to maintain the new movement and body actions. Thankyou for your time and attention Geoff

Just get the Ball in the hole...

Just get the ball in the hole 22 May 2015 by Paul Skinner What do you think would happen if your club took the flags off its greens in Saturday’s competition? Not the holes, just the flags. Well, after the mayhem and initial confusion, I can tell you what would happen. You’d shoot a lower score. I almost guarantee it. The proof comes from statistical evidence – and from the wisdom of some of our game’s greatest players. Jack Nicklaus once said: “I only ever hit it close if I pushed or pulled it.” Greg Norman once said: “If I hit a great 5-iron, it goes to 25 feet.” Essentially, two legendary golfers were aiming away from the flag, often simply to the centre of the greens. Which goes right back to my club competition theory. If you aimed exclusively at the middle of greens, with no other target in mind, you’d find yourself putting a lot more than you otherwise might, especially if you regularly aim at “sucker pins”. Here’s how I know this. As an eight-year-old I was lucky enough to meet Peter Fowler, who quickly became a mentor and the reason I pursued golf as a career. I practised every day and in 2000 earned my Australasian Tour card – my dream achieved. Or was it? I battled for years with limited success. I hit more balls on the range than anyone, trying in vain to perfect my swing. During this time I would caddie for Peter during gaps in my limited schedule, even working on the European Tour for a while. Peter is known as one of the hardest workers on tour and for his meticulous preparation and course management skills. One of the sport’s greatest short-game exponents, he’d consistently amaze his peers with the scores he churned out, even while playing less than his best. In all this time watching Peter, you’d think I’d have learnt my lesson. He was trying to teach me how to play golf; I was trying to play golf swings. Golf is a game of misses. What defines golfers is the quality of their play when things aren’t going quite right; when their so-called “perfect swing” isn’t quite perfect. I once asked Peter to tell me of the better rounds he had through his career and without a moment’s thought, he answered: “I shot 74 in the third round of the Scandinavian Masters back in ’89. Mate, I could not have had one less!” And this from someone who has shot a 63 to win on the European Tour! So I finally learnt the lesson. Even now the best golfer in the world might win three times a year, so there are going to be a lot of weeks on tour that will be a battle. So it’s meticulous course management and preparation when things aren’t quite working that helps us to score. Three years ago, my good friend and Victorian Institute of Sport coach Marty Joyce asked me to present a talk on course management and preparation to Golf Australia’s national squad at a training camp. I’ve since had the privilege of working with Golf Australia as a coaching consultant and they’ve been some of the best times I have had in golf. The kids are incredibly talented and, trust me, are truly the best this country has to offer. And it’s incredibly fulfilling that they are now taking towards having that scoring focus, not just honing that perfect swing. We now have access to myriad statistical data. One we study religiously is proximity to hole – essentially how close Tour players hit the ball, on average, from any given distance. We are using this data to challenge our players to think more about clubs they’re hitting off the tee and, in particularly, approach shots. We use terms “in position” and “out of position” and hopefully getting them to understand that top tour professionals fire away from a lot of pins. One of the theories we pose is that if a top-10 player in the world hits a 7-iron to 25 feet (sorry, the data isn’t metric), if there is any trouble within that radius, we need to aim elsewhere. An example of this for those who know Royal Melbourne is a pin within eight feet of the back left of the second on the East Course. If you go just 10 feet past, you’re dead and cannot get up and down – an automatic bogey at best. Playing into that green with a 7-iron, knowing our likely proximity to the hole is 25 feet, the pin I am playing to is short right of and taking two putts all day long. To hit it close to that pin is a mistake -- which is why I am so determined to make these kids get it! Is this a conservative approach? A lot of people have challenged me on this in the past few years – and the answer is simple. No, it’s not. It’s simply playing to statistical data that cannot be argued. Bernhard Langer used to have a “seven out of 10” rule. He would say, “I need to know I can hit this shot seven out of 10 times today, else it’s a different shot or a different club”. Peter, when asked why his short game was so good, said “a lot of it has to do with where I am chipping and putting from”. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for repeatable technique. I coach it every day. But I think among our elite young athletes, we are starting to get the balance right between good technique and actually playing the imperfect game that is golf. That culture is starting to shift. To have kids the calibre of Ryan Ruffels and Lucas Herbert go to Japan spending nine hours creating their own yardage book; to start hearing them talk about “being in position” and “out of position”; to see them warming up on the range hitting all the required shots for the day; checking pin sheets and weather conditions pre-round; is really cool to me. And I’m pretty sure it will pay off for Australian golf. Paul Skinner is a member of GA’s high performance staff and consults to the VIS, Golf Victoria and state associations. He can be contacted at Martin Joyce Paul Skinner Golf, located at Spring Valley Golf Club. E: pskinner@pgamember.org.au M: 0433 122437 Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

Playing in carts not for me yet...

Not as successful on the Heywood Golf Course on the second trip over Saturday. No complaints game wise, did not putt or chip as well yet much better off the tee. The big change was playing in a cart. Not something I usually do and it had a significant effect on my game. Where I am usually chatting with players in the group in between shots walking to the ball, in the cart the company is in your face all the time. I could not settle on my short game and putting all day and shot selection was erratic. No great problem as I won the raffle for a dozen beers and the other mate in the car claimed second so 18 bottles started the trip home in the booty chest. This weekend is a working one so apart from playing the 9 hole Friday comp. it may be an enforced golfing break. No complaints as any added rest is a bonus and the driving range at home is getting a good work out. Happy to work on the long iron technique and overall ball striking, with chipping and putting at the club for the week. Thankyou for your time and attention , Geoff

Holding form with minimal practise...

Sunday's competition round was a test of my golfing game and brain. Leaving Adelaide at 7 am and getting home after a 4 hour drive took a bit of spring out of my step. The decision to golf was well worth it though, early night followed. I had no time to warm up and was playing for the same reason which drives me most, fun. Off the tee was mostly good and that was across the board on the day. Finishing with a gross 87, nett 74 and 34 putts. My handicap has crept out to 11.9 at the minute and lack of game time in the past three months and a broken practise regime is not helping. That is the reality of playing golf as a recreational sport, the rest of your life has precedence at times. Apart from a couple of wayward drives which added two recovery strokes, and putting that included 2 x 3 putts and there is the 4 strokes too many. Putting went way ward after a business call as well as some brain fades that had me misread the pace and hit balls way to soft. I have no complaints with any of the days actions it was fun. I am still working on a few tune up factors, moving the hips and putting the body behind strokes is one. This adds a lot of accuracy and power to the second shots on par fours especially. Hitting 8 fairways and 5 greens in regulation was not too bad a result. Considering the travelling and also 4 drives which were centimetres off the fairway and the same number of shots at the green which were also less than a metre off target, that is another reason for satisfaction from the day. Time is in the now zone for the final http://www.southernportsgolf.com/ golf week preparations. The training schedule will be, Putting first, Driver second, then the short game and irons to the green. Getting the ball in the hole is always the most important stroke. Then having the ball on the fairway after tee shots. Thankyou for your time and attention. Geoff

Driver shaft upgrades, so easy today

Following on from the mid week club fitting it was obvious that there was a re-fit needed for the driver. At the very least there had to be a checking out of shaft suitability. Given that the current shaft was fitted 12 months ago and if my iron swing speed had increased 10-20 kph the driver shaft had to be looked at. Fact is, since returning from the lay off there was often a feeling after hitting a drive that there was more in the tank but the ball was dropping on the ground sooner than expected. As I am not a long hitter and used to so much variation in shot distance in the past this was put on the back burner of relevance and importance. This is where the technology available improves the golfing experience so much. Simply set up a time with the pro and the ease of changing shafts using my driver head and away we go. With a machine the size of a lunch box recording launch angle, swing speed, flight path, ball speed, and flight distance the change was easy to establish. Swapping between a variety of shafts and sure enough the addition of a stiffer and lighter shaft, combined with increase loft to 11.5 degrees upgraded my golfing capability. Then out for a six hole round late in the afternoon to get comfortable with the change and see what the results were. Three holes off the tee and two things were glaringly obvious. Firstly "feel", I have more control with where I hit the ball to target. The new shaft does not feel like a rigid broomstick it is just right. Secondly the big change for me, distance increased off the tee. I hit the ball and it feels complete, all the energy is fully transferred at impact to the ball. The result on three holes was 20 metres more with one drive 250 metres fading around a dogleg! In the past week the equipment upgrade has included club fitting for Driver, new set of irons and last but not least re-gripping the putter with a fat grip. All of this would have been totally pointless if I had not put in tree year of dedicated practise to establish a reliable swing. Thankyou for your time and attention. , Geoff

Victory! 2014 Club Handicap Champion

Men's Handicap Championship final Saturday and winning 1 up after 18 holes. Was a good game but flaming hard work all day. 4 down after four holes, three down after 9. Kept coming at my opponent, giving him a stroke on ten holes. Managed to get to one up after 15 then all square again after 16. Halved the 17th and then dropped the winning putt on 18 after my opponent had a horse shoe putt ring around and lipped out. The winning facet of my game for me was greens in regulation. By Tuesday and finally I could type with out sooking in the discomfort of the effort. No matter how much I attempt to tell myself that this pain and the effort put into playing in the Champs and going on to win was stupid, immature, self serving wank et al there is not the slightest wavering in the satisfaction of winning the bloody thing. Today I will give the doctors a call and book in to have the shoulder looked at and do whatever has to be done to repair the damage etc. If it means no golf for a month or three could not give a toss in fact that would only add to the satisfaction of winning the Championship. Without doubt, I am lessening the depths of shallowness, when it comes to the importance of the win and anything else as far as I am concerned in 2014. A mate asked for a detailed description of the win and with a straight face I could run through the four rounds shot by shot over the month of play offs. Yet I could not tell you what I had for breakfast or dinner over the past week as easily. This is a reflection of how I added the 'mental' side of golf to my game in this period. This season has been the best for my physical golfing improvement. Established the consistent swing, from this base came the progression to better body mechanics and all of the associated golf benefits. The esoteric game facets, those intangible golf tools of concentration and comfort of being in the zone as some call it were worked on as well. Literally meditating on the game was what I did. Sure I read the various bits of golf info in magazines and books as usual. This was the detail that was reviewed while recumbent and in a state of harmony meditating on playing golf. It will be nice to actually let golf go off the table for as long as it takes to physically come good from the current injury. Only so I can start on my next golf obsessed goal. Golf stroke mechanics is the means by which golfers make decisions (selecting clubs, selecting shots) and execute them (making shots) in the sport of golf. For all golfers, it consists of a pre-stroke — in which golfer choose which club they want and their stance — and the actual stroke. The stroke is a complex motion, and there is still disagreement on what constitutes a good golf swing. In “Work and Power Analysis of the Golf Swing,” "Nesbit and Serrano suggest the golf swing has been studied by scientists and mathematicians who have developed various equations to help explain the complexity of the swing. It is generally agreed that a successful and consistent golf swing requires precise timing and mechanics, from the grip and position of one's fingers, to the position and movement of the feet. At any moment of the swing, whether back swing, down swing, or upswing anything can go wrong that will throw off the whole body and result in a miss hit. Complex motion The goal of the golf swing is to direct as much kinetic energy as possible into the club head so when it comes into contact with the ball, all of the energy will transfer to the ball, sending it into flight. The complex motion of the body first starts with the stance. This is critical to make sure the golfer has a low center of gravity to remain balanced throughout the swing path. The swing starts with the arms moving back in a straight line. When the club head reaches the level of the hip, two things happen: there is a stern wrist cock that acts as a hinge along with the left knee (for a right handed swing), building up its torque by moving into the same line as the belly button before the start of the upswing. As the swing continues to the top of the backswing (again for right handed golf swing), the golfer's left arm should be perfectly straight and his right arm should be hinged at the elbow.[1] The downswing begins with the hips and the lower body rather than the arms and upper body, with emphasis on the wrist cock. As the golfer's hips turn into the shot, the right elbow will drop straight down, hugging the right side of the golfer's torso. As the right elbow drops, the wrists begin to snap through from the wrist cock in the backswing. A solid extension of the arms and good transfer of body should put the golfer leaning up on his right toe, balanced, with the golf club resting on the back of the golfers neck.[1] Importantly, all of the movements occur with precise timing, while the head remains completely still with eyes focused on the ball throughout the entire swing. Musculature A golf stroke uses muscles on core (especially erector spinae muscles and latissimus dorsi muscle when turning), hamstring, shoulder and wrist. Stronger muscles on wrist can prevent wrists from being twisted at swings, while stronger shoulders increase the turning force. Weak wrists can also deliver the impacts to elbows and even neck and lead to injury of them. (When a muscle contracts, it pulls equally from both ends and, in order to have movement at only one end of the muscle, other muscles must come into play to stabilize the bone to which the other end of the muscle is attached.) Golf is a unilateral exercise that can break body balances, requiring exercises to keep the balance in muscles. A recommended exercise is free weight, an exercise not reliant on machines to stimulate and balance the fine muscles." The final paragraph identifies why I embarked on a specific exercise routine using Strand/Cable Pulling equipment and hand springs. The success of this season was assisted by my improved physical capability from doing this for the past year. Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

In Winning form again...

It is one of the good things about playing competition golf, winning. Not the be all and end all but not far away from the only reason I play competition golf. The past months have been reliant upon patience on my part to gradually develop balance in my game improvement and fitness. There is a part of me that wants to say this has been easy and while realising the process was easy, doing it was not. I have been playing crap for months, with a game that had no semblance of consistency, direction or form. Yet to me I could see during the experience the individual game improvement points that were cloistered amid the miss-hits and errors. At the same time balancing an increasing fitness regime, that did not get out of hand and end up in another breakdown from pushing the body too hard too soon. The result earnt from the practise and improved fitness in past months came this weekend. Saturday was a hard slog at Kingston SE hot weather and the first time I have actually gone for the morning swim before playing golf as well. Finished with 32 points and that score was affected mostly with 3 x three putts on the back nine that all returned 1 point each. Before the round was finished I had little energy left and poor putting cost me a sub handicap round. Sunday used common sense and did not go for a swim, with the assistance of a gusting wind curtailing any latent desire to get in the ocean. Competition winner on the day with 85 gross and a Nett 69, flagging a towards the end of the round and had 2 x three putts on the back nine. Knew as soon as I finished at Kingston the day before that my game was back in form and said so to my playing partners. Yes, I called the next days victory without a semblance of arrogance, overconfidence or Bullsh#t. It was not easy either and had to work very hard and recover from some tricky situations to get the win by only one stroke at the end of the day. Satisfied at the result, which made the stiffness that set in in the hours after the round a little less uncomfortable. Still have a lot of fitness improvement to come planned and that is not so daunting now I have got the first win for summer on the board. Kingston SE Summer Open on this Saturday and I will be resting up on the body training a little and focus on the putter to get some form in the bank. Thankyou for your time and attention. Hit the ball, Find the ball, Hit the ball. Geoff

Get fit and win golf..

Sunday 25/8/13 After 2 months of frustration yesterday I finally put a half decent 18 holes together. Nothing spectacular finishing with -3 after the round. At no time did it feel like or happen that my round was about to fall apart. Even the loss holes were always close to halves. The only irritations, that came from two three putts. Finishing the day with 32 putts and a little more wayward off the tee than I have been lately 11, but GIR's made the difference. What really made the improved score was nothing to do with golf. Playing nine holes is a doddle for me and that has been shown in all of my practise of late. My technique across the board has been vastly improved Yet for 8 weeks my golf has been falling apart in competitions. There had been one significant change in my routine since the golf began to fall apart, I had stopped the morning swimming and the daily fitness workouts with cable/strand pulling. At Home the next day an 85 off the stick with 25 putts was good enough to win the August Monthly Medal. A $20 Strand Pulling set and a series of simple excercise routines and my golf is back on the winners list. That is what I started using after the last 7 rounds of failure, it was the only thing I had stopped doing since the failing began. Up until 8 weeks ago I had been still swimming 3 mornings a week and using the strand set each day with a 10 to 15 minute routine as well as doing 15 reps (just did one now) when sitting at my desk or watching tv at night. It is that simple to improve your stamina. Look at your own golfing, do you practise? do you get coaching? do you look at a round and isolate those shots that went wrong and realize where the club be it driver, iron, wedge or putter went off line and the ball missed the target? Then you have no difficulty in calculating why the ball went in the wrong direction so you practise more to stop the deviation again. Have you ever considered that it was not lack of ability that caused the fault, instead it was because you had tired during the round? That is what I realized last year that fitness is more than walking around the course it is being able to swing a club precisely through the round and that is every club from putter to driver. How many times have you miss hit a chip shot or a putt and thought how did that happen? It does not happen with my game now yet it was simple little miss hits that were destroying my scores on one or two holes in past weeks. Still practicing the same amount but I was not excising any more. Start it again and after two weeks the form is back and I have my third club monthly medal in a row for 2013. Thankyou 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

Top of the Winners list again...

8/7/13 Monday. Back on the winners list in yesterday's club competition. Claimed the July Monthly Medal with a Nett 72 (Gross 86). Hitting 12 fairways on the day certainly helped as did the improved approach shots from 150 metres in from the past weeks practise with the DreamSwing on the range. Fitness let me down in the last few holes for the third week in a row. Started swimming again this morning in the Icebergers group and will add to that with a Strand Pulling routine on a daily basis as well. Once I get the feeling back in my fingers and toes any ways! The swimming is very good for my well broken and battered body and we had stopped for the year as the water temp. drops to 11 degrees for a few months an it can get very stormy on the coast in winter as well. We had all been missing the swimming benefits for the past month and then some idiot saw that the usual current change had not happened and had the audacity to check the water temperature here last week. Sure enough it was at 14 degrees and not a freezing cold 11 degrees, WTF! So into the water we leapt this morning and swam the laps. Yes I feel better for it and even more so in coming weeks. At least I am a golfer and have a rational reason for being mental enough to swim in the Southern Ocean in winter. Back to the important golf stuff, my form is improving due to practise, practise and more practise will get me a little more benefit as well. It has taken some dedicated effort to get out on the practise range and course the past month and practise. Like all amateur golfers the fact is playing the game we love does come second to other commitments. Even with my self centred lifestyle golf can be shunted into the back of the priority queue at times. This is not done happily on my part and the reason is obvious when the recent results are set up as why. The past three weeks have returned two Monthly medal wins, leading qualifier in both rounds so far of the club handicap championship, a fourth place on count back for third in the other club round played. Top ten finish in A grade at Keith Open (Gross) Top five finish (Nett). Plus in a best two of three scores with one round to go, I have a three shot lead over the nearest challenger and five shots over the next best golfer in the club Caledonian Inn Trophy. All thanks to practise nothing else has been the cause of this success. There is one other aspect of my golfing which is about to be reinvigorated to directly improve my results. Fitness training, the past month I have faltered over the past 3-4 holes with physical restriction from tiredness. Not sleepiness but physically drained from the effort and that affects concentration and causes more mistakes. Adding strokes to my score. Improving my physical condition is worth it to reduce scores by 3-5 shots in my opinion. The one other improvement to be garnered will come from equipment additions. Specifically the driver replacement that I am still waiting for after a week from ebay. Using the Toskii 10 degree 400cc driver did return 12 fairways hit yesterday. The Cleveland SL290 will make a little more distance (10-15m at least) available off the tee with the same accuracy. Adding another hybrid to my bag last week is also a scoring bonus. The #2 is very effective and I am not certain at the minute with sticking with just a #4 hybrid and not adding a #5 or even a #3 as well will be the best option. As well as the continued use of a #3 Fairway Wood may be better suited to being replaced with for example a Cobra Long Tom #2 Wood. Thank you for your time and attention. hit the ball, find the ball, hit the ball. Geoff

Steady golf is the reward for practice

So much for quitting golf, not that this thought crossed my mind in the past week. Did a little musing on the loss and there was nothing in my thoughts to incite an personal sporting revolution. A couple of phone calls on Friday afternoon and I was out playing in the 9 hole chicken run. Funnily enough with out any collusion it was two other A Grade golfers in the match play rounds who are playing off against each other tomorrow. It was good fun and a lot of verbal b/s was thrown around during the 9 holes. Once again I was on the fairways off the tee with straight accurate drives. And again the second shots at the green were marred with a couple of bladed strikes. These mishits really irritate me. Hitting the ball 'fat' which invariably fall short are not as likely to be disasters. Hitting the ball 'thin' results in the ball flying uncontrollably forward sideways and long. This problem is one of comfort and not being consistent enough with my set up and will be corrected with more practice. Short game and putting is still competent enough to be very good at times. It is also reasonably consistent these days even as I am adjusting to a new putter. There is also a particular change in my putting which is taking significant effort to adopt. It has became the preferred standard to putt at the hole not towards it and fall short so often. Which brings me to the 9 hole Chicken run I play off 8 which is 6 strokes less than my current playing handicap. Today a score of 16 points not a bad effort on my part, did it easy too with the errors not too destructive. Tomorrow I am off to Kingston SE top play 18 holes and enjoy myself. Taking the time to return to why I love playing the game and have fun in the preparation for the coming months. Thank you for your time and attention. hit the ball, find the ball, hit the ball. Thank you for your time and attention. hit the ball, find the ball, hit the ball. Geoff

Matchplay Quarter final and Naracoorte GC Two Cocks Ambrose

Saturday 11/5/13 Did not pick up a golf club today, resting up and catching up with work after playing in the Naracoorte Golf Club Two Cocks Ambrose event. As always a brilliant day organisation wise and catering with food and drinks was outstanding. Bbq steak and sausages, lamb roasted to perfection all with complimentary wines of the region as 200 golfers hit around the course. Our team finished with a 9 under 63 gross and 55.2 Nett not bad for 5 golfers all on 13 to 16 and one on 24 Looks like my match play game is on tomorrow after the opponent was laid up with a serious hand injury. Form is good enough and have done a putting session tonight. Off the tee yesterday as well as going for the greens and getting GIR yesterday all bode well form wise. Weather is the deciding factor Weather forecast Heavy rain overnight and showers sunday with 14-18 degree temperature is not too bad wit winds up to 24km. To be honest the winter weather tends to play in my favour generally. Going to be great fun with a 6 shot difference in handicaps 7 to my 13 and having a crack at winning. Thankyou for your Time and Attention Hit the ball, find the ball, hit the ball Geoff

Feb 25, 2013 - 06:00 AM I had been bordering on a sub handicap round for a few weeks while preparing for the Southern Ports 54 hole competition starting today. https://www.facebook.com/SouthernPortsGolfWeek Almost did not play in yesterday's club comp. it all came down to weather conditions. Fortunately the recent hot spell abated and moderate wind to move the humidity and cool down the walking made it a yes. Tidy 82 gross for 38 Stableford points has me down to 11.7 playing off 12 for the first round and on my home track to start the championship challenge this week. hit em straight all Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff