Back to back Handicap Championship defence...

Golfing is at a very comfortable level for me at the minute.This weekend I won the Handicap Championship semi final and that has me through to the final play-off for the championship in a couple of weeks. It is a repeat of last season with the same opponent except his handicap is a lot less that a year ago. To win on Sunday had me play at my best capability to win 2 up with 1 to play after giving 16 strokes to the opponent. Scoring a 77 off the stick and playing to an 8 handicap which is my best score reached a few times in the past season. Very satisfied with the win and that I can play to an 8 handicap every 4-6 weeks. The improvement in my game is supported with fitness. Currently 3 kg in weight lost and another 5 kg to go at the minute. There are still moments of frustration that pass as always. The continued effort to improve at golf is a major benefit to my life in general. There is no way I could maintain the motivation for fitness and improving my physical being with out the outlet of playing golf. Thank you for your time and attention Geoff

Maintaining form and competition performance

First game in the rain for 2015 and quietly satisfied with how I played. Finished with 85 off the stick and a nett 74. Playing off 11.1 GA handicap I have actually dropped down to 10.8 as I had 36 stableford points. This was a stroke round in reality and with a 10 on one hole the only blemish, fact is I did not play to my handicap in the stroke round. Not complaining as this is the official system for all handicaps, it does show how a handicap can be not quite accurate in some instances. The blow out ten came on the 11th hole and I chased the correction hard and that was fun. In fact made up two shots in the next two holes them missed a putt and had a double bogie. Was not enough holes left to pull it back and at the end f the competition was only three shots behind the A grade winner. The overall Nett winner on the day was on 70. Hence a-part from being a loser on the day it was not disappointing. Won a few prizes on the day, nearest the pins and a club specific trophy for hitting all four par three holes off the tee. Today is a Par round at the home club been out for a warm up and if no rain will play. Yesterday I played with a different ball, been using Pro V's, Srixon q and z stars of late and happy with them. Couple of weeks ago won a Callaway Warbird ball and used it in a social comp last week and bit of a wow factor for me. Finally decided to buy a couple of boxes and yesterday played them in the round. The feel off the club is great a crisp hitting feel with no harshness. Distance and accuracy though yesterday was very good, did have a body tune up mid week and that does make a difference. Even so the distance with my irons was exemplary and not one offs I over clubbed the first two holes and quickly changed iron choices. Finished with 8 greens in regulation , plus 8 fairway hits and did not feel comfortable off the tee often in the rain. That is a technique matter but the ball striking was very good except for two holes I was only in the second cut off the fairway in four of the other ten holes and four of those holes were par 3's and I hit the green with those shots. Another day starts this afternoon and the result will be interesting at the end of play. Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

Golf fitness equals lees strokes per round

Played my way to the end of the Monthly Medal round for a third place finish. Managed to win the putting competition on the day, not too bad considering there was a four putt in there. Two chip ins, one for birdie and one for par helped out in that result. It was an interesting day of golfing in review. Once again I jumped out of the box and first four holes were pars, yet once again on the 6th and 7th. holes I had brain fades or errors which made the score balloon. In the first instance was a four putt, it came from my body starting to sieze up. The next hole the first ball was pushed wide right and then a totally rank second shot on the par five, from stiffness in my body movement. It took a mental battle to get the focus back. I was feeling the strain to the movement through to the end. The nub was a 46 on the front nine and then coming home with a 40 on the back with one lost ball in that and a double bogie on the tenth as well. The saving asset was my daily chip and putting practise sessions, the chip ins were not flukes I was playing for them. I dropped 28 putts on the day with the 4 putt and two chip shots that went in. Greens in regulation were average for me and this is now becoming an imperative to getting priority in the practise routine. Checked in for a body tune up on Thursday as the strain of the past month is beginning to affect the golfing capability. This is limiting my capability to practise. Today there is significant discomfort and after doing the short game and putting session that was enough. As much as I would like to be having a session on the range, the common sense of "Less is More" rules. I know that there is no need to hurry and push the training effort up a notch. If I do the discomfort will increase and that is a major negative. Instead the exercise routine is given the lead to replace the desired range session. That way still improving my golf capability in another area. Thankyou for your time and attention Geoff

Your Golf form needs a plan...

It is an odd experience knowing that I play to win, yet accept the current 'also ran' results so easily. The comfort does sit a little awkwardly at times, usually in the first hour or so after another close finish just outside of claiming some winners chocolates. At the minute my golf is being played at maximum capability and working towards maximum ability. Yesterday with an 86 off the stick and triple times 3 putts causing the pain. There was more than that in the lead up to the putting. Particularly the short fall in hitting the greens all day with 80% of the misses literally dropping 5 metre or less in front of the green. Off the tee though last weeks inaccuracy was blown away into the ether. Nothing major was required to correct this and the 'fix' was started last week, all I had to do was lift the shaft up and stand a little straighter. The ease of the fix was proven from the lack of needing to practise this during the week. The concentration on chipping and putting was well worthwhile. I do need to put in a concerted effort on the 100-150 metres shots again. This is where the quandary comes into my golfing preparation, I am not wavering from the 'less is more' commitment. Fitness is the more effective consideration, dropping off the 6 kilos gained since October is the more important golfing requirement. The putting fault is increased with the lower fitness, as is the greens being missed. Why I am not concerned, I am following a specific preparation plan. One that has me in best fitness and golfing capability when playoff rounds for Championships and seasonal trophies are required. This has come from way to much time, (Not), being spent analysing professional golfers interviews and articles on the senior tours especially. It is not humanly possible for me to play 100% all the time. Nor do I want those horrendous blowout rounds as happened at Naracoorte after playing three good and consistent rounds in Southern Ports in a week. Then going to play one more round and finding there was nothing in the tank. At the minute I can happily play along, competitive and still noting the failings without concern. In fact this is another incarnation of the 'Percentage Golf' I played when on a 20 + handicap. Today is the first championships qualifying round, monthly medal and first round of a seasonal trophy at my home club. This is totally different to playing in the competition at another club yesterday. Now 'Valued Chocolates' are on the table and the game goes up a step or three to win. Thankyou for your time and attention Geoff

Zen Golf... maybe

Even though the 'Eureka' moments are not a feature of my golfing progress, it is still a great experience when the game comes together. On Sunday with a very easy 30 point score registered in the Stableford competition, my game approach was zen like experience. Dear Readers I had 5 birdie putts in the round, missed every one and three putted each of them. Did not even bat an eyelid in irritation, simply continued on to the next hole. This is perhaps the most rigid I have ever been in a golfing sense to sticking to a plan. The lesson of last season has reached deep into my golf psyche. Following on from Friday's 'wak f@k' at Penola, my focus was on the grip and nothing else was going to distract me from making this correction get established. Why did I three putt was not even attempted to be corrected in the round. I was dedicated to the correct grip which resulted in more power and eradicated the soft flapping at the ball, which was a result of the previous incorrect grip. Not to forget was also part of the cause of the shoulder agony. On Monday it was out for a social nine holes, with the highlight of seeing my cousin smack a 280 metre drive a bonus to my own performance. Again focus on the grip and again a par, par, par, start to a round. With two birdie putts just missing the cup and stopping 5-10cm past it. Yes, the new grip adjustment was established, as was the feel for distance. By not making that fatal error of trying to adjust a correction mid round to improve a score, I am much better positioned for future success. Today it is out for another social 'wak f@k' round to further establish the changes and have fun with friends on a golf course. To sit and write this, feeling calm and looking forward to standing on the first tee without any prior preparation is fun and why I golf. It is this effortless sense of the game, which has been realised from the experience of season 2014. Thankyou for your time and attention Geoff

No Way; Swing Faster and hit longer...!

Saturday and back on a golf course and a bit of improvement in a game at last with an 89 gross 74 nett. The week of helped a little and a very weird and unexpected discovery yesterday playing in the 9 hole chicken run. A mate had asked me to sell some Cobra S3 forged S300 shafted irons. His work has him travelling a lot so he changed to Cobra AMP's to counter the lack of playing time he is getting to get form with them. The Chicken Run is fun and I decided to have a wack with the Cobras, great looking sticks and endure my lack of ability to use S300 shafts. Have regular flex in my irons and hybrids. Well it seems that the last few months of exercise and training has more than made it necessary to go back to stiff flex in my Driver. I hit the ball excellently with the Cobras and a lot of the problems with my recent iron use disappeared. Hence today I put the Cobra irons in the bag for the round at Kingston and this time had 18 good holes of golfing. So Friday has been a bloody expensive 9 holes as the Cobras will not even get a look in on ebay. Staying in my bag instead. Thankyou for your time and attention hit the ball find the ball hit the ball Geoff