One week to go before Southern Ports Golf Week..

17/2/12 Friday. The players draw for the Southern Ports Tournament arrived in the post this week, a 12.36pm tee off on Monday the 27th February at Kingston SE, 1.54pm at Beachport on the 29th and 1.42pm on the 2nd of March at Robe. After three months of training in preparation for the tournament it is good to have the solid piece of paper in my hands confirming my entry.




This week has been a good one training wise, recovery from the exertion of the past weeks has progressed well. One more Bowen Therapy session next Wednesday will complete the recovery and healing process. The physical failure of my body to maintain a consistent level of capability has always been a hurdle for playing consistent golf. Which has a lot to do with my variety of club purchases to get a suitable configuration in my bag. At my best form the Titleist AP2 set of irons with the 420cc or 460cc Driver off the tee do a grand job. When my body is faltering the iron play becomes very erratic with the #3 to #6 AP2’s and at its worst the 400cc Driver with Senior Flex is a must off the tee.



Having the benefit of the details of my last 3 years of golfing to refer back to, it is not difficult to make a change to the club’s in the bag to suit my ability. This is where the advances of todays club technology becomes invaluable. Together with my routine of using all of the 3 sets of irons I have when practising, there is no detrimental effect when making club changes. The last couple of weeks it became obvious the I could no longer sustain the effort to play consistently with the AP2 #3 to #6 irons especially.

A couple of quick sessions on the driving range replacing the AP2 irons with the Ping Karsten cavity back #3 to #6 irons and the problem was solved. A driver change was made also replacing the Dunlop 400cc with a Titleist clone MDD Tour 380cc with a stiff flex shaft. I will miss the extra distance of the Cobra driver in particular. The MDD driver still gives a 210-220 drive with ease and I can get accurate 230+m with it when required. The improved physical condition has had my short game and putting standard improve this week. It is obvious to me that I could not maintain a high level of physical exertion and play my best for the three day tournament without adding game assisting irons to the bag. Having lived with the results of chronic injuries from a motor vehicle accident since 1983, making adjustments to be able to be competitive and active is second nature.



The pain is never pleasant and I make no effort to endure it with good grace, preferring to act upon any flare ups and stop the discomfort. The drawn out process of my preparation over 3 months may seem excessive to some. Even I can see that, on looking at my handicap of 12 and that I can score 80-82 off the stick, it may be apparent that my golf is good enough. When playing weekly rounds, I cannot maintain the physical condition to be a consistent 12 handicapper. To play three rounds in five days it is crucial that my body is conditioned to cope with the effects that are not all going to be comfortable. This year playing in A grade I have had to step up another level from B Grade in 2011 as I did when moving up from C Grade in 2010. It is overall another gradual increase over a three year period, that is proof that formulating a golf plan and sticking to it does work.



The coming weekend I will be playing Kingston SE on the Saturday and depending on how my body pulls up will keep the option of playing Robe on Sunday open. The following week will be light training nothing more than fine tuning on the range and playing a few holes. If possible a return to Beachport to play again is a definite priority. The game plan for each course has been established over the past months. All that is required is to execute it with the benefit of the practise routine to support my crack at the title again. Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all.”  Geoff

Good results from practise make it all worthwhile...

 18/1/12 Wednesday. With an electricity outage this morning it was not possible to do anything work wise so I headed out on the golf course for a casual 9 holes. Following yesterdays extended time on the range hitting a bucket of balls with the 6 iron and driver into the wind there was some definite progress. This was not a gentle breeze but a gusting wind that took some improved concentration to play strokes into. Apart from five big lofted slices towards the end of the session with the driver the results were very satisfying. The five slices at the end of hitting 90 balls were a result of tiredness affecting the strokes and an aberration for the days practise. The 6 iron as with all my irons is still needing some work to prevent the pull/hook that crops up. During the coaching session it was recognised and in part may be caused by having sticks too short in the shaft, even so the improvement to my stance has minimised the effect of the error when it creeps into my shot play.

The short game is not acceptable at the minute. This is not a major problem as the cause is simply the result of increased strength from the exercise routines. Also using the 60 degree lob wedge again which is not my preferred choice is the cause of many chipping errors. That is still no reason to not work on getting better with this club and adding it to the bag. The benefit of having this lob wedge to use on the hard and fast greens of summer is a bonus that cannot be ignored to improve my shot options.



The Driver is the shining light of success from the current practise program. Accuracy and distance have became a feature that I can rely upon with this club again. Having moved up in club size to a 420cc driver head has lost some of the ability to work the ball which was apparent when using the 380cc and 400cc drivers. Given my game standard though I prefer the ability to hit the ball straighter with diminished ability to work the ball. Does surprise me that I utilise this characteristic of the clubhead affect on the ball, it is still an exciting experience ‘feeling’ my hands affecting the ball flight while playing shots.



With the cooler weather, today I am planning practise sessions today with the driver and 6 iron again s well as the wedges. To sit back and wallow in the current progress is not a good thing. The end result is still 6 weeks away, persisting with the established practise routine continues. In fact I am considering upping the ante if the time is available in the coming weeks. Playing a competition of 3 rounds in a week is not usual for us club golfers. There are benefits, game wise playing with existing form and not having week long or greater breaks between rounds is one. If you have a consistent game the format is very compatible to these golfers, which has been one of the major reasons for my success in the past two Southern Ports events. At the minute this is starting to become a feature of my golf again which is the point of doing the practise, it is really enjoyable to be hitting the ball to the target and knowing it is not a fluke.
Thankyou for your time and attention. “Hit ‘em straight all.”Geoff

Week One - Pre Tournament Training

9/1/12 Monday. Fronted up and had a hit in the club round on Sunday, my first competition event for 2012. Following the two coaching sessions on last Monday and Tuesday, a lot of time had been put into hitting balls on the driving range. Have put the Sand Wedge from the iron set used in 2010 into the bag replacing the 60 degree wedge. Play more consistently in getting the distance with this iron than the 60 degree at the minute. Would prefer to be more adept with the higher lofted club given the amount of run on greens during the summer, will persist with it in practise and see if I get to a level that is satisfactory.




Extremely happy with a return to good form when putting, restriction from the golfers elbow is no longer affecting the grip comfort and striking motion when putting. Hitting the ball with good touch distance and accuracy wise. Short game chipping with the sand wedge was acceptable, pitching wedge is now a distance club for me following the coaching sessions. It is a point that needs to be highlighted that my stance has significantly changed as a result of the coaching. The question may be there that having gone from 36 to 12 my stance, grip and swing must be reasonably effective? Yes and No, when I started in 2009 my body was not flexible enough to take up the stance and effect the correct swing that the professional was teaching. In the intervening years that has been changed, so once again the coach worked on the same stance to base my swing from and after a week of dedicated practise it is now the one which comes naturally.



What is the result of this change? I now have a swing which is ‘simple’. With less faults that direct energy away from hitting the ball forward as efficiently and effectively as possible. The most noticeable change has been the return to hitting tee shots which are accurate and have good distance. The consistency is not yet established as well as I want that will come with practise.



Sundays round was a Stableford and I played it as a social game, knowing full well that my game was not up to handicap standard yet. With a very strong wind included in the mix the conditions were challenging. Scoring 12 points on both front and back nines the total of 24 was not even a concern. There was 8 shots which were the cause of the score, all second shots to the green. The result of the changed stance which had in conjunction with the wind totally thrown my club selection choices into disarray. Three iron shots 2x 6 iron 1 x 9 iron flew 20 m over the green! Another 6 and 2 x 8 irons which sliced sharply off the fairway and finally two huge hooks with a 5 and 6 iron off the fairway. Even so there is no concern on my part with these mistakes. One week into the 8 week preparation with such a major change it is going to take practise, practise and more practise to come to grips with my game again.



The increased efficiency of power in my swing has been a revelation and at the same time created the problem with my game. Put yourself in my shoes for the moment no matter what your golf standard is, how would you play if in a 5 day period your irons gained 10-15 metres? When I began to play in 2009, 150m was a 5 iron, yesterday it was a 7 with the wind and a 6 into the wind. The mind really struggled with playing these shots and I did not feel comfortable when setting up for many of the shots to greens. I have not included three Pitching Wedge shots from 100m out, after hitting 250-260m drives that also failed. I have gone from the expected 200-220m off the tee as well, so mentally I had no idea what was going to happen when taking a swing with any club except the sand wedge when chipping and the putter.



Today it has been time to reflect upon the progress. All is progressing well given that only a week has passed since starting the dedicated training preparation for Southern Ports. I can see that making a transition to playing attacking golf is a definite possibility on early analysis. Not going to discount this problem with the 5 and 6 irons as that was also an issue during 2011. Patience will return the correction of this towards the end of January 2012. It is not so much the clubs but the distance of 150 to 170 metres that I need to get control of is my current view. Previously it was a major effort to hit the distance given the inherent faults within the stance. Now with improved efficiency it will not take as much effort to hit the distances. Hence it is reasonable to expect that errors caused from trying too hard from a poor stance will be improved upon in coming weeks. Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all”Geoff

My Golf...

19/12/11 We have started a series of FREE 1 hour Junior Golf Clinics on the Sundays of School Holidays in January. This is an evolution of 3 years of unrelated Junior Golf events at the club in that there was no set plan. The beginning was a “come and try golf day” each year on a long weekend also the running of a Junior Golf Tournament in a season. Each of these had varying success in getting kids playing. Come and Try Golf first was a winner every time with 12-20 kids having a hit.

The Tournaments were harder as they clash with other regional and state events and being country based that makes it difficult by location alone. That said in 2011 two juniors came from the SA Riverland to the Limestone coast to play. A long trip to play golf but country golfers are used to that.



This was done purely as a must do activity initiated by the club captain, what it did was give the club a base to develop more from. Next came the regional Golf SE school coaching clinics which another golfer has volunteered to do after getting involved at his home club and seeing the number of juniors who do want to play golf coming out on the course. Hence we have the Primary School students doing golf activities at the school and then have a class trip to the course to do the same activities on a golf course plus play a few modified holes.



Hence at our club which has 2-4 junior golfers who occaisionally have a hit with parents, and play a few rounds of club golf and no junior golf competition at the club we were aware that there was an interest in golf among the juniors in the town and region. The next step was for another club member to see this interest and see the “market” which was there and develop an action plan. Then put the information to another member (Club Captain) who then contacted the regional golf assoc. who supplied a junior golfing kit. Then two members who are parents volunteered to help out and a letter was sent to the local school to be sent to parents before the end of year and on Sunday we have 10 kids turn up for an hour on a Sunday morning to hit golf balls for fun. Following the easy golf exercises supplied with the kit, starting inside with putting and the rubber balls. Then outside with the 7 irons, the kids had fun several were very good at basic golf skills in fact.



The result is that by the end of January when school returns from 1 hour on Sundays I expect the club to have a core of 10 (at least) junior golfers who we can organise a comp for when before there was nothing. It was from a combination of Golf Assoc. support, club committee support and members doing things that they are good at, besides playing golf that is. IE Organisation, Networking, Coaching, Marketing, Promotion.



It did not happen overnight, it was three years in the making from a disparate group of individuals who all “Did Stuff” off their own back in club activity. The key word is “activity” it is a task that for volunteers relies upon good spirit and generosity as well as Association support. Volunteers are not employees, they do not have to do anything unless they want too. There is a “market” for want of a better word, out there for junior golf. All of the statistics, analysis, data correlation is good reading and valuable knowledge. Like all information it does nothing except feed minds and sit there being available. For clubs it has nothing to do with a money focus, that is for businesses. By encouraging the Junior Golf activity the flow on of new golfers, new members all can benefit the club professional and the general club environment. Importantly it has given the club a future. We want to develop and encourage golf, that is in our club constitution.



Any club can start to do it as well. All you have to do is stand up and say “I will do this…”

Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

Correcting pull shots...

Had some free time today and made an effort to get the camera out and film my Driver and Iron strokes. It has been quite some time since this has been done and a lot has changed for the beter since 2009 when I did it the first time.








The driver practise was well due having not done much at all in the last month or so and concentrating the past two weeks on 9 hole exercise to get some fittness and match playing under the belt. The 420cc Driver used today was purchased just before the enforced lay off with the Golfers Elbow. Of late the realisation that I have to move back to a larger club head on the driver was covered with using the 460cc Cobra S9.1, stiff flex 9.5 degree.



Today I grabbed the regular flex Infinity 10.5 degree and after 7 holes of whacking the ball organised to go and do some serious set up and practise. This soon had the desired results and the ball was going straight and long. As with the other smaller drivers 380 and 400cc used of late, the 420cc one has a more sensitive feel and I can shape the ball and know what is going to happen.



Taking advantage of being set up with the camera I grabbed the 6 Iron and had a few hits. This was to get some footage of practising the corrections needed to remove the pulling of iron shots inparticular of late. The erratic shot play was making GIR a very difficult task.







I had combined two set up faults to cause the problem, hooding the clubface at address, also whilst lining my feet up to the target, the shoulders were being aimed to the left. These are minor corrections overall and the day after this was identified I played 18 at Robe and won with an 82 (nett 70) correcting the faults with ease. I also do not clear my left sde when hitting the ball but this can wait for a later date.



KIngston Open this Saturday and in a bit of form as well looking forward to the round. Will call in tomorrow on the way to Adelaide and have a 9 hole hit on the track at least. Thursday. if time is available, will get in a bucket of balls with the driver at Drummonds range in Adelaide as well. Thankyou for your time and attention. "Hit 'em straight all" Geoff

Back in good golf form - Naracoorte Golf Course

12/12/11 Monday. A weekend of golf has passed and 36 holes played at two courses, Naracoorte on Saturday and fronting up on Sunday at my home club, Robe for another round. Finally back into playing without the hindrance of an injury having a major effect, which with a -5 score in the Par Round at Naracoorte on Saturday could be seen as a misnomer. All square after the front nine the wheels fell away on the back nine. Too many bogies and double bogies caused by wandering off the fairways and into the tall timber to lose 5 holes and square 4. The Naracoorte track has always been a challenge for my game, with the natural layout of tall gums and dogleg fairways. It has been the best thing for my game making me have to work on getting accurate, and play technically better golf. Hence on the following day I get on the home track and win the competition with an 82 off the stick (nett 70) It was not arrogance or beer that had me say to my playing partners at Naracoorte that I would be in good form the next day at Robe.




The other benefit was the analysis of my swing by the single handicapper players in the group. After the game passed on the pointers to a problem that was earmarked for attention in the next coaching session. Of late it has been irritating with regular straight pulls of shots with irons and woods. It was nothing major as a fault and had been identified previously, when up in the low 20’s and teens of handicaps. I ‘hood’ the clubs’ at address. Also need to move the ball forward in my stance.






In my case it is the second of the two definitions, “Hooding the club” definitions; 1. In the more common usage, "hooding the club" means pressing the hands forward, which makes the clubface more upright, as a way to de-loft the club. A 5-iron that has been "hooded" will produce a lower trajectory than a normal 5-iron shot. This meaning is used when talking about lowering the ball flight, increasing roll or, on the green, producing top spin in a putt.



2. But some people think of hooding as something completely different. Many golfers and golf instructors refer to shutting the clubface as "hooding." By shutting the clubface, we mean closing it to, among other things, counteract a slice or produce a hook. In this usage, the hooded club's toe is pointing inward relative to the target line, rather than being square at address (a righthander would rotate the club counterclockwise to hood it, in this definition). A club hooded according to this definition can also be used to dig out buried lies in sand bunkers.



In my case it has not been done to counter a slice, simply something my eye has not identified as how the clubface is facing. This is further affected by the other fault identified which was my feet are lined up correctly but I have been letting my shoulders line up to the left of the target. If you set up with your shoulders aimed left of the target, you'll tend to straighten up at impact and hit pulls or weak shots to the right. Another factor identified is that I am not clearing my left hip in strokes either.



On Sunday, made the changes to correct the ‘hooded’ club face and once set up turning my shoulders 2-3 cm to the right. The hip matter can be put aside for the minute. What was noted by the observers was that I strike the ball well and even on mishits the ball travels in a straight line, not sliced or hooked. This has always been my goal, ‘Hit the Ball straight’. My game is attuned to that tenet, to get the ball to the target in generally the shortest distance from the tee. That I could make changes to long term established faults yet were in truth minor tweaks in 24 hours successfully was not good luck. I have never allowed for a slice or a hook in my game. All my efforts in practise from coaching advice was always around the tenet of hitting the ball straight. When my slice was terrible with Drivers I used a 3 iron off the tee in the first season. Winning the club handicap championship and a few monthly medals and other competitions along the way.There are many golfers who when I started are now 10 strokes behind me in handicap. Some definitely because I see them still playing to allow for sliced shots instead of fixing the problem and hitting the ball straight. I can not coach and do not give advice, even when asked except for my stock standard reply. You have a problem or want to improve your golf game, get professional coaching.



There has been another change to my game which was very effective on Sunday and Saturday for that matter. The putting practise in the last two weeks and the correction to a traditional putting grip returned 28 putts and winning the competition on the day. The handle runs under the butt of my left hand and the back of my right is parallel to my left. Position both thumbs directly down the top of the handle and left forefinger lies across the fingers of my right hand to provide unity. It felt good the first time in practise and obviously works for me. A lot of practise coming up to get better with the 460cc driver, accuracy is a must to get the benefit of the 20-40 m longer drives.



All up the coming challenge at the Kingston SE Summer Open, Saturday 17th December, will be a good test to follow up from the past weekend of golf. I carried the camera with me at Naracoorte and put together the round of my playing partners and a good vista of the course to share. There is also a section on an extremely rare orchid on the course. Found by chance recently, when a golfer looking for another’s ball recalled seeing a description of the flower of which approx 200 now known to exist in the world. 50 of those were found at the Naracoorte Golf Course. Importantly the players ball was not found, a one stroke penalty was applied and another ball had to be played. Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all”

, Geoff

Chipping practise is always good value..

I practise this part of my game as often as possible. I realise over the past 12 months how much my chipping ability has changed for the better from doing this. Being able to play with confidence in your ability is a good thing at any time. With a consistent chipping game I set myself up for birdies and pars as well as prevent blow outs happen in the course of a round. A good short game stops many double bogies from getting on the card. When you are in trouble on a hole and then chip in for a par or set up a bogie with the ball stopping close to the hole your golf benefits from the tee to the green with self belief.

Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

How low can I go.....

21/11/11 Monday. Sticking with the no golfing effort to assist in recovery from the Tennis/Golfer elbow malaise. The last week was not easy did go out on Tuesday and hit 20 balls with my drivers just to work on the swing fault which affected the Penola round and had a 15 minute putting session on Wednesday. That is the total of golfing practise and the least number of hits in the past three years, so it was a difficult excercise. At the minute the recovery is still very slow, unfortunately on weekends I throw the papers for the local newsagent. Whilst the discomfort was less on Sunday than after Saturdays paper round it was not a good thing to do. At this stage I will have a hit on Friday in the Chicken run 9 hole stableford, before playing in the Robe Classic Ambrose Comp. on Saturday. Should be no problems with this amount of activity, although the Race To Cypress Lakes competition on the 2nd of December is looking like a non entry for me. Only 7 spots left in the field for the Vines and I cannot commit given the slow improvement.

Southern Ports Tournament in 2012 , end of February and first week of March is still the major start to next seasons competition targets, after finishing second in “B” Grade in 2011 and the same in “C” Grade in 2010 now I am up into the”A” Grade. Relishing the challenge at having a crack at this, reality is that being in the higher handicap section of the grade, target is the Nett competition not the Gross. Another two weeks are committed to recovering from the injury before I have to start the pre-Competition preparation.



The upside to not playing golf at the minute is the amount of “thinking time” that my game is getting to counter not being out playing. Was about time, in hindsight, that I sat back and put some thought into where I am going with golf. The dreamed of handicap goal back in 2009 when starting was 10, the must get target was 15. Reached that figure in February 2011, and now playing off 12. Nearing the first of the double figure handicap numbers, has me looking at the single digits below. Playing to 19hcp is still fresh enough in my experience to be able to notice the major improvement in 12 months to be 7 strokes better. Whilst all of the playing focus is on cracking the 10hcp level, mentally my mind is rambling among the single digits for a target.



Being aware of other golfing partners/opponents achievements over this time handicap wise is a benefit. Specifically two have got down to a 6hcp from 12-13 another from 4 to 2. In that time there has been several casual golfing partners, who during rounds have discussed their handicap journeys from where I am at to the single figures. After a week of thought, the revised handicap dream target is 5, I will accept 6 or 4 either side of the number as well, which pretty much reveals that until I get there the hunger to improve is a motivation at the minute. Being able to go back over three seasons of a golf diary and two of blogging which were written as the golfing happened is a significant benefit. I can see where I have had various influences, positive and negative on my game develop. The equipment and coaching experiences are especially valuable. In fact the latter is the most influential aspect which improved my game. A golfers attitude to receiving professional coaching is what makes or breaks their game in my opinion. For those who stand by the position of coaching does not benefit a golfers game, that is your choice. I will draw your attention to the fact that the professionals who play at the highest level today, still get coaching to keep their own game at it’s best.



Whilst I do have a documented training/practise schedule that has worked so far it is not static or set in stone. It has evolved since 2009 to produce my golf improvement and although it has maintained the core principles to enable playing my best golf. Not once have I gone off on a tangent chasing one of those imaginary “Secrets” that will take your golf to a brilliant level. Grip and Swing in tandem with practise are what has got me this far. Never have I gone to a coach without a set idea of what was needed. Hence I could listen to the advice. practise the routines and here I am playing my best golf for now. Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all”
Geoff