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

"Two sides to every Swing"

The following is an excerpt from the latest Golf Link edition article, "Two sides to every Swing" by Sam Letourneau http://www.golflink.com.au/news/golf-magazine/2015/01/two-sides-to-every-swing.aspx I am no coach and since returning to golfing in 2009 have relied upon two coaching professionals for my education and lessons. Both of them taught the same principles of golfing and worked on various identified areas of my golf technique. As wel as reading assorted treatise's on golfing by playing and coaching professionals my golf brain has been informed and educated over time. This article is exactly what my informed opinion is of the way forward for a golfer through coaching is. For me with my physical restraints from the various broken bits, the same applies to other golfers injured or not. Every engine (body) which powers a golf club is different. Some are high performance turbo charged F1 or Indy class engines others are 1970's air cooled VW Kombi Van engines. They all work but have limits. Some have on-board computers and others don't and that is unrelated to this discussion. The essence of p[laying golf is getting the contact between the club and ball to a reliable and consistent standard. Once that is establish you have a solid base for your game. Thankyou for your time and attention "GOLF is a lot easier to get better at once you realise there are two distinctly different avenues to improvement. The trick is to find the one that suits your personality and learning approach best. Most people don’t improve at golf as fast or as much as they could. In teaching golf, I encounter an endless stream of students who are frustrated at their lack of progress, confused about what they should be working on, or how to go about it. These days I pick up pretty quickly on the best approach to take with a new student, and once I’ve sorted them into one of two categories, I can almost guarantee they will start to see real improvement. So, what are the two categories that golfers fall into, and, more importantly, how might you go about identifying the one that suits you best and maximise your chance of reaching your full potential in the fastest possible time frame? Before the grand reveal, please don’t let the simplicity of the following statements deceive you, as after ten years of giving over 50 golf lessons a week (yes that’s 2500 lessons a year, and double yes, that really is a total of over 25,000 lessons), I’m convinced that understanding this information, and basing your improvement plan around it, is the key thing to get right. What’s more, I’ve proven it over and over again to myself and my students. Now a second word of warning; I have to write one before the other, but in no way does that mean I have a preference, or should you, for one over the other. Remember I said that both methods of improvement have been used effectively by many good players. So here goes. In my opinion, to improve at golf you either have to: Totally disregard any perceived faults in your game and work only on making your technique as textbook and technically strong as you possibly can; that is, disregard your ball flight errors and contact issues and bring your swing—and techniques within every department of your game—as closely into line with accepted golf fundamentals as you can, work purely on making your technique better. If you’re not quite sure what these fundamentals might be, have a look at a lot of Tour players’ games and pick out the most common aspects. If you think this approach might be for you, later I’ll give you some well known player examples, and a psychological profile of who this approach generally suits so you can make an educated guess as to whether it suits you . Totally disregard accepted textbook technique and make improvements based only on the feedback your ball flight and contact gives you. Likewise, if you think this way might be the way for you, I’ll be giving you some famous players who’ve taken this approach, and indicate the sort of personality this approach tends to suit." Geoff

Hit the ball as hard as you can...

“How do we bring beginners up to speed faster? But if you get performance faster, does that stimulate motivation? The book “Talent is Overrated” suggests that with kids, one of the most powerful motivators is early success or prowess with a particular sport or activity. So how do we get success faster? Which motivates motivation—having it, or faster progress? From my experience by allowing begnners to play without fear of consequences; fearless golf. Play like the score doesn’t matter and learn to hit the ball hard. I always liked Jack Niclaus’ theory of learn to hit it hard, then learn to hit it straight. It might be painful hitting the ball across two fairways initially but that can be fixed. I think a lot of beginners however find it too frustrating and are told by the other golfers and maybe even their PGA pro to back off in order to hit it straighter. That works to a point as they work on their technique and their swing looks better but quite often there is no real pop in the swing. Without that pop when they get down toward mid teen handicap they are behind the 8 ball on the Par4s and each time they go for extra effort their technique breaks down so they back off and the cycle continues. Most beginners I have seen that improved quickly started with the advantage of at least some power and either built more through better technique and/or didn’t sacrifice that power in the learning process. ...and yeah they have the time to hit lots and lots of golf balls and play lots of practice rounds : ) Nine out of ten people believe that out of ten people, one person will always disagree with the other nine!” The reason for me posting this is that after reading it struck a chord with future plans for my game development. I have always concentrated on accuracy over distance/power to compensate for injury restrictions on my body. As my golf ability improved from coaching and practise one of the benefits has been more power in the swing delivered to the ball and longer distance with shots. This has not been given any major attention, just noticed as a development in my game and appreciated. Yesterday I went and hit thirty balls on the range with a six hybrid. All was good, the distance was exceptional. I was going for a target 10 metres beyond my established distance for this club and reaching it within a ten metre radius of the target. At the minute while still recuperating from the past nine months of golf and pushing my body too hard again it is a good time to review the golf attributes in my game. This has been circumventing the 'improved distance' topic up until reading the above quote. I have been wrestling with what was I going to do about the need for more distance now I am in reach of a 10 handicap. Playing against single digit handicappers in A grade so far the change in equipment has been assisting to a limited extent. Mentally though my golf is not attuned to playing to hit the green outside 150-160metres. This had been noted and is in my list of improvements needed. I have a reasonable accuracy level that varies from average to excellent. Swinging easy and well within my limits is the accepted game style used in competition. To change what has been set in place to protect myself and not encourage further damage for so long is not going to be easy. In fact there is a quotient of fear in committing to this new path. Especially as at this time all has been directed at recovery. The time has come to now change this approach to golfing and simply start hitting the ball with all I have to the relevant targets. It was during this past week of recuperation and hitting balls in the practise net firstly and then on the range yesterday that it has became time to change. This is going to be a particularly difficult challenge but nothing ventured nothing gained. Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all” Geoff

Final competition practise done, now to play...

1/9/12 Saturday. Played in the Kingston SE competition today for 33 stableford points with 4 wipes. Was great for my confidence after being crippled last weekend with the back injury. Tentative off the tee to start and in the back nine hit my peak with long straight drives. Even better was 50% GIR for the day apart from some second rate putting and the residual stiffness from the injury the only other faults were mental. Well prepared for the match play tomorrow in the first round of club championship eliminations. One error today got home and the card was still in my pocket. No matter the score was okay and the hitout was excellent. Played the day with no expectations and very fun filled approach. Had no idea what could occur in the round so I was very comfortable with the fun attitude. I was struggling a little in the last 4 holes walking and with a few aches and tightness in the legs. Answered the challenge of physical discomfort with a bogie, par, par finish. Hitting the ball very well and spot on target. Considering I played in a three with a cracking pace set on the front nine. It was no surprise that I began to falter amid the 16 year old 6 handicappers pace and the other golfer in a cart. Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all” Geoff

A Putter change...

17/6/12 Sunday. Golf has been a matter of steady practice for several week now, the benefits are showing in my game off the tee, fairways and greens. Putting is still a work in progress with the change to a mallet ’2 ball style’ stick. Considering that a couple of years ago I purchased the club and it has been consigned to the cupboard until this season there was a lot of consideration put into this decision.

It began as a casual exercise just to mix up my weekly practise sessions that always include using other sticks besides my game day set. The purpose of this is to enforce the correct technique standard of good golf in my game. I do play well enough with the various blades and cavity back sets that get in the bag on these practise rounds and range hitting sessions. The use of the blades in particular sharpens up my ball striking delivering better accuracy and distance to my golf game. The only stick that I never altered in practise was the putter until recently. It was just an exercise in having some fun with a different stick on the green to break up the monotony of hitting balls initially. As with using different clubs in other practise it soon became a technique tuning routine as well.

My accuracy on the green with the Wilson 100 club improved after incorporating the Proline 2 ball mallet putter into practise drills. In close within a two metre radius of the hole the Proline was a major failure in my hands. Not that is mattered it was only being used as a practise tool, yet soon enough purely because of my dogmatic golf attitude I wanted to be more accurate with it. This club has a totally different feel and much less allowance for error when putting. A mishit would go dramatically off line over long or short distances on the green. This began to attract my attention when hitting the ball, the slightest inaccuracy on the club striking the ball would result in a miss to the left or right. Yet the same inaccurate contact using the Wilson 100 would still have the ball going in the hole.

Sure enough the more I worked on improving the accuracy with the mallet putter the Wilson began to feel unwieldy and less responsive. Finally I bit the bullet and used the Proline in a competition and the results were as good as with the Wilson, no damage to the score from inept putting. What was affected was my in close putting, once the practise removed the mishits the Proline went into the bag. This mallet style club always felt so much more comfortable in set up. Combined with the improvements and confidence from coaching in January I was willing to experiment with a putter change.

One thing that is important to acknowledge is that I have never had the ‘yips’, have been rounds where the putter was a major failing but nothing more. Considering that the theory of a golf score allows for two putts per hole, with a Par of 72 on a course that means 36 of those strokes are putts. With that much of an input to a golf score getting your putting right in technique and equipment is of significant importance. At the minute I am confident with either style of putter in my hands and it is not causing any confusion in my game. When now using the Wilson in practise my confidence is already there because of how effective a practise tool the Proline was when first used. Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all” 

 Geoff

Golf errors can be so subtle...

20/5/12 Sunday. Jumped the gun on the usual early 5.30 am start to a Sunday. Just a few extra jobs to get done first so my  mind is clear for today's handicap championship matchplay Quarter Final. After the week of discomfort and gradual recovery since the treatment on Friday physically all is good.

"Keeping the practise on the go over the past week has been hard work with the injury restrictions. With a little adjustment the form has been maintained. Did experiment with a comparison between the old driver and the new for a refresher. It is a slight quandary of distance over accuracy.

The new 400cc Toskii driver is more consistent for fairway hits. The MDD Tour 380cc driver is much more sensitive to working the ball and this unfortunately is beyond my capability to control. The trade off is that the smaller driver gets an extra 10 to 20m off the tee that is sacrificed with my using the larger club head at the minute. This week the cooler wetter weather has been constant and the loss of distance has became an obvious affect on my game. Forewarned is forearmed and I can make a decision on this over coming weeks.

Following yesterdays treatment I have got flexibility and freedom of movement back. Played the last 12 holes on the course this morning for a tune up in preparation for tomorrows matchplay. All was good from the tee to the hole and will get in some chipping and putting practise later in the afternoon. Followed with some long iron work on the practise fairway.

Have to give my opponent one stroke so the game is going to be virtually head to head matchplay."

Mentally yesterday I just could not get satisfied with the driver performance and the loss of distance off the tee. Added to that was the need to tune up with my irons to remove the occasional pull to the left that was affecting accuracy. Even after this the driver matter was still a distraction, not withstanding that I had no problem with playing Sundays round accommodating the distance loss. Finally at the end  of the afternoon managed to get back on the course with both drivers  to have a few swings and hits.

Hit balls with each and the smaller driver still had the longer reach but much worse accuracy. Something was niggling away in the back of my mind that there was something not quite right with the fella swinging the club. This is where the coaching video taken of the last session proved its worth again. 1) Rotate hips and follow through. Yes doing that. 2) Bend knees, squat down in stance. Yes doing that 3) Roll wrists. Yes doing that. 4) Oh crap there was one more, the subtle one that is so easy to omit. Lifting the front foot in the back swing.

Off went the flashing lights and ringing bells. Plant the front foot with a little extra weight on it, the swing then has a stable base. Importantly is the fact that it is not a solid pivot point again, no longer being moved to accommodate the injury constraints of the week. The swing is back with the body behind the forward motion and 220m off the tee and dead straight. Walked four holes hitting five balls off each tee as the sun sank and the distance was there and importantly the balls were all in a 20m circle on  the respective fairways.

Something that is a reality with my golf and life also is that I make subconscious adjustments for the various injury flareups. Life is easy deal with. Golf that takes a bigger effort and is more important, that is why the video of the coaching session was so important to do. The four points that the coach identified are all subtle errors the alone have a minor effect on my golf swing. As a group they are the four corners of erratic, unpredictable golf.
Thankyou for your time and attention, "Hit 'em straight all"

Geoff

Championship qualifying time....

18/4/12 Wednesday. Had to change the travelling plan for the weekend to play at the Heywood Open Tournament. Work commitment on the Sunday made it too difficult to be able to guarantee getting there in time to play, being a 27 hole competition it meant leaving at 6.30am to get there by 8.30am Tee off. Was looking forward to the challenge as I had not played the course, my body is happy it is a no show as it was a real struggle to complete the 18 holes on Sunday just gone. Working on the rehabilitation this week since Monday and it is gradually improving. With the Sunday competition at the Home club a combination of events, 1st Qualifying Round Club Handicap Championships, Monthly Medal and 1st Round of the Caledonian Inn Trophy.

Have won the Caledonian Inn Trophy the past two seasons, so will be putting in a good effort to defend the title. The Handicap Championship was mine in 2009 and this season my game is a lot more consistent and I should be in the mix to make the matchplay finals at least. The past few weeks of practice have been good for establishing the consistency with my swing and general stroke play to an acceptable level for my handicap. I had been drifting out each week and was on 14 handicap for Sundays round just gone. The result on the day has me back to a playing handicap of 13 again.

The change to the new Bridgestone J36 clubs had been a little unsettling in my rythym and tempo. That combined with having pushed myself too the physical limits since January resulting in a golf game that was erratic. The coaching changes worked from day one in that time but it was a longer adjustment than expected. It was very hard to stop falling back on old habits that destroy the effectiveness of improvements in recent months while physically struggling. This is an example that the mental aspect of golfing saves strokes as much as having a good swing. It is imperative that a golfer concentrates on ‘doing the right thing’. It can seem pedantic as an amateur golfer out having fun that it is just as important to have your mind disciplined just as the professionals do.

Part of the refreshing my mental golfing attitude has been the past two weeks of experimenting with driver shaft changes. At the same time the regular practice was maintained on the range hitting balls with 6 and 9 irons with chipping and putting practice on the greens. In refreshing the mind practice, I was out on the range belting balls with reshafted drivers. Enjoying the gradual realisation that each one now has the same consistency in distance, regardless of the flight pattern. Previously they were so different it was impossible to compare if the various head sizes did make much difference. In this week the practice with the drivers has been more controlled going for accurate ball placement on fairways now that the distance issue has been evaluated. I am currently favouring the 400cc Fastrax 10 degree offset Driver this week alongside the MDD Tour 380cc Driver with 8.5 degrees loft. My reason for this is that as winter sets in the run on fairways is going to decline and the run from the MDD Tour driver will be negated.

I am still considering getting a new shaft for the 400cc (and 420cc driver) as it has a short used shaft from a Taylor Made 370cc in at present. Having reached this stage and getting good results is satisfying, the next step will be getting a professional opinion on a shaft upgrade and if it is worth it. Another option being considered is purchasing an Exotics Tour CB3 430cc driver. I have read some reviews that given it is a relatively newer model especially that may be a better choice. I am getting the 220 m distance off the tee with ease at the minute. Adding another consistent 10m would be a major improvement off the tee and at the minute I can only see that as possible with improved technology.

Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all.”

 Geoff

Back on the practice range...

16/4/12 Monday. First round of the John Leake Trophy was played in fine weather yesterday and scoring 37 stableford points was good enough to have me in 7th place. Trailing three pairs of golfers with 41, 39 and 38 points respectively. It was particularly enjoyable playing a round of golf that required me to draw on every bit of my ability to get a good score on the board. By the end of the day I was struggling physically to play my best, the last three holes were played with very little energy left in the body and mind for golf. Finishing with two bogies and a double bogie on the 18th hole, (there I missed a 10cm putt for bogie) just nothing left to drop an un-missable putt.

Started the round with a wipe on the 1st hole and finished with a wipe on the 18th, end result was scoring 18 points on the front nine and 19 points on the back nine. In a week of experimenting with drivers my practise on the range was maintained. The specific routine on the range was using a 6 and 9 irons alone, establishing a consistent swing and accurate pattern with the balls. The confirmation of this effective practice was five GIRs and birdie chances, only got one and that was satisfying. There was several near misses in shooting for the green and this was given further support with much improved chipping. Unfortunately the putting let me down, the frustrating regularity of the putting failure was the ball being online and stopping short of the hole. This is a combined execution/mental fault with the stroke and I have worked on it in practice. When I say the ball is short of the hole this is 5 cm or less, whilst a miss is the same result be it a metre or one centimetre, the fault in my case is very small.

Sitting here now I can visualise the putting on the day and the balls trickling into the hole or stopping short during the game. This is never the case when on the practice green which I put down to; as it is practice I putt aggressively at the hole without any fear. In the putting routine of ten ball sets 2-3 will be slightly short and the rest in the hole or past it. Yet on game day short putts are nearer the 60 % mark. There is no excuse for not improving this and more practise is the key to drop 3-4 shots off my scores. Two of the Birdie attempts were short and that was really irritating.

Today it was back on to the range the added challenge was taking the Titleist AP2, 6 and 9 irons, using them in rotation with the Bridgestone 6 and 9 irons that are in the bag. What was satisfying is that there is no real difference between the distance that the irons get no matter what the brand name. The Bridgestones are the better choice for my game at the minute. Especially as they have thicker grips and this is a very noticeable variation that affect my control on the balls flight. After hitting 50 balls it was enough for the session, still feeling a few stiff spots in my body at the time. Went out 4 hours later and hit 20 balls with the Mdd 380 cc Tour and the Dynacast 400cc Fastrax, drivers. I was a little erratic off the tee yesterday and while feeling okay decided a little session would be fine.

Had a mixture of shots off the tee on Sunday and while it was nothing too bad made the smart choice of using the #2 iron off the 11th, 12th and 13th tees, were missing the fairway is a disaster. All three shots were in the centre of the fairway with enough distance to make the holes winners for my score. The #2 iron was very handy on the day on several holes and the mid size cavity back is definitely assisting my game. In the range session the 400cc driver was the better consistently with accurate shots, distance was the same with either length wise. The Dynacast driver performed a lot better than it did with the original shaft. I am tending towards removing the shorter Taylor Made 370 driver shaft and getting a new stiff flex shaft for it. Nothing urgent but if there is another 10m available for me with a change to this driver it will be a bonus that cannot be ignored.

The coming weekend if the weather is fine with no rain, a carload of us are heading off at 6.30am to play in the Heywood 27 hole event on Sunday. It is also a qualifying round for the Handicap Championship at my home club on the same day. There is a second qualifying round the following weekend so there is no need to play both. Unless I dont make the cut, that would be my own fault for playing crap though.

Thankyou for your time and attention. “Hit ‘em straight all.”

 Geoff

Relaxation time off the Golf Course...

6/4/12 Friday This weekend is still looking at being mostly golf free. Could play if I wanted too but I am sticking with the idea that formed mid Tuesday that now is a good time to let the body have a little rest. Among many lessons that have been learnt since 2009, one is that playing at 100% efficiency is not physically and mentally possible for too long. The improvements since January have been many and at the minute my instinct is to have a time out and relax away from the golf course.

Yesterday found myself at the club doing some volunteer tasks and had a 30 minute wait for a cart hire to turn up. Grabbed the putter and wedge and put in 10-15 minutes on the practice green, then ambled to the range and hit 20 balls with an 8 and 6 iron. That was enough to soothe the withdrawal symptoms. The balls hit all had good flight and accurate enough. That will be my approach this Easter weekend head out and hit 20 balls if I want to feel the club hitting a ball and that will be satisfactory.

One impressive return from last weekend's tournament was the #2 iron effectiveness. Especially the accurate ball placement in conjunction with the distance carried. Being a golfer who does have a preference in playing iron shots the #3 iron is easy for 165m plus. The #2 Hybrid in my hands stretched to the 200m limit and an easy 180m plus generally. Sadly maintaining consistency with this club is a failing of mine and is woefully inaccurate. The Diawa #2 iron (cavity back) has the distance of the hybrid but the accuracy was a huge difference in its favour.

My clubs carried is going to need a little thinking about over the winter in this instance. At the minute the hybrid is not even in the picture as worthwhile being in the bag. This weekend I am reshafting a 400cc Driver with a stiff flex shaft to trial on the range. Use a 380cc Driver to good effect on the course but the slightly larger Driver was around the mark, with a very flexible shaft was fine when carrying injury. The imp[roved swing plane and body posture I now have has relieved the injury restrictions. So I will test out the driver and see if it can deliver some extra distance.

Regular readers will perhaps see this as a visit to hypocrisy on my part, distance has been a secondary goal after accuracy for most of my golfing. In the recent gradual improvement, 220m drives are the norm off the tee. Have stretched to 230-250m drives in summer and to maintain a 230m drive would be a very good trade off for the winter. I am coaxing the extra distance if it is possible, simply to get closer to Par 4 greens and improve the GIR strike rate. Once the reshafting is set I will get out and have a few cracks on the range to see if this change can get that little bit more off the tee.

Thankyou for your time and attention, "Hit 'em straight all”

 Geoff

Tournament preparations almost complete...

22/2/12 Wednesday. Four days out from the first round of the Southern Ports Tournament week, all of the coaching and practise has improved facets of my golf game. The last three weeks of pain and and erratic game play from the injury flare up has been corrected with the medical treatment program. Another session in an hours time today, that will be the final must have rehabilitation treatment. Then off to Adelaide this afternoon for work, hopefully will get to see a Standup comedy show or two at the Fringe as well.

It was terrific to get out on the range this morning and hit my way through a selection of 9, 5 and 3 ,irons then the driver which confirmed the recovery was complete. Took the AP2 irons which have been unplayable for me of late with the injury restrictions. Also the replacement irons which I used to good effect this weekend at Kingston on Saturday, then followed up with another 18 holes at Robe on Sunday. Final score at Robe was 32 stableford points from an 89 Gross with 31 Putts a fourth place behind the winner on 37 points. Had the opportunity to score better at times but playing a relaxed social round, also a little within myself with the mental attitude that was not achieved. It has taken three months of dedicated effort and for the third year in succession this has prepared my golf game for the three tournament rounds.

Taking the AP2 irons to the range this morning was the crux of my fitness and form test. These are the irons which have been used when getting best results. The ‘combination’ set I made up from a cavity back and blade irons worked well enough this past weekend and I can break 80 with either in the bag. If my physical condition is at its best the AP2 set is the first choice to go in the bag, with them comes an extra 10-20 metres with the short irons. The MDD 380 cc Driver is a Titleist clone and this has greatly benefited from the coaching changes in particular. It was confirmed in the past weekend rounds and this weeks range practise that this club is reaching 220 m off the tee with ease. This week I have practised with the driver, deliberately hitting into the wind. Not the easy option but living on the coast this is a weather condition which creates havoc among golf fields here. Not a golfer obsessed with hitting the big drive, a good thing because up until now this was beyond my ability. It seems that part of my game has now improved, I can hit the plus side of 230m a benefit from the recent coaching.

Being the third consecutive attempt at a title in the Southern Ports Golf Week, with second placing in both previous years I have total confidence in the preparation. Even the last three weeks of abject misery from the pain and inability to maintain a consistent swing or concentrate were nothing unexpected. This has happened at the same time, with the same problems during the training routine in 2010 and 2011. This is something that epitomises a touted aspect of the game, “the best golf is played with a regular predictable game.” even my injury problems are predictable each season. When I contracted ‘golfers elbow’ in 2011 my game fell apart, that was new injury. The back, shoulder and groin problems are expected and are rectified with a regular treatment program. This does not make them any more tolerable, having a management program is a great benefit in recovering and still maintaining good golf scores.

Time out for the next couple of days from golf is planned. There will be some light golf practise and physical exertion. The goal over the remaining four days is to engage my game focus and attitude that is crucial during rounds. There is no leeway in this aspect of playing the game for success, be mentally lazy or detached and the result will be crap. Thankyou for your time and attention. “Hit ‘em straight all.”

Geoff