Less golf to play better...

20/7/12 Friday. A week of doing real work that has interfered with my golfing obsession, have survived the withdrawal symptoms and gearing up for another weekend on the course. The less golfing time was a definite choice besides work responsibilities it was time to freshen up and have a break from the latest dedicated practise and playing routine.

Competition wise my results were not good on the weekend with the Naracoorte Winter Open over 27 holes a poor score but a very worthwhile hit out on the course. Struggled on the greens all day and breaking the round up into the three nines delivered a 51, 51, 41. There were very few poor shots that put me in positions where I did not have a clear shot to the fairway or green. It was simply inability to hit greens in regulation and putt accurately. The greens are back to a slick level of speed. After the past few weeks I am improving though not totally comfortable on them.

The Saturday competition at Kingston was a Par round. It was after this that I had a revelation which exposed a mental game playing fault which had began to affect my rounds. At my home track and in most travelling events I play the competition is stroke rounds. With few Stableford or Par rounds played, with my usual Stroke round strategy to get to the 14th hole in good shape score wise either on my handicap or just under. Then attack the remaining holes to come in under my handicap. Can you guess what my game fault is?

I play with score minimisation as my goal for most rounds, never really try to break par on most holes. When playing a Par round it is either a win (+) half (0) or a Loss (-), even though I was a little flat after the 27 holes on Friday that was no reason for my inability to score better in the Par round played. On all holes a half was easily achievable yet I had four losses on the front nine and one on the back for a -5 result. That was a total of five strokes too many. It did not matter how many strokes I picked up on winning holes. In a Par competition it is the hole not the strokes that decide your final result and my play is set in stone from playing so much stroke play. This weekend I will play Stableford at Kingston on Saturday and yes you guessed it, Stroke in the Lucindale CAVPower Open on Sunday.

Physically at the minute the weight loss program is definitely improving my enjoyment of golf. Less pain from the various broken bits is very noticeable not to forget the extra energy and stamina. Having a break from golfing this past week has been a smart move also. Too often I end up in a debilitating state from doing too much for too long especially when feeling very energetic and healthy. Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all”

 Geoff

Playing in the rain...

6/6/12 Wednesday. Six days into the season of winter and the course has became a totally different playing field. Hard to believe after the last five days of rain and cool temperatures that on Friday it was a balmy 26 degrees with blues skies. The excellent weather conditions touched upon my golf as well, getting par scores on eight of the nine holes played in the weekly Friday ‘Chicken Run’ competition.

The good weather does not get the lions’ share of the credit for the good result and winning on the day.

The last fortnight of practise with the driver and getting the swing better has significantly improved my golfing. Whilst the immediate goal of the practice was to establish longer distance off the tee without losing accuracy, the fringe benefit of this has flowed through to all of my shots. It was interesting to notice one thing after doing a slight injury, straining a few muscles, which came from falling back into hitting the ball with my arms and not the body. The discomfort from this was not noticeable when hitting the ball correctly. In an overview it was akin to the lab rat reward and punishment experiments. I do the correct swing and the ball flies longer and straight, do it wrong and it hurt. The positive of this for me was the proof that correct technique is a mainstay of good golf.

Fronting up for Sunday’s round was a different situation all together, following steady rain overnight the course was well soaked. The day was overcast, not too much wind thankfully and the rain fell at various strengths throughout the day. Even with the much changed weather I was still in good touch on the front nine 17 stableford points. The wet weather took its toll on my game as the round went on. Playing in the rain is not something which is enjoyable, once a season is enough for me and after Sunday that has been done for 2012. Even so the end result on the day had me miss out on first by 4 points and third place on a countback.

There was a brief moment of disapointment at the competition failure, the fun on the day made up for the taste of defeat. That I threw the game away on the last hole with having an unfocussed whack and the ball went out of bounds did the damage. Three of the the last four holes were poorly played, the concentration wavered and all I really wanted was to get inside out of the rain. Always good to get experience under the belt early in the season, last weekends round will be a great preparation for the rest of June. With the Handicap Foursomes 27 hole event this weekend, the third round of the Caledonian Inn Trophy following on the 17th and Keith Open Tournament on the 23rd and 24th of June. This is going to be a testing month of golf and I am looking forward to the challenge. Thankyou for your time and attention. “Hit ‘em straight all”

 Geoff

A time for golfing reflection...

9/4/12 Monday This weekend of golfing reflection has revealed a few interesting insights into my game. The best one being the realisation that my ability with shots played has significantly improved. Whilst playing the game the nuances of improvement get overlooked in the concentration that is required to play the shots.

Whilst reviewing the past three months of golfing, the last round played at Bordertown was the one that revealed the most. I used a 5 iron off the tee on the No 11, 157m hole (started on the back nine). Where I had an 8 (par 3 into the bunker off the tee) and finished with an 87 Gross. The point was that in playing the shot I was actually going for the green and was only 2-3m off target, to the right with a slight fade. Coming from a course that has two bunkers in total I did not even consider the threat of them in playing this shot. In fact every par three at Bordertown I approached the same way and this was the only one which came to grief in the two days of play.

This past week I have been out 3 times and hit 20-30 balls at the range each time, just keeping my hand in with the 6 and 9 irons. Again not playing competition this week I was relaxed and just enjoying the ease of the shots played and the accurate results. Did not even think about anything to do with my game at the time. On Saturday after getting out and being a little more serious when using a reshafted driver the golf brain switched on. It was then I realised that I am hitting the ball so much better and finally hitting greens in regulation. My Average for the year to date is still 13%, my last 5 rounds have been 22% three times, then 11% and 44% at Bordertown.

That is the confirmation that the improvement, whilst not excessive it has definitely established a better strike rate. This is a combination of two factors, accurate use of my irons and the increase off the tee by 10-15m with the driver and using #8 iron to Wedges in shooting for the green. To use a phrase from Steve Bowditch “I carry 4 wedges because I worked out along time ago that I’m around the 100m mark a lot more then the 220 mark and that I would be more affective if I carried more wedges to give myself more options with the scoring clubs rather then the 3 iron…”  Obviously I do not hit the ball that close to the green on par 4’s which are the majority of holes on a course. The ‘scoring clubs’ are still higher lofted ones, which are now coming into play for me more often. The confidence is a pleasant feeling to have when an iron is in my hands lining up to hit the green. It is still the actions that have to be maintained in set up etc. that gets the result.

Today after lunch and watching the final round of the 2012 Masters, if the weather holds out and does not pour rain to go with the blustery winds, I will get on the range and test out the drivers again. This time taking the first choice (in the bag)380cc driver and see how the now stiff flex shafted 400cc driver compares. Thankyou for your time and attention. “Hit ‘em straight all”

 Geoff