Monday 6th. Back home and warming up after the Eudunda Ambrose trip. Was fun to play a fun round of golf in fact. Probably exactly what my game brain needed. The shortened Driver experiment is over for the minute. As I took the shaft out and put in the Stiff Flex shaft that arrived on last Thursday. It was an interesting trial and I am looking forward to hitting the same club head with a 5 cm longer shaft. With the 9* short reg flex shaft there was not much distance loss compared to the longer shafted 10.5* regular flex club head. That distance loss at full power was noticed yet the accuracy was so easy to achieve and the distance off the tee felt to be longer than usual combined with the accurate drives. I am not going to pass this experience over in a hurry. I can still shorten the shaft in the 10.5* driver at a later date in desired. Most likely I will just replace it with the very short one pulled yesterday and experiment with that first.

This pic of me was taken while hitting a cracker of a drive an easy 240m, down hill without much run so very satisfied with that hit. The Fluoro Polo Shirt and cap or Beanie were included with the entry fee so the course looked like a council worker convention. Putting on scrapes was a battle to be honest that delicate 'feel' of the run of the grass greens is not any use. The mental block to whack the ball into the hole was so hard to circumvent. Still we dropped some great puts on the day and that added to the fun.

This weekend is the Naracoorte Open Weekend 9th-11th of August and the plan is to play both Saturday and Sunday. Depending on work of course which may save me the pain which seems to come from playing this course. Have to be getting close to knocking out a good round at Naracoorte though and as usual full of optimism and looking forward to the trip. "hit the ball, find the ball, hit the ball." Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

Millicent Open another learning curve...

Tuesday 30/7/13 Slowly recovering from the 27 hole trek on Sunday on the Millicent course. fortunately the cart hired worked for 18 holes before coming to a stop. Even so walking the last nine holes was not that bad and fortunately the rain which was intermittent during the day did not return. My card was a battle from hole one with a 10 to start and this was not a problem as I felt that I could come back from that with 26 holes to go. That was not to be the Driver was wayward and whilst on my home track and at Kingston this would be no great problem the dense tree lined fairways and ferns took a toll Three lost balls did the main damage to my card. The putting was not that hard and this was pleasing, to see that my game has improved so much compared to the first time I played this course in 2010. Finished the first nine holes with 53 hits including a 10,8 and 8 three lost balls in total. The next nine was a 47 and the third nine a 46. A total field of 47 golfers and only four broke 80, there was thirteen scores of 80 to 89 leaving a total of thirty golfers who did not break 90. There were eight golfers in the C Grade which had the highest handicappers in it up to 27. It was not an easy day on the track with some strong winds and rain adding spice to the course. Great fun all day playing with out any fear and in the company of a 1,3 and 6 handicapper on the day. This is a point that had a lot of bearing n the day, it would have been very easy to reign in my stroke play to the more efficient, accurate and limited shots with the limited swing. Instead I chose to stick with the full swing and it was difficult in some cases with the ball going too long and into trouble or wide and in the rough among trees. The good shots though were excellent, four GIR and seven fairways hit and 35 putts on the first 18 holes tell part of the tale. The seven shots among trees off the fairway were lethal to the score. Watching the 1 handicapper using a 3 wood and hybrid off the tee except on par three holes has since delivered a very rewarding game strategy. In his case it was because of how far he can hit the ball and retain accuracy. For me today it entailed playing nine holes with a different #2 Hybrid and not using the driver at all returning 4 pars and 3 bogeys. The usual #2 Hybrid showed some interesting abilities on Sunday that did not ring true. Today it was changed over to a stiff flex hybrid instead of regular flex, with this came better consistency and accuracy. Yes the full swing is a lot faster than before and the regular flex hybrid had became unstable with the club face alignment to impact slicing right. It was also done with an older set of Seve irons that are heavier and not as effective as the usual Titliest ap2's in my bag nor my usual putter. All is good and even though the transition period is frustrating in some aspects, the change is a big step in the direction to a lower handicap. Am going to experiment some more with the #2 Hybrid rounds as well that was particularly effective today 170 -180 m off the tee and then another hit with the same hybrid on par fours and I was on the green or just off the edge. Very easy golf playing like that, all learnt while paying attention to a playing partner on Sunday. Thankyou for your time and attention. hit he ball, find the ball, hit the ball Geoff

First hit in anger an it was fine..

Friday 26/7/13 Maintained the push on the swing change today. With a good return given the circumstances. The nine hole Chicken Run was played after getting back from Adelaide with no warm up and in the usual manner of bucket loads of sledging and general gamesmanship from playing partners. It is fun and relaxing at the same time to play with the reward of getting results to throw back in response to a sledge. Not a bad result on the day third place with 17 points. Wiped the first hole played just to damn stiff after 3 1/2 hours sitting in the car driving home. Off the tee was good playing with two big hitters and claimed the long drive on one hole and the rest were up with the guns. The message in my mind was how soon before I start to transfer the fuill swing to the rest of my clubs in a round. At this stage it is all about getting a few sessions on the practise range and playing the full swing with every club. Today the accuracy was good thanks to the past weeks practise and that is a big confidence booster. Looks like the mental side of the experience has been successful. Even today I was wanting to play the full shot but did not take the step up. For no other reason except no preparation has been taken to pave the way. Thankyou for your time and attention. hit he ball, find the ball, hit the ball Geoff

WoW I have a game changing glf swing at last...

Wednesday 24/7/13. This morning with an afternoon 9 hole social round to play I had a different practise session. With the need to work on my tee shot and the slice fade that was getting a toe hold no irons were hit. Just to add to the warm up grabbed a #3 and #5 wood to experiment with, comparing the regular flex #3 to my stiff flex one and the #5 to the #2 hybrid. Worked my way through the various clubs and settled the query that the #2 hybrid is the better. The #3 woods is a toss up and will keep exploring with the variation in shafts although at worst the fairway metals do have 10 meters more distance. Then it was time to hit the driver and see if I could repair the fault.. This was mildly successful and it was circumvented by the discovery/realisation of something that was more important to my game overall. As regular readers are aware I am not a big hitter of the ball and put accuracy before distance in balance with my golfing capability. Today because of the warm up with fairway metals etc I revisited something that I have noted in past diary entries but is put on the bottom of the to do list as it is testing the physical limits of my capability. My back swing is restrained from the effects of a 30 year old back injury and so the habit is what causes moderation in the swing not need. Since January my physical ability has been significantly improved with swimming in tandem with weight loss and exercise over the past 4 years. Every now and then I would have a full back swing with my shoulder under my chin on the back swing when practising, perhaps 2-3 swings and then left alone after feeling the stretching of the injured area. Today though I felt great and decided to put the established physical limit to the test. Make no doubt about it the boiling nervous feeling started in my guts the second I started to get ready to warm up. The focus was intense just to force myself to swing the club and the hands to keep moving back. This is were all the coaching and practise again proved its value. My body was doing what I had been taught and practised and although it felt absolutely out of control the shoulder was under my chin and then I started the downswing to hit the ball. No pain no discomfort and the swing felt easy even if the ball was send scorching to the left, there was more power released than I even come close to usually. Making note that I had taken my eyes off the ball in the downswing the next shot was done just as easy and the eyes stayed on target. You guessed it, the club head hit the ball and it soared like a rocket, I have no idea if it was the balls speed or relief that my body did not explode that made me feel dizzy afterwards. Did not over do the test hitting eight balls in total resulting in much less control over where the ball went. What made this insignificant was that four of the balls went as far as I usually hit my best and the other four were 20 to 30 metres longer than the best I can do consistently. This is no trivial one club improvement, it is a game changer. Every club will be used totally differently with this capability. The fact which makes this a difficulty is the realisation that mid season I am top qualifier for Handicap Championship, Won two monthly medals and several runner up placing's. I am about to begin working on something which will totally change my game, one that already is effective. Fact is the change is imperative to get me to the goal of single figure handicap. The hardest part is that to do this is going to take a lot of concentration to not fall back into the existing comfort zone of my golf game. The choice is accept mediocrity and have some success, or go for the gold and be a dominant winning golfer. The decision has been made and I would rather risk and suffer the failures on the way to success than be mediocre. Thankyou for your time and attention. hit he ball, find the ball, hit the ball Geoff