GOLF - It is exercise in a good way...

28th July Second day of the excercise program for a golfing tune up is starting to show the effects. The Yoga ‘leg lift’ specifically for my back injury has delivered a surprise result in how much more strength is already established. Since the concentrated effort earlier in the year the improvement in this area has became the norm, to set up and do the routine again and the ease in doing the original regime without any strain is a bonus. Observing golfers in the professional ranks you can see that being turned out like an Olympic athlete is not a must. The Senior tour is not the only less athletic in competitors’ appearance. This does not mean that the players are not fit, playing the sport alone is a good excercise, as there is no impacts from opponent tackles and not too much strain from sprinting or rapid exertion. Golf is a fantastic sport for anyone who is already carrying injury from life. In my case several broken bones, fractured vertebrate and torn muscles did take a little gentle coaxing through the first 12 months of playing, over all between two up to three months of injury time stopped me from golfing. Doctor’s advice should be sought in respect to your injury and playing golf, in my case I went more to check up that the various ailments through the season were not harmful but in fact my body reacting to the improved flexibility and general physical activity.




For arm, hand grip, chest and shoulder stamina building I use a set of hand grips and a chest expander, two excercise tools that do not require room to use them. Both are very easy to store and importantly do not put undue strain on your body when being used, sensibly within your limits of course. In this refresher program the effects came to notice very quickly and I have had to adjust my pitching stroke strength. The mid to long irons are out of sync as well and this will take a little adjustment on the driving fairway to get right again. Off the tee the Driver is working well enough again after this mornings hit out. I had began to get erratic with it on Monday and had not had a real chance to retune the swing tempo until today. Nothing major in error as a result of getting tired after two days of competition and starting to hit at the ball too hard. Now back to the steady easy swing and the ball flying straight at my target point, without any slice.



One matter that I have to consider seriously is a diet change for a while. The winter weather has had me snacking on a few too many comfort foods with cups of coffee. A couple of kilos of apples has replaced the sugar rich biscuits and cakes that had been in the cupboard of late. It does not take much to alter your diet much like smoking (without the nicotine addiction) the habit becomes a part of regular routine. A little discipline is all it takes to get out of the snack attacks.

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

GOLF - Practice regularly and in advance of playing..

26th July PM The brief description of the previous two days of competition in the Millicent Open (Saturday) and Monthly Medal round at my home club (Sunday) is not because nothing spectacular happened instead the two rounds played near to how I set myself up to play them. The practice that is part of the preparation was the key to my enjoyment and the success on the course.

Play Your Best Golf - Break 90 Vol 1

Towards the end of Sunday’s round the driver shots off the tee began to falter, with a slice beginning to establish in the tail of the ball flight. This is a regular fault in the stroke that the regular practice removes from my game play. In this case there may have been a little tiredness that brought it on which is why the three iron was used on one tee. Today after a casual 9 holes in the morning the slice was still established in the tee shots, so this afternoon a concentrated half hour was put in to getting the tee shot back to perfect. It was deliberately done after playing another three holes and having the tiredness affecting shots as well. In the morning nine my older set was used, being heavier irons with more loft it is interesting to note that the increased distance with the game set has transferred to these as well. Which is further evidence that the improvement has came from swing technique and the practice that established it.



With the Kingston Open on this Sunday accuracy off the tee is vital again, on another course with gum tree lined fairways on some holes and a few long doglegs to negotiate. Physically, a few twinges in some back muscles were noticed during Monday’s hitting and a bit of rest is needed to let them settle.

In fact this week will include another series of physical excercise incorporated into shot practice. Nothing new or major, the concentrated regime from March to April is still proving it’s worth. A week of doing the “leg lift” yoga excercise will firm and tone my back muscles, together with doing the chest expander and hand grip routines for improved stamina for club use. Yesterday in the afternoon practice session my strength was flagging, to be expected after playing in two 18 hole comps. over the weekend and I am definitely no athlete. August is a usual month of golfing, I am choosing to play in the Kingston Open on the 1st. The 8th is a Par round and in this case I may choose to go to Naracoorte and play, there is a 18/36 hole stroke competition there that day. The first qualifying round of the club championships and combined monthly medal is on the 15th. The 22nd and 29th are both the 3rd and final rounds of two trophy competitions, Caledonian Inn and John Leake respectively which I am among the leaders in. Hence a little pre-round conditioning can only benefit my game if done now.



Also a little more work on the short game is in order to refine the variety of shots I can play. Nothing in particular just better control over distance and even a little work on getting more backspin when the ball hits the green from close in shots. Around the green first choice is my pitching wedge, occasionally the sand wedge is used. The 60 degree lob wedge is not even in my bag, eventually it may get a slot once it’s use is mastered, in the meantime the other two irons will suffice. Putting will be getting more attention in particular after the Millicent experience the improvements that this has initiated in play on the greens, I do not want to lose and revert to the previous established putting style.

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

GOLF - Monthly Medal winning round

26th July The playing of 18 holes in yesterday’s Monthly Medal round at Robe after the Open in Millicent on Saturday was a challenge that delivered very good results for me. Struggled with putting for the first 4 holes, a little gun shy after the pace of the greens the day before and not able to have my usual practice session before tee off to adjust. After those holes though the experience from Millicent was beneficial to the game on and off the green. An 8 in the par five first was not the best of starts and the result of a lost ball, again it was not a major problem as it was at the start of the round. Sticking to my usual strategy I was set to go after a front 9 total from the fourth hole and went on a par charge finishing the front 9 with a 46 and the back nine 41 for a total 87 gross and nett 67.

PLAY YOUR BEST GOLF - BREAK 90
A good enough score to win the monthly medal by one stroke and also picked up a NTP in two shots on the par 4 ninth hole. Best of all the nett 67 has got another .3 off my handicap to 19.7, it was the 2nd of the three rounds for the Caledonian Inn trophy and thanks to the Golf Link rounds being available to review I am now leading this by one stroke. Next weekend is the Kingston Open only a 45 km trip away and a course that has had a lot of work in the past year. Expanded to include new holes in the original 18 since last playing there in the New Year weekend Open ,only the 18th is not completed so it will be interesting to play the new holes. It is also the 6th round of the DK Edwards Trophy and the last one until September 5th at Bordertown. Playing at Kingston will give me five of the necessary six minimum played to qualify.  “Hit ‘em straight all”

Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

GOLF - When a course hits back at you

July 24th The satisfaction of playing well and not winning is an attribute that golf delivers more adeptly than any other game of skill. When a player has that experience in a round it can take a little while to absorb the effect and realise the benefits to your game. From the practise round at the Millicent Club on Tuesday in preparing for the challenge this course was going to be to my ability, that feeling of something special was established for the Open yesterday in my game.




My game plan was to use the “Alamo Strategy” do nothing heroic and go and get help while the rest hold the fort... in simple terms do nothing that would bring risk into the game play. My practise round established the game plan of total concentration for accuracy and avoid journey’s into the trees off the tee and along the fairways. The second part was to go for the greens in regulation whenever possible and at least get on in one shot over regulation. The short game was pretty much in the hands of the golfing gods... as much as I have been practising pitching and putting to a greater level the past two weeks my execution of this and ability in reading greens of the calibre at Millicent was the weakness that could not be rectified in time.



With a front nine 47 and a back nine 50 the gross 97 (77 nett) I am not certain what the grade handicap cut of points were. I am assuming that 20 had me in “B” grade (for the Millicent Open) where the two scores had me in 7th place (gross) and 4th place (nett) in “C” grade it was a 2nd (gross) and tied 2nd (nett). For my first ever “B” grade ranking on a course which was a true test of my mettle I am a very happy golfer this morning. There was only one totally unexpected occurrence on the day which had an effect on my game play. Although it was a typically cool winter day with not even a zephyr of wind (unusual) I was hitting 7-pw irons 10-15 metres more than usual. The first time it happened on the 4th hole I hit a six iron after deciding it was not quite a five iron. It was not a one off beautifully hit shot just normal and it wend 15m + long over the green. An up-hill shot to boot and I could only assume it bounced well as the ground was not muddy. Even so a little mental note was made and by chance the next hole was a par three 161m a four iron usually but with the previous hole in mind and seeing that falling short would not be too harmful took out a six iron and sure enough had the distance!



On top of this eventuality the greens had me beaten all day, being quick and over shooting several putts for the day another fault was pitching on the green and the ball which placed that well on my home course would be in a 1-2m distance of the hole just kept on rolling leaving 3-6 m putts instead. here was an example of why playing other courses develops your skill. At the Robe course playing the pitch and run where the ball hits off the green is very risky as the green collars are very spongy uneven grass and the ball will often pop up and stop so I choose to hit the green, at the Millicent course pitching onto the collar and letting the ball run to the green is a playable option. Unfortunately it was not possible for me to adapt to that and so had to suffer the results of hitting the green and the ball rolling far away from the hole. To end up with a gross 97 and to lose a ball on the 18th and have to play a provisional after the only slice into the trees all round was a good result. The course did not beat me but instead gave out the most enjoyable challenge to my ability and yes I will return to play Millicent again as a benchmark of skill. Especially as my short game practise continues along and improves.



This morning as I write this, it is a prelude to heading out and playing in todays competition on my home course, in fact the first time playing two succesive 18 hole competative rounds is too good a challenge to ignore. Plus satisfy the curiosity of putting into practise some of yesterday’s experience is too tempting to ignore. Especially the realisation that hitting the ball accurately is not beyond my ability and that it has been laziness and making errors off the fairways are not punished on many of the holes as opposed to all of them at courses like Millicent. Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all” , Geoff