Consistency will come… I promise!

I swear that consistency is near impossible to achieve - but that’s golf for you! Welcome to 54 to Scratch, the golf blog following this relative newbie as I try to move from a beginner into something resembling a golfer.

I didn’t post last week due to illness, but that illness didn’t stop me from playing golf at least!

My last post was just after breaking 100 for the first time at Lydd. Needless to say, I went into that week on a high, thinking that I would be able to beat my best at Kingsnorth. Unfortunately, I got a little ahead of myself and proceeded to hit a 110 instead.

That score was not only embarrassing but was then followed directly by the aforementioned illness. Whether my illness caused the bad round or the bad round caused the illness, I’m still not quite sure, but either way I was disappointed to say the least.

The minute I was even close to being better, I went out for a lunchtime 9, despite being dizzy and not 100%. This went well, with me hitting a 46 which was 1 under handicap. I went into my next 18 at Kingsnorth with a little bit more confidence, playing on my own and hitting 91 - my best score at Kingsnorth since November!

I then had a golf lesson with Tom Muchmore, where we were looking at my swing again, focusing on trying to create a draw shot shape that also creates more distance. Both myself and Tom are focused on getting this result, as if I can increase each club by 15-20 yards, I will suddenly be in a much better place to score better on the course, even if I get into trouble from time to time.

During the lesson, I spoke to Tom about playing Ashford GC and we organised a game for myself, my step-dad and brother in law. Having played the front 9 before (but poorly), I was expecting big things of myself given my recent results at Lydd and Kingsnorth.

Unfortunately, 110 @ Kingsnorth Pat showed up…

Saturday arrived and I felt good. I warmed up in the nets and had a quick chat with Tom and felt seriously confident, despite the fact that the temperature had dropped considerably from previous weeks and was also windy - not exactly great scoring conditions.

On the first tee, I sliced my driver into the trees on the right hand side, forcing me into a punch shot through the trees and then a hybrid onto the green. I then 3 putted. My putting has been really letting me down recently, with way too many 3 putts creeping into my game.

On the next hole, I struggled to get the ball up the hill, eventually hitting a 7, followed by another 7 caused by a duffed chip and another trip to the trees from the tee. The same thing happened on the 4th, although I managed to get a 6.

I then got my only par of the round on the short par 3, despite the green being pretty much surrounded by water. However, I did get lucky, having thinned my tee shot onto the green, with the ball hitting a sprinkler hole and stopping dead as a result. A 2 putt gave me the par.

Moving onto the next hole, my tee shot went slightly right, stopping short of going into a water hazard. My second shot then went to the right of the green, with a really awkward hump to get over to the pin. I opted to chip with my 52 degree despite the soft ground and duffed the chip. I then decided to putt off the green and over the hump, but didn’t hit it hard enough meaning another 2 putts to get it in for 6.

The duffed chips then kept coming. On the 7th, I did it 2 times before managing to actually chip on and stay there. This resulted in a 9. A 6 on a par 3 followed, with me going into VERY deep rough and taking another 3 shots to get it onto the green…

2 Par 5’s then end the front 9 and begin the back. The first goes up hill and I played the hole near perfectly for me, getting to just short of the green in 4, then putting off the apron and uphill about 35 feet to within 1 foot of the pin. On the 10th, it’s a downhill 5 that feels like it could easily have been a 4. Again, I got to the green fine but had to chip and with my chipping currently letting me down, didn’t get close enough to avoid 2 putting.

On the next hole, I suffered my only penalty of the round. I had a great tee shot, with a lovely straight drive getting onto the fairway. Unfortunately, the second shot had to carry a stream, so I had the option of either laying up or trying to carry. As my score was already pretty bad, I threw caution to the wind and decided to go for it, even though I couldn’t see the stream due to being slightly below the crest of a hill. I hit the ball with my hybrid a bit toppy but had no idea whether it had gotten over or not.

It had made it, but what I hadn’t realised when surveying the shot before is that on the other side of the stream, the rise to the green was very steep, meaning that unless you are getting on the green, there is a risk that any ball will roll back down, which mine had.

It hadn’t gone into the stream though, having been stopped by the wooden slats that border the streams here.

So again, I two options. Take the drop or try hitting it from where the ball was lying, up against the slat and with nowhere to really stand to take the shot. This is my problem - when I’m in one of these moods, I don’t listen to reason. I’ll try and play stupid shots and this more than anything is why my handicap is still so high.

I tried the shot, failed and then dropped, eventually getting another 7.

Another par 4 7 followed, again a duffed chip leading to a 3 putt.

A bogie on the 13th was one of a few highlights of the round scoring wise, but this was then followed by a 5 on a particularly windy par 3 that felt like it played about 750 yards…

Poor chipping and putting on the next 3 holes left me a further 9 shots behind par before finishing strong with a bogie on the 18th, which is a very long par 3.

The crazy thing about this round is that the length of the holes wasn’t the issue. Even going into the trees every so often wasn’t the issue. There were 2 holes where I went into difficult rough - both being par 3’s.

That hole with the stream incident obviously could have been avoided too by laying up.

But the thing that keeps on happening recently is poor chipping and poor putting. Two areas of my game that last season were definitely saving me, but clearly are areas I now need to work on to get some consistency back.

So that’s the aim for the next week or so - practice chipping as much as possible and putting too! I’m confident in both overall that they will come back, form is temporary and all that…

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this - have a great game everyone!