Into the Deep… Rough

17 Jan

Last week I obviously talked about the highs and lows I’d experienced in the first week of 2024, but this week proves that if you don’t manage to sort out little problems fast, they can very quickly turn into something bigger!

Welcome to 54 to Scratch, the “whenever I get around to writing something” blog that is helping this relatively new golfer (2 years in now) as I struggle to learn this amazing sport.

Last time out, I talked about feeling amazing at Lydd but then coming crashing to ground somewhat as the week progressed and unfortunately, this week the downward trend has continued.

Now, one thing I must stress is that I am fully aware that this isn’t permanent. But bloody hell is it frustrating!

I started the week with some range practice, one at lunch time and one evening. During the evening session, my coach (Mark from Kingsnorth GC) came up to me and gave me a few tips as to where I’d been struggling.

Essentially, something we discussed in my last lesson was my shoulder positioning at address being too closed. This was resulting in some pulled shots, which although straight were going offline to the left.

He gave me a tip to address this, setting up my club and getting my lead hand grip sorted. Then taking my right hand off and bringing it round and under the club before swinging. This just naturally brings your shoulders back into alignment without having to think about it.

Boy did this work. For a while. Unfortunately, as Mark pointed out, I had started at some point to do this wrong and so the opposite was happening. After he pointed this out, I carried on with my range session and was inconsistent but getting better.

I played a few lunchtime holes the next day in glorious (albeit cold) weather. My striking was inconsistent in terms of direction, but the majority of shots were in the air and straight, even if they were slightly pushed or pulled.

I put all of this down to thinking about my swing again. When I’m at my best, I’m not thinking and I’m sure that applies to most people. The best players I’m sure are the ones that can clear their minds of all thoughts but one.

I had managed to get to that point with just one swing thought - get my left shoulder to my chin. During that round at Ladd, I even adopted a different pre-shot routine where when I’m standing in front of the ball, I hit it. No more practice swings with the ball in front of me.

But when things start to go wrong, I suddenly start trying to address everything, overthinking every shot which is why I have rounds like the weekend just gone…

I would like to point out that I thoroughly enjoyed playing at Littlestone Warren. My day started in the best possible way, breakfast with my playing partners before making our way to the course.

As we were enjoying our chat and we were only round the corner, we were a little too relaxed about how much time we had, which in turn meant we were rushed onto the course. It also meant that we didn’t warm up, which given the temperature was probably a little bit of a mistake.

After letting the 2 ball that were teeing off straight after tee off first, we stepped up to play the first hole. The first hole is a straight par 4, with out of bounds (the driving range) down the left and a couple of bunkers to catch errant drives.

The friends I was playing with aren’t my regular playing partners. As a result, I think I wanted to impress them, especially given how I had been playing at the turn of the year. Both of my friends drives were big and down the middle.

I stepped up, feeling tense. Partially because of the cold. Partially because of wanting to impress and partially just because of how inconsistent I’d been recently.

As a result, my first shot went topped and left into the deeper rough, but still in play. I played a provisional just in case (the rough was that deep, long stuff you get on links courses) and hit a lovely straight drive, but straight left onto the driving range.

I found my ball and recovered to a degree, getting a seven.

On the next hole, a little par 3, I got a par, undercutting, my tee shot and my chip but managing to putt in from about 8 feet. So I obviously feel a bit better.

But then on the next par 4, my drive is topped again, this time going straight but meaning I now need to recover, which I don’t quite manage, with my chipping letting me down. For some reason, I’m now hitting the ground with my bump and runs.

On the next par 3, that has me short after a relatively good tee shot has me on the fringe but on the opposite side of the hole to the pin. A poor chip leaves me with too much to do and I inexplicably 3 putt.

On the ext hole, my drive is a slice, with my provisional even worse. We find my original ball, which I shank and lose. My next shot gets out of the REALLY deep rough I’m in, but TWO thinned chips causes me to get an 8.

On the next hole, I settle down a little and I round out the 9 with bogey, double, bogey, double and a 49.

Now, 49 isn’t terrible. But equally, the course felt like it was playing easier than I had made it. But a new 9 means a reset and boy did I do that!

The 10th hole was a par 4, which I drove straight down the middle. My next shot was a hybrid which then left me with a chip on and a 1 putt for par.

I managed almost a carbon copy on the next hole too, closing with another par!

On the 12th, I had another straight drive and then another on the 13th (both par 4’s) and it was just down to bad club selection that I didn’t walk off with a better score on either.

Then came the 14th. This is a hole going back down the other side of the driving range and has steps for you to check the hole as the links ground gets particularly aggressive with it’s height on this hole.

My drive was another straight one, but the club face must have been open because it didn’t go as far as I had been hitting it, just about making it onto the mound I mentioned. I pulled out my 3 wood, still having about 220 to the pin, which I proceeded to top to the left, about 60 yards ahead of me and into the rough.

I found my ball but managed to do the same thing again onto the driving range (so OOB). I then had a bit of a meltdown, with my swing turning into chop. I hacked my way to the green, eventually getting on but my mentality had shifted, so my putting was careless and I think I 3 putted.

On the next hole, that feeling continued. My drive went into the rough, I got it out ok but then a short approach left me with an uphill lie to chip, which I screwed up, 3 putting from about 7-8 feet too.

18 shots in two holes - what a way to ruin my recovery!

The last 3 holes were a little miserable for me with some real petulance in my play. This was reflected by the scores - double, triple, quadruple.

Despite all of this, I got 3 pars on a course that I haven’t played before. I got 24 points stable ford which wasn’t great, but this was despite 5 blobs on the card. As one of my friends pointed out, I managed to “fix” my driver mid round, having gone one way then the other, so there were positives.

But it also has me reflecting on a couple of things.

Firstly, this year I need to try and get out of my comfort zone. I want to ensure that I push myself to play with more people to remove that tense feeling I had this weekend.

I need to forget about the score. I don’t know the best approach for this. If anyone reading has any suggestions, please let me know. I currently use Golf Gamebook for scorecards - is it better to write them down? Does that stop you from paying too much attention?

Either way, I said at the beginning that I needed to ensure I have fun this year while playing and this hasn’t changed. I need to relax more (probably in all aspects of my life) and this will be helped by playing with different people, which is partially what the Swindle goal is all about.

Anyway, that’s course number 2 and 3 completed for this year - just 17 more to go!

Thank you for taking the time to read this - hopefully next time I’m writing it will be a positive one!