Summer is Coming!

It has been a while since I last posted on here! Almost 2 months… Wow!

Welcome to 54 to Scratch the (supposedly) weekly blog where I talk about my journey from beginner golfer to something resembling a proper player.

As there has been some time since I last posted, I will talk about a bit of everything, rather than focusing on a single round or specific training session.

For me, my golf game is defined by 3 things

1. My practice

2. My mental game

3. Playing Golf

So, starting with my practice. Up until a couple of months ago, I was going through a coaching program with Tom Muchmore, someone who I definitely feel helped me along nicely for the 6 months or so that I was working with him.

Unfortunately, the financial crisis has hit me recently, so I could no longer afford to have the regular sessions, so decided to stop with Tom.

At the same time, a chance encounter with Mark Chilcott, the owner of my home club, meant me having a taster session with him following some discussions about my swing from my instagram.

This ended up coinciding with a bonus that I received, which ended up being spent on a block with Mark to try something different. For me, Mark’s feedback has been invaluable so far, especially for a beginner. That isn’t to say that Tom is a bad coach, far from it. But I do feel in a better place right now with my swing and how the future looks.

So the conclusion for me to anyone reading - take the time to have lessons with multiple people before settling on someone to take you forwards. This sport has multiple facets to it and it’s important to find someone that works for you.

I would recommend both Tom and Mark - both have massive positives to each of their styles and are both great guys to talk to - something I hold invaluable being something of a witterer…

In terms of the practice, I’ve been spending as much time as I can practicing, practicing pretty much everything and have settled on a decent rhythm for Range vs Putting practice. Part of the range practice has come from drills I’ve picked up from Mark/Tom, others from bits I’ve picked up from YouTube.

I’m starting to feel my swing more too, being able to pick a bad swing from a good one, which I think will only help as I move along this journey. More importantly, I’ve learnt how to react and correct WHEN APPROPRIATE.

I’ve also learnt a new approach to practicing chipping/putting. This was taken from an Imagine Golf lesson from Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book and I think is called the “one ball drill”.

Essentially, you use one ball to chip with, from a variety of lies. But the important thing is that you play that one ball as if it was in a game. So in other words, you chip towards the hole and then putt it out.

By practicing that from a variety of lies, you also practice putting from a variety of situations, as sometimes your chips will be short, others long. I’ve done this a few times now, incorporating this into my warmup routine and the last round I played I had 100% up and down in the first 6 holes, which has never happened before. That was until I had a bit of a blow up…

Which leads me nicely onto part 2 - my mental game.

As anyone who follows my journey even just a little bit will know, I’m a big advocate of Imagine Golf. This is a product that I truly believe has changed my golf game by getting me to think differently about a variety of topics.

However, like with anything we learn and practice, it is impossible not to fall into bad habits once in a while. This is definitely the case with me at the moment, as my mental game is letting me down somewhat.

EVERYONE has a bad hole. Even those players that state “that was a practice ball”, or those that magically find a ball in the rough, despite the fact that you saw their ball go into the next field, or just those players that find it impossible to count beyond 6 if on the course. Even them. They all have a bad hole in them.

Not only do they have bad holes in them, they also all have bad ROUNDs in them. Everyone scores within a certain range, even those that maybe massage their scores a little…

The difference between a bad player and a good player isn’t just about skill. Of course, that plays a part. But golf is also a relatively unique sport in that you can be good at some parts and not so good at others and still score well. The best players play boring golf, sometimes golf that isn’t pretty.

But the real difference - a good player ACCEPTS the outcome of their shot and moves on. If they have a bad hole, they move on. They analyse every outcome and come up with solutions.

And that was something I had gotten quite good at before the winter. But over the past 4-5 months, I’ve definitely allowed negativity to creep into my game. The result - on average, 4-5 holes where things really fall to pieces.

Going back to an earlier point - I feel like I’m on the verge of something special. Since last writing on this blog, I’ve scored under 100 at par 70/71 courses on multiple occasions, my handicap dropped to 23 something, I’ve been striking my irons (most of the time) the best I ever have and I’ve noticed a real difference in carry over the past 4 weeks or so.

I also got a joint best score at my home club, which had a 37 back 9 as part of it. Which was 4 shots better than my best ever 9. And I was close to that the weekend just gone. But ended up with a 92. All because of the blow up.

So - mission for me as we move into next week - keep on grinding and focus on THE NEXT SHOT - if I can do that, I might just see a sharp decline in my handicap… One things for sure, my goal for this year feels the most achievable it has felt so far!

Thanks for reading - if you haven’t already, please head over to my Instagram page and follow and watch some of the content on there, I’m still shocked at the level of response I’m getting. Thankyou to all of you for continuing to follow my journey!