The Highs and Lows of Golf

10 Jan

I’ve probably had one of the most turbulent weeks since my last blog - literally experienced all of the highs and lows that golf has to offer!

Welcome to 54 to Scratch, my weekly(ish) take on the game of golf as I try to become a better than average golfer.

So following my goals review last week, lets talk about my first week of the year as I try to progress with them.

My week started with a New Years Day game at Lydd.

Now, given it’s winter, I wasn’t exactly expecting to break my goal of beating 90 on a Par 70 plus course, but I did come into the round full of confidence - I had been hitting the ball better than I had for quite some time.

Thankfully, I didn’t disappoint myself. With no warmup, I proceeded to hit my first tee shot right (intentionally) with a straight drive that would have gone much further if it wasn’t for a massive puddle on the fairway!

As it was, it was probably for the best as it gave me a decent distance in to play with, which I got a little short. This left me a chip and putt for par.

On the next hole, I had another straight drive, but much further this time. In fact it was the furthest I’d ever driven on that particular hole. Short again with my next shot, I pitched on and 2 putted for a bogey five.

I proceeded to hit another decent drive on the Par 5 3rd, followed by another decent 3W. Unfortunately, my approach went to the left, which meant a tricky chip onto the green. 2 putts later and I was 2 over actual par after 3 holes.

A double bogey came next, largely due to a below the feet lie on my second shot, followed by my longest drive I have EVER done. It was wind assisted, but for me to hit a drive in cold weather over 250 yards is a big deal.

I haven’t been able to in the past (from what I can tell), so was really happy to hit a 263 yard drive. Unfortunately, I tensed up on the approach and had to scramble to get a bogey.

I still walked onto the next par 3 with confidence, hitting my tee shot straight but short. I opted to chip it, aiming to bump and run with an 8 iron and get it close for a tap in. It didn’t just get close, but it went in!

Unfortunately, neither of my playing partners were paying attention as they were still walking to their balls which were in the bunkers around the green, so my celebrations fell a little flat…

A poor decision on the next hole led to my first triple bogey. The hole is a long Par 4 dog leg left, with ALOT of water around it. The first shot needs to get to the corner and still leaves you playing with water down both sides and around 190-200 yards to the green.

Now, for me that makes the green accessible with a decent hit, but laying up is the safer option, especially as I have that tendency that a lot of us have to top the ball when I’m really going for it.

My tee shot meant I was having to go over water directly in front of me, which meant I couldn’t afford to top a ball. So I should have used my Hybrid, got as close as possible and chip/pitched on.

Instead, I picked up the 3W. Now, in fairness to me, I had been striping that club recently. I literally could do no wrong. But the distance was at the tail end of my ability, so realistically 1 in however many would get there and would have to be a very good hit.

So I obviously topped it into the water, walking off the hole eventually with a 7…

I rounded out the 9 with another bogey which gave me a respectable 45 front 9, leaving me a couple under handicap. This was my lowest ever 9 at Lydd.

A par 3 into wind was next, which meant that the hole was playing about 200 yards rather than the 140 or so that it actually is.

I managed to setup a lovely birdie chance, landing about 5 foot away from the pin! Unfortunately, I missed the putt by mm but another par on the card was a massive positive.

Unfortunately, things unravelled for me a little on the back 9. I was still driving the ball well (I managed a total of 10/15 fairways hit), but a couple of lost balls (again due to bad decisions), as well as some bad breaks meant I left the back 9 on a 51.

This meant that I managed to beat my best score at Lydd by 1, despite not playing well on the back 9!

I felt really good about this for 2 main reasons. Overall, I had been hitting the ball well. I could count on my hand the amount of bad connections I had made throughout the round. It really was luck of the green or bad decisions that led to a most of my shortcomings on the day.

The second reason was that because it was largely down to a mixture of luck and decision making, I knew that on another day things would go a different way and my score could have been AT LEAST 6 shots better. In Winter.

So that made my target of beating 90 on a par 70 plus course feel very achievable.

Which brings me onto my first comment about feeling the highs and lows of golf in a single week.

I went to the range a couple of days later to film some range work and try and be more focused on a specific aim rather than just swing mechanics. This is one of my biggest goals for this year that will hopefully see me hit my 18 handicap target.

So I went with the aim of warming up, then just using 7 irons to hit a specific green area of the range, moving onto different clubs when I managed 10 in a row. For some reason though, it was as if I hadn’t hit a golf ball before.

I was hooking, shanking and flopping when the previous couple of weeks everything was going where I wanted it to with decent distances.

Now I know that this is “just golf” and nothing to worry about, but it is annoying that this continued a little on the course on the weekend.

We played 9 holes at Kingsnorth (so already 2 courses down out of my 20 goal), but it was just a tad rainy. The course wasn’t in the best nick as a result, with some very boggy areas. However, this doesn’t really explain some of the shots I played, particularly on the 9th where having played some of my best drives ever at Lydd, I proceeded to try and smash the ball only to top-hook it to the left of me in the heavy rough.

Another 5 shots and I was eventually down to the pond, which is only about 320 yards away from the tee block…

In fairness, this 9 holes wasn’t actually the worst I’ve ever done and given I finished the front 9 on 50 with a 9 on the last hole, wasn’t the end of the world.

But this week will be trying to get back to basics with certain clubs - my shoulders seem to be setting up far too closed again, so will be working on that (which is something Mark has had me work on previously).

I’ll also be getting another lesson in soon I think, which is always good to tweak and discuss with Mark how I can improve my approach stat.

In other news, I also setup an Etsy store over the weekend. This will be a store selling merchandise designed by me using photos I’ve taken, inspirational quotes from the game of golf or golf inspired designs (with time).

The store itself isn’t ready for your scrutiny just yet, but should be properly up and running by the end of this month! I’m excited to see how it goes, for me it’s just a bit of fun and similar to this blog a mechanism for allowing my artistic side a chance to push my more analytical nature to the side for a bit. Watch this space!

As always, thank you for taking the time to read - see you again next week!