A Sorry Absence

DATE: November 2012 to March 2013
VENUE: Beckenham
ACTIVITY: Not Much

That’s not to say I’ve not been doing anything, but the weather has been pretty awful almost all the time. So, I’ll stick to the highlights, such as they are, and apologise for my absence from the blogosphere.

All with a figurative nod of the head to Brian K, an unofficial follower of my blog, who has rightly berated me.

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Since this blog is about golf, I’ll start with the two actual rounds I have managed to play.

DATE: Friday 8th February 2013
VENUE: Beckenham Place Park
ACTIVITY: 18 Holes
GROSS SCORE: 104 (54/50)
NET SCORE: 76 (40/36)

DATE: Friday 15th February 2013
VENUE: Beckenham Place Park
ACTIVITY: 18 Holes
GROSS SCORE: 105 (56/49)
NET SCORE: 77 (42/35)

These rounds are kind of summarised by what happened on the first two holes. 16 shots both times. That kind of scoring at the start of a round really makes it difficult to end up with a good score at the end.

Still, as the round goes on I find the scoring improves quite a lot. Let me demonstrate this with a picture:

There are still some bad spots but check out the middle of the back nine, holes 13 to 15. I managed a GiR on the 14th both times and the 15th is the hardest hole on the course. So there is some clear and consistent good scoring going on.

PRACTICE MAKES A CHANGE

Prior to these two rounds I went to the practice area with Younger Daughter one day. I wasn’t having a very good time of it, truth be told, but at the end of the session, as I waited for YD to finish her pile of balls, I took a few practice swings and was struck by how different a swing it was to one with the ball there. It’s more fluid, free, with more lateral movement towards the target and subsequently the divot is in the right place. So, I decided to try that with some of the balls as we went to collect them. I just stepped up and swung. What a result! With no effort to the swing the balls sailed beautifully and consistently. It was a version of this swing that I employed on the 8th Feb round and tried to use on the 15th.

“Tried to”? Well, on the 8th I was playing alone. On the 15th I was with Bill. He’s good company, of course, but as I may have mentioned before, patience is not a strong point of his and he just makes me feel rushed. I really need to feel relaxed to play golf well. Still, to only score worse by one shot isn’t too bad, considering.

As I write this on March 29th, the weather is still pretty chilly, but I went out to practice this new style swing again today and I feel confident that more clement weather will be with us soon.