Play The Game

DATE: Sunday 15th February 2015
VENUE: Beckenham Place Park GC
ACTIVITY: Braeside Golf Club February Medal (18 holes, Stableford)
STROKES SCORE: 97 (49/48) Gross. 72 (37/35) Net.
STABLEFORD SCORE: 34 (17/17)

This round was the first time I really played the game of golf.

You know, as opposed to just hitting a golf ball as well as I can while making my way around the course.

As a result I failed to score a point on just two holes (1st and 14th), scored three points on six holes, managed three GiRs all of which I made par on, and hit every fairway on the back nine (I missed three out of seven on the front).

I wasn’t getting much distance off the tee (best of 178 yards) but that they didn’t disappear in to the rough or trees meant I always had a good next shot to make (rather than a recovery). Remarkable! Who’d have thought it!?

But I was also making (good) tactical decisions. For instance, on the 16th, my drive finished just over the ditch at the bottom of the valley, but leaving me with a 130 yard uphill shot to a raised green protected with two bunkers at the front. I decided this was too risky, so I played a lay-up shot about half way, then hit my pitching wedge on to the green, and two-putted for bogey and two points. Sure a good second shot would have left me with two putts for par, but equally I might have missed the shot and ended up in the sand and come away with no points.

End result: I finished 15th overall (out of 34 players), and 7th (out of 19) in my division. In my previous competition rounds I’ve been in the bottom 5.

I like this golf thing.

Ketchup? Catsup? Catch up!

DATE: 1 January 2014-24th June 2014
VENUES: Beckenham Place Park, Chelsfield Lakes, Westerham Golf Club, Hever Castle, Selsdon Park, Bromley Golf Centre, Sundridge Park (West), Addington Court (Falconwood), Darenth Valley.
ACTIVITY: Golf. Quite a lot of it. 18 rounds, in fact.

It’s been an odd year for golf, so far. I’ve played quite well, but not in long enough stretches in order to actually break 100. I’ve scored a few pars, and even managed a couple of birdies. I’ve had stretches of consecutive bogies, and even stretches of consecutive Greens In Regulation (GiR). My driving distance went up significantly in spring/early summer after finding I could regularly hit the ball 200yds. I could go through rounds where I would avoid three putts completely, even managing one back nine where I managed seven one-putts.

And yet still there are the 8s and the 9s and the even-more-dreaded double-figure scores on individual holes. Driver tee shots where the ball goes low and left for less than 100yds. Three chips shots that move the ball around the green instead of one chip shot onto the green. And rounds with four three-putts that mean another sub-100 score is missed out on.

Let’s have a quick look…

22/2/14 – Nine holes at Bromley Golf Centre. Score: 50
After seven holes I had a GiR par, four bogies (one was another GiR) and two double-bogies. But then the 8th went down as a triple bogey and the ninth as a quad. So eight over for the first seven holes but then seven over for the last two.

24/2/14 – Beckenham Place Park. Score: 111
Five bogies and two pars, with a GiR. But then five three putts and even a four putt. And I started with a+6 on the first hole, followed by three other scores of +4.

1/3/14 – Chelsfield Lakes. Score: 100
51 at the turn with a par at the first, a bogie and seven doubles. Similar on the back nine with three doubles, three bogies and two pars…but then a nine at the par 4 18th. Even a double on the 18th would have given me a 97!

9/3/14 – Selsdon Park. Score: 118
I hit a 230yd drive on the 10th! Other than a GiR bogie, that’s all I’ve got. Nice course though.

22/3/14 – Selsdon Park. Score: 106
A GiR par, another (one putt) par, and six bogies. Too short off the tee though and too many +3s and +4s.

5/4/14- Westerham. Score: 115
Well, that’s a full 18 shots better than the last time I played here! Seven one-putts and two pars are nice too. Two 10s aren’t though.

13/4/14 – Beckenham Place Park. Score: 106
A birdie! A par. Three bogies. Only one 3 putt. But a 10 and too much other nonsense.

18/4/14 – Beckenham Place Park. Score: 102
A front nine of 48 which included two pars (including on the par 5 first!) and four bogeys, but also an eight, suggested a good round was in store. However, despite bogeys on 10, 14 and 17, the back nine needed 54 shots thanks to an eight on the par 3 12th and triples on 15 and 16.

27/4/14 – Beckenham Place Park. Score: 110
This round started off with four consecutive bogeys, but then went downhill and not even a par on the 7th and bogeys on 10, 11 and 18 could disguise serious scoring issues which included  a +5 on the 13th and a +6 on the 17th.

15/5/14 – Beckenham Place Park. Score: 53 (nine holes)
Four three-putts. One of which was after hitting the green in regulation.

17/5/14 – Beckenham Place Park. Score: 100
This round was almost good and is my best score to date at this course. Five GiRs, four of which I scored par, and five bogeys. That’s five over par over nine holes (or five over for half of the round, if you like). The problem was the other nine holes cost me 26 shots over par, including a +5 on the 9th. Four three-putts.

1/6/14 – Sundridge Park Golf Club – East Course. Score: 105
I had a sore neck which definitely didn’t help. Six bogeys, a par and my fourth birdie are definitely highlights but the front nine cost me 56 shots, including a 10 on a par five.

12/6/14 – Beckenham Place Park. Score: 103
49 on the back nine is quite neat, especially as that included four bogeys in a row. But the front nine cost 54 shots, I had three three-putts overall.

24/6/14 – Beckenham Place Park. Score: 82 (13 holes)
Front nine cost 60 shots! However, this was only a post-work practice round so I can somewhat forgive myself the 11 on the 1st and the nine on the 2nd.

It’s all very messy. One part of my game can be quite good on one day but then bad the next. I know lots of golfers feel that way but for me the swing in quality is so great it’s really quite demotivating.

The Magic Day Arrives

DATE: 28 April 2013
VENUE: Addington Court Golf  Centre – Falconwood Course
ACTIVITY: 18 Holes
GROSS SCORE: 94 (45/49)
NET SCORE: 66 (31/35)

OH YEAH! Finally! Round number 73 brings me my first sub-100 score, and by a clear six shots! As a result, my handicap is no longer the maximum of 28 (OK, it’s only down by 0.4 – but it is DOWN!)

I knew the front nine had gone well, but since I don’t look at my total score (and thankfully my Smartphone app doesn’t make it obvious) I had no idea it had gone THAT well.

The 6 on the 3rd was actually quite pleasing considering after my dreadful tee and second shots I’d only advanced the ball about 70/80 yards. The 3rd shot was a good connection, then I played a pitch on to the upper tier of the green and two-putted for a six.

Three putts on the 4th was annoying having hit the green from the tee shot but that’s still only a bogey.

I got to the turn with only one hole worse than +2, plus two pars and three bogies.

On the par 3 9th I made the terrible faux-pas of stepping back on to the green to check something. This annoyed the pair of players behind me enough to shout at me. Now considering the pace of play was slow due to the group in front of me being held up by the group in front of them, and that I’d only taken a couple of steps back on I thought this was a little impatient of them since there was no way they would have been readying to take their tee shot (I’d have been annoyed if they had!)

Still, I allowed their unreasonable behaviour to affect me: When I feel rushed my game gets worse.

I managed a two-putt six on the par 5 10th (go figure!) but the next three holes I played seven over. Yuk. Luckily the pair behind me had a bad time on the 13th so I managed to get some distance away from them and calmed down, playing the next three holes at +2.

It was only when I got back to the car, having thought I’d blown it after such a messy back nine, that I discovered my achievement. Such a relief to get rid of that albatross.

So, the good points:

1. The bottom line (duh!)
2. That I beat the three-figure score by six shots on a par 68 course (most courses are par 71 or 72, so the six shot margin adds credibility that a score of 99, or even 97, wouldn’t have held, to my mind)
3. Six one-putts and only one three-putt.
4. Two tee shots of over 190 yards.
5. Good course management.
6. Not completely losing my rag

The things that still need work:

1. Bunker play (I’ve completely forgotten how to hit sand shots).
2. An awful lot of my tee and fairway shots are fading or slicing. This can make round management really tricky, because if you aim left to compensate but then hit it straight you end up in different trouble than if you aim straight but slice it in to trouble!

Scoring less than 100 has really made me feel good about my golf. I may well not manage it next time I play, as I’ll probably get cocky or too eager, but I know I can do it now. I almost feel like a golfer.

Almost.

…and Dr Jekyll

DATE: 21 April 2013
VENUE: Bromley Golf Centre
ACTIVITY: 9 Holes – of  golf!
GROSS SCORE: 46
NET SCORE: 35

That’s better.

From a really-quite-long-for-me 3W tee shot on the first (196 yds), to a well executed 8 iron approach shot which finished about 2″ off the green on the 4th, to a 1-putt par on the par 5 5th, to a good tee shot followed by a good fairway shot on the 9th (only the club-choice was wrong on that fairway shot), to four one-putts, to a run of four-over across five holes, to a total of six bogies…it was basically a good afternoon.

What was the difference between this round and the horror-show at High Elms? Well, in this round there were a few things:

1. No strong wind!
2. I tried to keep my head level during backswing and downswing…
3. …and tried to not stand too near the ball…
4. …and tried to not hit the ball hard
5. I think my course/round management is generally getting better
6. Bromley Golf Course is a much easier course than High Elms (it’s almost completely flat, for a start)

This 46 ties my best score over nine-holes. Sweet!

So Close

DATE: Sunday 10th June, 2012
VENUE: Beckenham Place Park
ACTIVITY: 18 Holes of Golf
SCORE: 101 (52/49)

As the weather started off nice enough I thought I’d try to get a round in beforee the weather turned for the worse. When I arrived I was half-expecting it to be busy, but I couldn’t see anyone on the 1st or 2nd holes and nobody waiting to start. I thought I’d have the course to myself!

As I prepared to tee off a fellow came along and asked if I minded him joining up with me. Unusually for a shy soul like me, I said yes. Mick, was very companiable, a pretty good player but humble.

So, my day started with my only truly poor tee shot of the round: Short, but straight enough. After that I mostly coasted round: six double-bogeys, eight bogeys and a par (and that on the hardest hole on the whole course!) Just the 4th, 9th and 18th and a three putt after a GIR on 13th really spoilt the overall score.

As suggested above, my tee shots were pretty good today, even the not-good ones – after the first – weren’t disastrous. The drive on the 13th only missed the fairway because it was so long (at about 220 yards, I’ll have you know!)

OK, let’s have a look at the bad ones:

1. The 4th: Par 3: Scored 6: A fat tee shot ended short, then I bladed my second shot with my 60° wedge then fluffed my first chip on to the green.
2. The 9th: Par 4: Scored 8. A good tee shot wasted. Then messed up my second in to some long grass, two more shots to get out, after that I’m not sure what happened but I know I scored 8.
3. The 18th: Par 4. Scored 9. To be fair it is the 5th most difficult hole on the course but why do I make such a meal of it on such a regular basis? My tee shot was OK although it clipped the outer branches of a tree close to the tee box which too some distance off it (but may also have deflected it a little more to accuracy!) and reached 154 yards. But then two fat fairways shots, followed by a thinned shot on to a bunker, one shot out of that but into some horrible straggley grass on the outer edge of the next bunker then a chip/pitch on to the green followed by a three putt. Not fun.

Still, without knowing it I was teeing off the 18th with a score of 92 (finally there is something good to be said about having poor reading-distance eyesight!) which isn’t half bad at all. Even if I’d managed a six on the last I’d still have a total of 98.

But let’s end on some positives:

1. 10 fairways hit out of 14 (71.4%)
2. Holes 13-16 played in 3 over
3. A par on the hardest hole on the course (the 15th)
4. According to my estimates with Google Earth, five drives of over 215 yds (my stats recorded on the day didn’t upload to the Oobgolf.com website) and an average of 180 yds

Here’s to the next round (tempered with realistic expectations rather than hubris…)

The End Of Neglect

Yesterday, commenter Brian rightly pointed out my neglect of The Greatest Golf Blog In The World.

So, as it’s long overdue that I posted an update, let me post an update. Particularly as I find I’ve played FIVE times since my last posted round (of 46 on the 19th November). That’s more than I thought…sorry, Dear Reader.

Just a summary then, methinks.

Beckenham Place Park. 27/11/2011. 110 (51/59).
Two pars (one with a GIR) and three bogeys are the bright points here…as opposed to the darkness that descended during the last three holes making any kind of ball striking REALLY HARD.

A new Personal Best over 18 though.

Beckenham Place Park. 04/12/2011. 108 (51/57).
Two pars and four bogeys. Six one-putts. Only three missed fairways, and two of those still left playable shots. A little side-note: We started on the 10th as it was ‘Club Day’ so the 1st tee was very busy. Bill left after we finished hole number 5 (so our 14th of the day) after which I went Bogey, Par, Bogey, Bogey (6 putts, every fairway hit).

A(nother) new Personal Best over 18, thanks to that strong finish.

A lesson (can’t remember the date).
It seems I’m over-doing the ‘Feel as if your weight is on the left leg during your backswing’ thing, and in so-doing losing height resulting in the need to over-compensate on the downswing by lifting my left hip.

Jon also showed me, at my request, the correct way to hit with the driver (and specifically, why I couldn’t get height with my tee shots). Biggest change to make was to have the club head pointing more at my bellybutton rather than between bellybutton and left hip (which was cancelling out the loft angle built in to the club head).

Woldingham Golf Club. 15/12/2011. 114 (60/54).
Four bogeys. Three of these were on holes 15, 16 and 17, at which point I’d given up trying to play well…and immediately started playing better! Even the par 5 18th came close to a good score as my third shot almost reached the green (oh! for harder, summer ground conditions!) A par-5 10 and two par-4 8s tell a more accurate, overall story of my round.

Also, it is, I think, a bit of a dull course, sadly.

A new Personal Best over…oh, not this time. Darn.

Bromley Golf Centre. 28/12/2011. 58 (nine hole course).
It was all going so well…38 after 7 holes. Then we were joined by a lone golfer who had been allowed to play through four groups. He was obviously good from the few shots I’d seen him play, then he introduced himself as the club captain (“I’ll be using the white tees, hope that’s OK”)! Well, that appeared to ruin everything for me as I tried to tee off the 8th calmly. 12 shots later I finally put the ball in the cup, then finish off with an 8 on the last (my least favourite tee shot of all the holes on all the course I’ve played). He was a nice guy though, offering advice, particularly on THAT tee shot on 9th (didn’t help me none, sadly)!

Still, three bogeys and four doubles on the preceding seven are a much nicer thing to focus on, along with the five fairway hits in a row for a 161yd driving distance average.

Falconwood, Addington Court. 11/01/2012. 104 (53/51).
The second time we’ve played here, and I really like this course. The first couple of holes were played in pretty scratchy fashion though, then my game really went to pot for about the next five holes. Lots of fat shots, including some off the tee. Then I remember to (and remember HOW to (see tip 3)) relax, after which I went bogey and par, before another slight dip (8 on a par 5, 7 on a par 3) then properly got it together going +6 over the next six holes, with two pars, the second of which was a GIR.

The ‘If Onlys’ are as follows:

• Four 3-putts. Convert them to 2-putts and I’d have scored 100.
• A 7 on the last. Make it a par and I’d have a 101.
• Just a few less duffed shots here and there and, well, see above…

Highlights:

• The 17th. A 196yd drive, a 170yd approach on to the green, a putt that was bang on line, but short, then finish it for a par.
• A one-putt par on the 16th.
• Generally solid tee shots, although for a while I couldn’t get height with them. If only I’d remembered my tee shots lesson, above!
• A very entertaining flop shot on the 18th. I couldn’t resist. The ball was just off the green but close to the flag, on a downslope, a fluffy enough lie so I didn’t have to be TOO precise, two bold practice shots that freaked out Bill (“Don’t hit it that hard, mate!” – he NEVER calls me “mate”!) and UP popped the ball, landing with almost no roll. Capital fun!

Still, it’s another new Personal Best over 18, despite the horrors earlier on in the round.

Three PBs in four 18-hole rounds. Something’s going right in amongst all the going wrongs.

46. It’s like 92!

OK, a bit lame to re-hash my previous post’s title but frankly, I’m thrilled.

DATE: Saturday 19th November 2011
VENUE: Beckenham Place Park
ACTIVITY: Nine holes of golf

Similar conditions as to the previous Saturday except there was more sunlight. Still finished in near darkness.

This round was perhaps the first time I felt like I was just a golfer playing golf, rather than a beginner trying to remember what he’d been taught and trying to apply it. That’s not to say I was shaping shots or anything but with six holes of bogey or better – one of which was a birdie! – and  leaving only two double-bogies and a single triple bogey, well, it almost felt, and might have even looked, like I knew what the heck I was doing.

I went round in 46! Look:

1. Par 5 : 6 (2 putts)
2. Par 4 : 6 (2 putts)
3. Par 4 : 6 (1 putt)
4. Par 3 : 4 (2 putts)
5. Par 3 : 6 (2 putts)
6. Par 4 : 3 (1 putt)
7. Par 4 : 5 (1 putt)
8. Par 4 : 5 (2 putts)
9. Par 4 : 5 (2 putts)

It won’t last, I know that and I’m fine with that, BUT two good rounds in a row buoys me with confidence that I just might be able to bring my handicap down from the official maximum of 28!

Some credit, I suspect, must go to my physio. Two months of almost twice-weekly treatment must have improved my flexibility. In fact there were a few times when I could really feel my left shoulder tuck under my chin as I reached the top of my backswing, so let’s say it has!

Now, what’s the weather forecast for this weekend like…?