Weather has put an end to a streak of golf that has seen 3 rounds of scramble, 2 competitions, lots of fun and sun and torrential rain in the space of 11 days.
Audi Senior Open
I played a senior competition at the start of the streak which was probably the most disappointing. I had been playing reasonably throughout the month, nothing special, but okay. However during the Audi Open I managed to kill my hopes very early on from the middle of the fairway. A few wild drives happened, for sure, but I lost probably six shots from the short grass.
Lesson: I need to try to start better in these types of competitions. I really don’t think this was nerves this time around.
Suomen Suurin Scramble
There was a scramble a week later, so amongst the normal rounds I played three practice scramble rounds. Every round was scratch under par, with the best being a 5 under on quite a windy day. Tournament day was really tough. Lots of water and a very slow round. Having started with 2 birdies I thought we were on for a good one. Unfortunately we cooled down and ended up top 10 in the scratch and way down in the handicap.
Lesson: patience is the key here and I think we were. We didn’t really give ourselves chances as the round progressed.
General Play
The rest of games were comprised of single rounds from various tees across Park and Forest courses. Scoring was very consistent and would almost go as far as saying I was playing well.
However, stupid blemishes or the complete loss in confidence with the putter over a couple of rounds stopped the reasonable rounds being great.
Lesson: decent golf is actually pretty boring.
Physically I feel quite tired. I have been on holiday so I’ve not been doing much else. I was looking at the weather for tomorrow to see if I could take the streak to 12, but it is going to be bad as expected. And I think that I should let my body recover.
Lesson: golf is tiring.
During the stretch I did very little range work pre-round, only hit a few putts most days and most of the time my warm-up was to swing the tempo trainer a few times.
I have seen many articles on playing versus practicing and I feel that I have come to a point where I should not be rebuild my swing, it is what it is, but I can refine it.
The frequency of play obviously benefitted me: having a rough idea where the ball was going to go off the tee was advantageous. Prior to the stretch I genuinely had no idea where the ball would go. Even at the start for this period I was hitting it off the planet frequently.
Lesson: if I want to become a better player I need to not only practice more, but play more often.
Perhaps the last point is really obvious, but this is the first time I have really put it to the test. I’ve done 4 or 5 day stretches but in this one golf become quite, dare I say, comfortable. I know the Golf Gods will come back and bite me in the ass: next up 90+ on Seaside this Saturday? – watch this space.