On a nelson...

Today was supposed to be my first assault on breaking 100 but unfortunately it was not to be. For the non cricketers out there I posted a disappointing score of 111 and while there are a number of mitigating circumstances, the main problem today was my failure to stay in the present. On the whole I was much more consistent than my last venture, the problem was being consistently mediocre (if you take average to be a bogey a hole).

So what went wrong. First up was downloading MyCaddie onto my iPhone. Whilst it's a great tool it's just not quick enough with the yardages meaning that you are in danger of holding up play. As a result more often than not I wanted to use the yardage but had to guess, never a good thing. This was compounded by the second issue. This morning the club was holding trials and the club captain had gone round this morning setting all the pin positions to being the most difficult. Great for the trials, not great for a newbie like me. This meant that when I hit the dancefloor I was often left yards away from the pin, on undulating greens because I played it safe and aimed for the centre. When I missed the green I was often left with a nasty hazard to navigate. All in all it was pretty tough.

The final thing is my temperament. First it was the mobile vibrating in my back pocket as I took what would have been a great putt for par. What made it worse was that it was the missus asking me if I knew where her keys were (the nipper had decided to hide them in his ball pit). I ended up three putting and never regained my composure, being upset either by my playing partner talking to me before a shot or the ridiculous slow society fourball in front of us. I've got to learn not to let things like this affect the way I play.

Standout hole was the ninth, which was also my solitary par, the birdie putt was an inch from dropping but the 6 iron I hit off the tee was one of the best shots I hit all day. The only one that came close to topping it was a monstrous putt up a four foot incline. I read the line almost perfectly but it didn't break quite enough and lipped out.

I have a couple of weeks to hone my game with a few more rounds scheduled. Whether I play in the medal on Saturday is still to be decided but although I didn't improve my score, I definitely improved my understanding of what I need to do to get better.

And the scores are in (par in brackets):

111(71)

7(3), 8(5), 4(3), 6(4), 9(5), 5(3), 7(5), 5(3), 6(4), 4(4), 5(3), 7(5), 6(4), 8(4), 6(4), 6(4), 7(4), 5(3)

Stats

FIR went up from 23% to 64% but my approach shots let me down massively just 1 GIR. Putting was way up from 33 to 41 including 5 three putts and a four. Not happy with that at all.

Comments:

Simon Hutton
Great detail on the stats. Must be a nuisance to start with a 7 on the par 3! I can imagine someone’s round really collapsing from there. Keep up the good work!

Homer
I’ve put down my thoughts on the GM forum but I wouldn’t let it get to you too much. You’re going to have huge fluctuations in scores and things like GIR and putts as you’re just starting out and learning a new course to boot. Look on the bright side, you know that when you get to play club competitions and matches that they won’t be any harder pin placements than you faced today.

If its any consolation I took 6 at the par 3 first last week hitting the first shot of the day OB so it can still happen even after all these years. At least you got to play. I spent all weekend in dire agony dosing up on painkillers and with a hot water bottle on my back trying to keep it as loose as possible

Tiger
Hi Simon the opening hole is an absolute f@*#$¥%. Pulled my approach, over hit the green from behind some gorse but then my chip didn’t grip and rolled clean off the green into the blinking bunker. Took two to get it out and a two putt. Oh well. As for stats visit improvemygolf.co.uk and download Scoresaver 2 it does it all for you and gives you handy printout scorecards as well.

Homer, hope the back mends soon. You are right I keep forgetting that I’ve not been playing that long and my expectations are overly optimistic and though the course can’t play any harder I’d rather it be a tad easier just for the next month