Ice skating uphill...

Played again today, had to blob two holes because of a mysteriously disappearing ball, which was frustrating and carded 96 for the 16 holes I did play. Played the 1st and the 10th really well today, but seemed to lose my way on both 'nines' after that. My fairway wood can't come soon enough but I did hit some great shots today. A 4 iron on the opening 203 yard par 3 just finished short of the green and the 9 iron shot to the green on the 10th landed on the upper tier and finished 10 foot past the hole. I two putted for par while my playing partner, who drove the green in one, walked off with a 5 having had a mare putting on the difficult uphill slope.

And his trials on that green very much reflected my performance today. When I relaxed the swing was on the money but for some reason we were locked in a never ending tussle meaning lots of topped, wasted shots, with a couple of snap hooks thrown in for good measure.

In terms of making any notable progress this game feels very much like trying to ice skate uphill or swim in treacle. Looking back over my three cards the best score I can cobble together from all my best holes is +21. The problems start on hole 12. It's at this point my swing starts to get untidy and I start losing balls, wasting shots and getting careless. I've hit six pars across the three rounds all of them coming between holes 3 - 11. I've also hit seven of my nine bogeys between holes 1 - 11.

It's early days but I need pressure taken away from my irons on the longer holes and to improve my golfing stamina for the back nine. I'm off to the range for a lesson and to practice my wood striking tomorrow, possibly with some target golf thrown in on the par 3. Then I'm hoping for 18 holes on Monday & Tuesday next week and fingers crossed the fairway wood will be coming with me.