Blowing away the cobwebs

I'm a little ring rusty this month. My practice time has been scaled back in part to accommodate my driving lessons and partly to allow me to take the pressure off. My putting and chipping was poor today but in all I had an enjoyable round of golf and there is definitely a glimmer at the end of the tunnel.

Today our club played host to two competition semi finals and so our tee time was squeezed in between them at 12.12. It got off to a solid start with a 5 iron on the first I then saw my chip run through the green and into a bunker. Two shots to get out and a two putt for a pretty mediocre triple bogey 6. I carried on in that vein as I struggled to get my groove back (I think Stella may still have it) and finished the first six holes +18.

Then something magical happened, I got to grips with my 3 Wood on the course. What a difference a bit of distance makes. I found trouble to the right on the 7th which cost me my par but then hit a beauty on 9th to 40 yards off the green. I chose to putt uphill the bank to the green but left it short when a birdie should have been on the cards but took a very pleasing 4. Short game went AWOL on the 10th having put myself in a great position and a putting disaster followed on the 11th.

A bad run of holes followed with four consecutive 7's again mainly due to poor putting and chipping, but the biggest disappointment was on the 16th when I almost drove the green chipped on leaving a 12 foot putt for birdie and somehow walked off with a 5. Anger coursing through my veins I nobbed my tee shot on the 17th but calmed myself, kept the 3 wood in hand and found a greenside bunker. I should have been bolder and used a pitching wedge as the sand iron left me too far to resuce par and I walked off with a bogey. That and the hole before cost me the game and I went down 2&1.

I did save the best till last though and hit a lovely tee shot onto the tough green on the 18th, took two putts and walked off with my second par of the round. So a total of 108 but plenty of promising signs, most notably my significantly increased length off the tee. I came back in 52 which could easily have been sub fifty with a little more finesse. The course was also laid out at its toughest for today's competition matches and some of the pin positions were a nightmare. Play it safe to hit the green and leave yourself a tricky long putt or attack it and risk worse trouble.

I'll be down the range this week for some more long game practice and a couple of outings on the heath will hopefully see my game and touch sharpened up for next week.

108 (71)
6(3), 7(5), 6(3), 9(4), 8(5), 5(3), 6(5), 5(4), 4(4), 6(4), 5(3), 7(5), 7(4), 7(4), 7(4), 5(4), 5(4), 3(3)