Nothing Spook-tacular

Played with my mate Graham today. After amassing a truly shocking 9 pts on the front 9 he weighed in with 20 coming home to pip me at the post. I had a really good laugh today and it was enjoyable to have a bit of banter on a round, having played solo since the end of September.

I had 4 blobs today which cost me. Two came on the front nine, bloody leaves, including watching my ball vanishing into a pile on the sixth and still not being able to find it. I scored a shocking 10 on the 15th, great tee shot followed by two consecutive 6 irons hit OOB. The last came on the 18th when I duffed a couple into the water and gave up as I couldn't score. Anyway the win was safe as I had a three point lead. My playing partner then got a 3 for four points. Git!

So 28 points from 14 holes using the new approach and I'm pleased with my new on course thinking. My clubs are being regripped this week and Sunday I'll be playing in the November medal. We've also had our SSS increased to 70 which does seem fair given the recent course improvements. Here's hoping.

Sam Snead

As well as being a master golfer Snead is famously recorded as saying "if most people gripped a knife and for the same as they gripped a golf club, they would starve to death". I've always felt this didn't apply to me and that I had relatively light grip pressure. I was wrong. Tested my 8iron with the new grip yesterday and it swiftly became apparent that my light grip pressure was, metaphorically, asphyxiating my club. It's going to take time to ease my stranglehold. The key learning is that my Tour Velvets didn't retain their grippiness as long as I expected. They will have their last outing on Sunday.

Turning to Sundays game it will be a strange experience as I've not played with company for a month now. I'm hoping there will be plenty of banter, a dash of good humour and a soupçon of quality golf. Let's hope that there are no bad Halloween omens awaiting.

Regripping

Well I have made my grip decision and am going with the Lamkin N-Dur. They feel great on my 8 iron and definitely promote lighter grip pressure. I'm still not sure if 3 layers of tape is enough but I'll be giving the 8 iron a road test on Thursday. Once I'm happy I'll be regripping all my irons and wedges.

What is frustrating is that some clubs don't need doing but I want to have consistency through the iron set. At least next time I'll be able to regrip just the worn ones.

I wanted to also take the opportunity to set myself some pyschological triggers. As a result I have bought five Black/White and five Red/White. The theory being that the red ones go on my 'scoring' clubs. I hope this will remind me that there are a range of clubs I can use in and around the green. If nothing else they add a splash of colour to the bag.

My putter grip is hanging on, it's probably the cord, but I think that will need replacing after the winter. Been looking at the Iomic grips and may go for one of those instead of a replacement Scotty.

Hitting the range tomorrow so hopefully a chance to continue to work on my swing changes.

Experiment: THE RESULT

Well I conducted the Great Stableford Experiment on Sunday and although there was no quantum leap iin my socre, there was in my thinking. The Greensomes competition at the club had a shotgun start and despite teeing off in near darkness I hit traffic on the 15th hole and decided to call it a day. I amassed 23 points from the 14 holes I completed but that does not tell the whole story.

I normally get off to an awful start at my course. Played a little too conservatively off the tee and hit 4 iron into the front left hand bunker. Now normally, I would be thinking about getting the ball close to the hole for a chance for par. With my new thinking I knew that I'd score 2 points with a 5. As a result my objective was just to get out of the sand cleanly and anywhere on the green. Managed to pop it out at the front of the green and hit a great putt leaving me a simple tap in for a 4 and 3 points. The new approach was working already.

Made a good connection on the 2nd tee but its a really tight hole with trees lining the right hand side. The ball just drifted right and kept going and cleared the trees to finish OoB. No panic I thought a 7 gets me two points. Hit a solid second tee shot to the heart of the fairway and laid up leaving myself a full PW in.. Two more putts, two more points.

Up until now I had thought conservatively but this changed on the 3rd. My tee shot went right and I needed to chip over a bunker to a tight pin. Conservative would have seen me hit a normal chip ensuring I cleared the bunker and try to make it back with two putts. But the ball was sitting up nicely meaning there was a reduced risk of thinning it if I played a flop. So I assessed the risk/reward (I honestly have never done this much before) and decided the risk was worth it. Left myself a tantalising 10 foot putt for par but read it all wrong and tapped in for a four and two more points. Double bogey, double bogey followed for another four points and I was sitting pretty after 6 holes with 13 points and not even playing my best golf!

I repeated the flop shot decision making process on the 6th and this time left myself a four footer that lipped out. Damn it, but then again another 2 points. Tee shot on the 7th and I got greedy. Hit a hybrid as I would do normally but was thinking about a net eagle as this is a par 5 I can hit in two. No surprise that I found OOB. Reminded myself of what I had achieved on the 2nd and played in much the same fashion, but unfortunately missed the green with my wedge and two putted for an 8 and a point..

By this stage I was quite lonely, and quite mentally drained. Playing on my own was taking its toll with no respite, camaraderie and most importantly banter. What happens in these moments? Swing thoughts creep in, that's what happens. You will not be surprised to hear that the entire round collapsed at this point as I miserably hacked my way along 8, 9 & 10. I collected myself on the 11th and hit my wedge to the back of the green and two putted for a par and 3 points. Three more double bogeys each worth two points and my round for today was over.

What I realised today is that despite my best efforts I have been inadvertently thinking like a scratch golfer, trying to make par from the tee of each hole. This has placed extra pressure on my game and affected my shot choices negatively. I hope I can take this new mindset into my future approaches to golf.

I also realised that swing thoughts are bad but as I'm currently working on swing changes they are to a degree inevitable. In the future I'll try to think of JC Anderson, smile and get back to just hitting the blinking thing!

Modifications

Following some helpful comments on the GM Forum I have made some modifications to the challenge. Firstly, I will only play one ball and attempt to play more conservatively with it, using my handicap intelligently on each hole.

Secondly, I have just realised that when I scored 99 I actually amassed 39 stableford points because that 10 savaged my scorecard. Oh well I can still break 40 pts for the first time! However, the main aim of the exercise will be to score better than my average stableford score this year.

Finally, this whole thing is really just a bit of fun to give me some focus on another solo weekend round. An extra incentive for concentration. It also will serve as a useful practice session for next months 1922 cup. Judging by your predictions thus far, I'm going to need all the practice I can get!

Anyway I will

The Great Stableford Experiment

...or to give it's full and accurate title "the not particularly great or scientifically robust, but hopefully entertaining and possibly enlightening, conservative strategy vs reckless bravado, stableford scoring golf experiment"!

Following a recent thread on stableford scoring on the Golf Monthly Forum, I have decided to offer up my weekend round to the conduct of an important golf experiment. Can a high handicapper significantly improve their scores in stableford by adopting a more cautious approach?

Methodology
Every experiment needs a method, this is mine. There are some shots I would play anyway. The aim of this experiment is to identify the impact of those moments when you may choose against laying up and going for the green for example. As a result it is only in those moments when I am genuinely tempted to 'go for it' that the 2nd ball comes into play.

I will note my stableford score for each ball when I make those choices. In situations when I play a second ball I will always play the sensible shot first. This will ensure that the experiment is based on rationale shot choice as opposed to retrospective regret.

Where I do not have a clear line of sight I am required to play a sensible shot back into play.

Results will be published here and on the blog. May the best ball win!

Daylight Robbery

Exhibit A

When I started playing I was kindly donated a load of knackered old balls. You knw the sort that you find glinting at you when you are searching for yours. You pause momentarily in the hope that it might be a Pro V1 and then you pick it up and realise that it's a Top Flite. You may well throw these balls back in disgust to dupe another errant golfer in the future. I keep them.

Why? I hear you ask. Look the picture left and note the scuff marks. Where I practice on my lunch times is a mixture of stone, dirt and, after a bit of rain, some grass. The damage to this ball was after one shot. As a result you can understand that when I'm working on my swing I'd rather chew up bargain basement throw aways.

Our practice hole has a row of trees on the left and beyond that is what could be best described as a builder's yard, without the builders. Miss left and 9/10 you kiss your ball goodbye. Up to know my shots have missed right, but recently I have been sending a fair few over those trees and my supplies of cannon fodder have rapidly diminished. This weekend I went out to replenish my supplies and bought some

• Noodle + lake balls for short game practice, a bargain at £4.80
• Dunlop Tour 24 balls for £8.99
• A Dunlop clicka tube with 12 balls included, just £3

Now about the clicka tube. I already have one for the heath and I use better balls for my short game practice so thought I'd get another tube. The tube's were £2 on their own, so there was the option to pay £1 more for 12 balls. Well as I'm only going to hit them on the heath I can't see any problem with them.

Now let's return to Exhibit A. The Dunlop Tour balls worked out at 37p a ball the clicka tube balls (Exhibit A)were 8p a ball. Now I knew they wouldn't be very good but I never thought the day would come when I actually feel robbed that I paid £1 for a dozen balls. They travelled half the distance, clunked off the club face and sounded like marbles. They also ripped up much more easily, with at least one set of the gouged marks being the point the club face struck the ball. The Tour balls on the other hand will do the job very nicely. Exhibit A now resides in the bin, but I kept one for posterity.

On a more serious note I was saddened to find out that our club pro shop was targeted by thieves on Sunday night. A smash and grab raid which has left our club pro in a state of shock as it is his business. Makes my blood boil...

Enough maths to make your head hurt...

I did an interesting thing recently. I had a look at my eclectic best and worst rounds (Scoresaver 2 allows you to look at what round you could cobble together with your worst and best performance on each hole). It made for interesting viewing. Now I wonder if I was Einstein could I manipulate the figures to enable me to identify the root of all my problems.

So my nightmare round... It kicks off with a mind boggling 8 followed by a 15. Quadruple and quintuple bogeys before a nice big fat 13. Then things improve a bit with four consecutive triple bogeys. It's the back nine that makes me want to weep. 12, 10, 10, 10, 10, 9 OUCH! But the good news is that for the most part the really big numbers are one offs. Occasional nightmare holes that plague most high handicappers, well maybe that 15 just makes me special. That said since I started playing I have had a total of 46 disasters.

By contrast my eclectic best not only demonstrates what I am capable of but I have hit those scores on those holes relatively often. Over the same time period I have scored 45 pars and 2 birdies. I've had 102 bogeys and 109 double bogeys and 81 triple bogeys. Theoretically, if I eradicate the disasters that would make my average score per hole +1.65. multiply that by 18 = 29.8. So that would mean I would score on average 100.8 as opposed to 108.1. While that does reduce my score it still leaves me playing off 28. Mmmmm.

So I looked at the most recent data set my play over the last couple of months. So now my eclectic best had gone up to 79 but my worst had come down to 137 (I told you there were lots of one offs)! There has also been a shift in the balance of power. 2 birdies, 15 pars, 48 bogeys, 38 doubles, 25 triples and 12 disasters. Average score 104.7. Take the disasters out of the equation and average score per hole is down to 1.54 meaning I would score... 98.7 still at 28 (our CSS is 69).

That's not very good either. How about I work on better conversion. Let's start with 20%. So I convert 20% of each score in each category to a lower figure by shaving off one shot in five. We'll convert all the disasters as triples. For my play over the last couple of months that would lead to 5 birdies, 22 pars, 46 bogeys, 35 doubles and 32 triples. This would give me an average score per hole of 1.55 it's gone up, how did that happen? Ah yes I've added back in the disasters...pants.

The moral of this rather long winded story is that I need to spend more time practicing and playing and less time analysing my statistics...albeit in the name of good fun!

For your amusement my eclectic best and worst scores:

Eclectic Worst
161 (71)

8(3), 15(5), 7(3), 9(4), 13(5), 6(3), 8(5), 7(4), 7(4), 8(4), 6(3), 12(5), 10(4), 10(4), 10(4), 10(4), 9(4), 6(3)

Eclectic Best

73 (71)

3(3), 5(5), 3(3), 5(4), 5(5), 3(3), 5(5), 4(4), 4(4), 3(4), 2(3), 6(5), 4(4), 5(4), 5(4), 4(4), 4(4), 3(3)

Sir Nick

In 1983 Nick Faldo won the European Tour Order of Merit, just six years after turning pro. Things were looking good, or so you would think. But his collapses at the 83 Open and 84 Masters, led Sir Nick to go back to the drawing board with his swing. Working with Leadbetter he completely remodelled it and returned to form in 1987 and the rest as they say is history.

Now I am not comparing myself to Sir Nick but I do take heart from his story. I had another lesson today and in came another raft of necessary improvements. My teaching pro is pleased with the work that I have put in. He feels that the change in shots reflects the level of work I have put in to adopt the swing changes he gave me last time. He also asked me to be patient. Though it feels as if I am making no progress, I can understand what he means.

The golf swing is a complicated process. What we are doing is gradually layering actions that will hopefully combine in the end to form a fluid, rhythmic, repeatable motion. Recently, I have worked on my hand speed through the swing and now my hands and arms are working faster than my hips. This is the reason that my bad shot is now a pull hook. My pro wants me to:

• improve my posture (I am a little too bent over at the moment)
• work on increasing the speed of my hip turn
• work on a balance between my hip, arm and hand speed so they are working in harmony to deliver the clubhead square to the ball

I was going to post a video this month but as there are a number of faults to work on I hope you'll excuse a slight delay. It feels a little bit like two steps back but as my practice time is now being confined to the range it is quite timely to have a range of swing changes to bed in. What is promising is that my pro staunchly believes my ability belies my handicap and I hope that once it clicks my performances on course will dramatically improve.

You may be confused that my outlook is to have fun and play lots of golf, yet I am still concerned with technique. I suppose I still want to be as good as I can be at this game, just without the pressure of having to do it in competition. It's so much more fun smashing a great drive, hitting a laser like iron approach, or deftly chipping in than out of bounds, missed approaches, lost balls and blading through greens.

I take solace from Sir Nick because he wanted to groove a repeatable swing, which is also my ambition. He was at the top of the European Tour and was a professional golfer. He had regular tuition and unlimited opportunity to practice. It took him four years to get it together. I play in my spare time, lack his natural talent, work full time and have family commitments to balance. I may have lower aspirations but I should also have lower expectations on how long it will take me to get there.

Pelz, Putz & Prison

Dave Pelz has done it again. After 'fixing' my bunker technique he has now explained why I chip inconsistently. Have moved the ball back in my stance so that it is level with my right ankle. Hey presto nice clean contact. I have to say that I am getting much more from this book now I have been playing a little longer. I rated it pretty favourably the first time of reading as well. If only I had remembered most of his advice! Putz.

So following my lunch time hit on the heath, yesterday saw the end of my midweek evening practice at the club. It is just too dark, too early now and with the clocks due to go back soon I've made the transition back to the driving range.

It was the first time in a while I got to practice with my longer clubs. I have got noticeably more control, which was pleasing to see. I also started to get a feel for the tempo that yielded the best results. Unsurprisingly, it felt quite languid.

What followed was a rather surreal moment of rose tinted haziness. I had the startling misperception that I had actually quite missed the range. I doubt this nonsensical state of mind will last. It's nothing like hitting off grass for starters. It's also quite lifeless and, despite my best efforts to visualise, you don't really know if a shot would be punished on course or not.

In fact the experience itself feels a little bit like a punishment. You are forced to 'play' golf in a little cubicle with a bland outlook. The soft feeling of grass underfoot is prohibited, replaced by an artificial, ungrasslike, substance. It's cold there with heaters battling the elements to keep you warm. You queue by a machine waiting for your serving of balls, which are spat at you and lack the softness of your preferred weekend choice. You say to yourself, it's only a few months you can get through this. But gently gnawing away at you is the fact it could quite easily be six months, with no sign of early release in Spring. Remember the snow? Just mentioning it gives me the chills.

Clubs...

I have a problem. I've mentioned before that there is a bit of a gap between my Pitching Wedge and my Gap Wedge. Seven degrees to be precise. Not too long ago I was hitting my GW 100 yards and my PW 120. Now I seem to have found an extra 10 yards on the PW but not in the GW and SW. I don't know if it's because I am just generating more height with the more lofted clubs. Or perhaps it is because they are different clubs: AP1 vs Vokey. Whatever it is, it is causing me problems inside 130 yards. So what is the best solution? Is it practice, practice, practice or a change of clubs?

I am sorely tempted to get a 50, 54, 58 wedge set up and when the driver arrives ditch the 3 iron. This does leave me with a 20 yard gap between my 4 iron and hybrid, and will set me back a pretty penny as well. Not to mention making my 3 iron redundant. That said, I could take advantage of the fact that square groove wedges are only available until December. I could then mix and match my clubs from day to day.

But I still have to buy my driver and regrip my clubs and buy some new balls and it would be nice to get some new golf shoes and my golfing wardrobe is getting a little stale...

Anyone want to buy a kidney?

Scared of the dark

Well it seems as though Tiger jnr has reached the age where an irrational fear of the cloak of darkness sets in. Cue nightlights, hall lights and plenty of cuddles at bedtime. To be fair to him he is only 2 and perhaps watching Monsters Inc wasn't the best idea, curse you Pixar!

Strangely, whilst surfing the Golf Monthly forum last night I noticed a post from a fellow forumer relating to nocturnal golf practice. I could strongly relate to where he was coming from. How do you make the best use of the dark winter months when you want to practice your short game?

Like my son I am starting develop my own fear of the dark, though I hope mine is slightly more rational. I do feel that I am starting to make progress, especially through my evening practice sessions at the club. As the days draw shorter, an issue accentuated by the clocks going back, I worry that I might lose my way. I've been a dedicated disciple of the short game, short game, short game mantra. In order to sustain this I need to return to the negotiating table with HID to either extend my playing time or secure two visits to the course on the weekend. I don't fancy my chances and fear reprisals that would shake up the inmates of Guantanomo Bay should I persistently raise the matter.

So while I gently rock the little man to sleep, I will have a faint twinge of envy in that his fear can be simply addressed by flicking on a switch.

Blowing away the cobwebs...

Well I hadn't swung a golf club in October till today and rather than bashing balls on the practice ground I had a practice round instead. As expected things started off extremely poorly, an issue accentuated by the fact that in order to avoid a clutch of four balls I started on our 12th (the first in my nightmare run of four holes. Undeterred by some errant tee shots and woeful duffs, I persisted and saw enough positive signs to keep me hopeful.

I am starting to feel that I own my swing and now before I've seen the ball flight if it's gone wrong and where it is likely to have gone. My teaching pro says this is an important step to get to, so that's really encouraging. The hybrid and mid irons are still performing well and though the short game was a little off, that is down to ring rust, and still not knowing my distances. My Pitching Wedge now goes 130 yards on a full swing but I can't consistently strike my other wedges as sweetly meaning that anything under 130 yards is a bit of a lottery at the moment.

However, most startling breakthrough is bunker play. Landed in one on our long par 5, which is about 30 yards from the green. Followed the Pelz advice, though I wasn't brave enough to use a 8/9 iron, and finished on the fringe. A little more confidence in club selection and I'd have had a simple putt for par. Pelz recommends having your feet pointing 'about' 17 degrees left of the target, your club face open 45 degrees, the ball positioned inside your left heel. You then use a relaxed 9 o'clock (half) swing striking the ground in the middle of your stance and following through a little more than your backswing. Sounds technical, but early signs are that it works.

So all in all I'm very pleased with my on course loosener and am booked in for a lesson next weekend, here's hoping my pro will like what he sees.

Cold turkey

So what do you do when you can't play golf? The last time I held a club was last Thursday as I raced round to score 99. I'll be honest, it's been a hard week and the ten days will seem like an eternity when I tee it up on Sunday. 

I wanted to make positive use of this break and have re-read parts of Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible. It's been an eye opener, highlighting a couple of glaring errors in my set up for bunker shots. Most notable being the fact that I didn't have my club face anywhere near open enough. 

I have also been working on the mental side if things reading Your 15th Club for the third time. I have been visualising a lot of positive golf this week either shots I have hit or ones I will hit in the future. The break has done me the world of good and I cannot wait to tee it up on Sunday. Watch this space.

Ryder Cup

I didn't get to see as much of the Ryder Cup as I would have liked. That said the BBC highlights on Monday gave me a flavour of the awe inspiring golf that was served up by both teams. 

First things first, the 2014 event at Gleneagles will be the culmination of my golfing adventure on this blog. Having virtually witnessed this year's match up I'll hopefully be there in person to soak up the atmosphere. Perhaps I'll even save enough cash to play a round on the course in the aftermath of the tournament. 

Back to the present and for me the Ryder Cup was a tale of two players. Ian Poulter is an anathema to some but he showed once again that he is a phenomenal matchplay exponent and brilliant team player. The emotion, drama and euphoria that seemed to permeate every hole he played surely transmitted an electricity around the course giving his team mates an extra buzz. In footballing parlance he'd be an enigmatic, tough tackling midfielder in the Roy Keane mould. 

My other choice may seem like a strange choice but I was impressed with Rickie Fowler. Despite his impressive Walker Cup record there were question marks raised over the pond on his wildcard selection. Certainly, he showed that at times his technique can be found wanting in the pressure cooker of top tournaments. However, at times he showed moments of brilliance, like his holed bunker shot with Mickelson, and sheer grit. 

At one stage on Monday it looked like a European formality. But with Harrington struggling to fulfil Monty's prophecy, Fowler, the third youngest player in cup history, launched a sensational comeback to stun Edoardo Molinari and leave the whole competition balanced on a knife edge. For me it raised the importance of G-Mac's putt on 16 and enhanced the relief and joy as it teetered on the edge of the cup before deciding to drop. 

I think Fowler will never be consistent enough to regularly top leaderboards, but when he's on fire he will provide fantastic entertainment for years to come. 

Ouch

Well my other half had a bit of a torrid time in the marathon. She's not been well this week and everything fell apart at mile 16. The last ten miles were torture but she still clocked 3hrs 48. Truly gritty performance and I'm extremely proud of her. I've run one before, though nowhere near as fast, so can empathise with her pain.

I've not played matchplay before so have no idea how Stricker and Woods felt being trounced 6&5 by Westwood & Poulter. What a putt by Westwood on 10, phenomenal. Bit down that I've not been able to watch the cup or go out and play but at the same time it's great to be able to support the missus and enjoy some peace and tranquility.

Stunning

Simply breathtaking. Have arrived in the highlands and have yet to remove my jaw from the floor due to the stunning scenery. It may be a wee bit damp but I do believe that this is heaven on earth. We are staying in the beautiful setting of Whitebridge, just a few miles away from the start of the Baxter's Loch Ness Marathon. The race is underway and my better half is somewhere en route to Inverness, hopefully soaking up the scenery and easily totting up the miles.

Consequently, there is minimal golfing happening this week. So far I have been able to see no coverage of the Ryder Cup, though judging by the deluge those glued to their TV screens haven't seen much either. I do feel sorry for Wales as a lot of people across the World are now acquainted with Newport, unfortunately it is now synonymous with heavy rain. It's a real shame but to be honest, hosting it in Wales in October was asking for trouble.

To keep me ticking over I was delighted to have my copy of Golf Monthly drop through the letterbox as we were departing. I've also brough Mr Pelz and Rotella for company. One thing is for creation, next time I come back to this sumptuous corner of Britain (and there will definitely be a next time) the sticks are coming with me!

September stats

Well I managed to finally break 100 this month, it seems a long time in the making but hopefully I can push on from here and go sub 95 then 90 over the winter months. First things first is breaking 100 again and then making it a habit.

The real difference has been that the chipping and short game practice is starting to pay off, and the swing work coupled with the wonderful G15 hybrid are improving my performance from tee to green (well the vicinity of the green)!

Once again I managed to pile on the hours this month (a whole five minutes more than last month), taking full advantage of the evening light while it lasts and before the clocks go back when I will be compelled to go to the driving range instead. In terms of practice time it is has been devoted to bedding in swing changes with my 8 iron and short game, short game, short game.

Practice

Distance	Time (minutes)	% of practice time
Driver	0	0%
Other Woods	0	0%
200 - 250 yards	0	0%
150 – 200 yards	0	0%
100 – 150 yards	105	14%
Short Approach	440	60%
Bunker Play	35	5%
Putting	155	21%
Total	735	100%

Rounds
I think its time to draw a line under the 2009/10 season as I am unable to play in our October medal and unlikely to feature in the extra medal week in the middle of the month. So those of you who expected me to be rooted to 28 were spot on. My plan is to continue working hard using time on course to adapt to the changing conditions and then perform well in the winter league (look out for a new poll coming soon). My most recent round where I finally broke 100 also saw me score 39 stableford points, which I hadn't realised and am really chuffed about. I'm also please to report an improvement in most of my statistics (last month in brackets).

Statistic	Performance	SS2 Handicap level
Fairways in Regulation	37% (35%)	18 (19)
Greens in Regulation	16% (15%)	16 (16)
Putts per Round	36.41 (38.77)	21 (25)
Birdie Conversion	7% (12%)	26 (18)
Par Scrambles	5% (0%)	28+ (28+)
Sand Saves	0%	28+
Penalties per Round	2.66 (1.73)	27 (18)

The SS2 handicap level is a calculation made indicating your performance on different facets of your game.

Things are most definitely looking up. I'm getting more used to my 3 Wood and know I can knock it 248 yards, the hybrid is consistently going between 220 and 225 and my touch around the greens is improving. Next month is all about getting ready to win my division in the Winter League, which kicks off in November...you know me always shooting for the stars!