Speed demons...

Well to say today did not go according to plan would be an understatement. Paired with Simon and Steve, who were great company, but unfortunately not as forthright as my usual playing partners who would have told me early in the round that I was thrashing at it. I need some mechanism to catch myself when I speed up the backswing as it wrecks my tempo and leads to the unmitigated disaster that today's round was. I NR'd two holes so will be guaranteed a 0.1 back taking me back to the dreaded 28. It's days like this when I wonder why I bother, but then from nowhere I'll hit some great shots and get all excited again.

I won't bore you with a blow by blow account of every single shot, but I will talk you through the 4th. Skewed my tee shot into the rough right. Hacked out. Sclaffed (that means fat and not far) the next. Topped the one after. Hit a tree. Then pulled it into the gorse. Didn't bother playing another ball. But the good news was that the driver was solid if unspectacular and the short game with the Bridgestones was very good, hurt at times by long, thick, wet rough. Simon commented that apart from a couple of shots I had been quite unlucky with nasty bounces or being a couple of foot too far left or right.

So I'll forget the bad stuff, take the good stuff and look forward to playing next week off the yellows. When I get tense I get quick and the speed demons hurt my game massively. It's all part of the learning curve and Simon quite kindly lent me an audio copy of Bob Rotella's "Golf is a Game of Confidence". Not the ideal way to lead into my birthday, but I did have a few things on my mind.

92 (62)

4(3), 9(5), 5(3), -(4), 10(5), 3(3), 8(5), 5(4), 6(4), 5(4), 3(3), -(5), 7(4), 5(4), 5(4), 7(4), 6(4), 4(3)
nett score for handicap 80