Blogging can be bad for your golf

I've noticed a worrying trend. I play well in roll ups, solo games and swindle matches. My blog posts about these events make a clear distinction between this 'friendly' golf and medals / competitions. My posts about any game off the whites normally bemoans bad luck, bad putting and bad shots off the tee. Not a lot but enough to ruin a promising card. As a blogger you are less likely to be self congratulatory as there is a risk you may appear arrogant so instead you adopt the position of hopeful hacker, savouring good play but giving the same (or possibly greater) weight to flaws in your game.

Having read and listened to Dr Bob a fair bit it has suddenly dawned on me that all these posts are actually undermining my golf mentality. In Golf is Not a Game of Perfect, Bob suggests keeping a journal or notebook. You fill this with memories of good shots and positive aspirations. This helps to fuel your positive self image and impacts on your on course confidence. I'm currently doing the opposite, jotting down tales of woe on the blog and reinforcing a negative self image.

Last night I seriously considered knocking the whole thing on the head but a quick look at Google Analytics showed that unique visitors to the blog was up 21% and time spent on the site has doubled in the last couple of months. So somewhere out there are a growing number of you that find my ramblings either helpful, amusing or quite possibly reassuring. So in light of the statistics I'm going to keep going till at least Christmas and take a slightly different tack.

So this is an apology for what may seem like a dramatic shift in tone. Don't worry, I'm not about to become a golfing Evangelical but I will no longer tell you about the horror stories (hopefully there won't be many anyway). This will become a hive of positivity focusing purely on the positives I take away from each round. Sadly, this may make for a less interesting read and for that I apologise profusely. I hope you'll stick around and continue to enjoy reading the blog. If you do have any suggestions please click the contact me button at the top and drop me an email or click on comments button under the post to leave me a message.

There is a single figure golfer trapped in here and I desperately need to let him out before his head explodes in frustration.