August stats

Had a lot of fun playing in the Texas Scramble this month and spent more time on the practice hole honing my game. It's been a long old year and I'm still to make any significant breakthrough during a round. Posted my lowest score this month a frustrating 101 but there are green shoots emerging and my confidence in playing shots is steadily improving. I used to have a fear of the longer irons but now feel perfectly happy again with the 4 iron and growing confidence with the 3.

A lot of people say that it takes time for them to bed a swing change in and during that time their game takes a bit of a dip and then gets better. On reflection I have been doing that all year. With periodic lessons all designed to develop my swing each time I have got to grips with one swing change I've incorporated a new one. Since August last year when I first started playing I have had 14 lessons. Two of those were spent on chipping and putting leaving 12 lessons on swing mechanics. I've

• modified my grip
• adjusted my stance
• corrected my posture
• worked on my wrist hinge at the top
• tidied up my weight transfer
• slowed down my tempo
• improved my follow through

To name but a few!! I have another lesson next Thursday during which we will unpick the my performance from Sunday's medal and I believe work on flattening my swing plane. I truly hope that gradually building a solid, simple, repeatable swing will have caused me a lot of frustration this year but that I'll reap the rewards in the future. To back it up I've committed to practice, practice, practice and consequently have spent more time this month with my 8 iron bedding in the latest changes.

Practice

Distance	Time (minutes)	% of practice time
Driver	0	0%
Other Woods	30	4%
200 - 250 yards	0	0%
150 – 200 yards	45	6%
100 – 150 yards	170	23%
Short Approach	350	48%
Bunker Play	15	2%
Putting	120	16%
Total	730	100%

Over 12 hours this month, the most practice I have crammed in since the snow melted in February. Here's hoping that I at least play to handicap in my first competitive medal.

Rounds
A significant improvement this month, which does not include the Texas Scramble were my ball striking had continued to improve. This month I've kept last months results in brackets to reflect the positive strides I am making. My putting does need more work but to be honest when I get the chance to visit the course I spend more time working on other elements of my game. I do need to spend some time working on distance control for those longer putts but at the moment getting the swing and short game right are taking priority. Need to get myself in a position to score more often.

Statistic	Performance	SS2 Handicap level
Fairways in Regulation	35% (21%)	19 (26)
Greens in Regulation	15% (9%)	16 (22)
Putts per Round	38.77 (37.67)	25 (23)
Birdie Conversion	12% (0%)	18 (28+)
Par Scrambles	0% (4%)	28+ (28+)
Sand Saves	0%	28+
Penalties per Round	1.73 (6.33)	18 (28+)

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

This month I have a lot of golf lined up. Medal on Sunday, midweek game on Thursday, another game on the weekend, Brett Vale on the 17th, playing again on the 19th and 26th and as much practice as I can cram in between. There's an extra medal week in the middle of the month as well so here's hoping I can make some in roads into that pesky handicap.