Ok, so you've had a chance to get to know me a little better, look at my swing and examine my plan of action. So as the snow is gently thawing how do you think I will get on in year one of Project Scratch? Please post your comments on what you think my handicap will be at the end of year one (December 31st 2010)?

Comments:

Homer
I think you’ll get to 20 pretty easily this year

Rob2
It depends on what you are shooting now? Fingers crossed you both do well. You definately seem to have the right attitude with regard to learning etc. I will go for 18. Good Luck

Mike_j_fgolf
18 or less this year and it will be the easiest jump to make as you will be coming down .4 for any shots under your handicap. Mike

Bogey
Nice to see you guys so confident. I must admit to setting myself a mental target of 20. I’d be delighted if I’d hit that by December.

birdieman
I reckon 17, you’ll need to work hard though!

pokerjoke
I believe twenty is a good target and a realistic one,good luck

Screwback
I think that if you put the practise in and have the natural ability you can go low maybe between 12 -14. The main thing is not to take it too seriously….easier said than done mind!!!

TR30
I’m a glass half full man so will say 18. Best of luck and look forward to seeing how you progress.

Jammydodger
I’m going to be a little conservative and say 21. Hope you fly way past that though. Good luck

Deke
Hi Tiger,i am also on a mission this year(join club,get handicap,go down to 18 within a year),i see no good reason why we both cant play off 18 by this time next year! Maybe we should sort out a friendly wager to see who gets there first?

Tiger
Thank you all for your thoughts, really interesting perspectives. Deke thanks for the challenge – how about a sleeve of Z-Stars to the winner?

Deke
Sounds good to me mate! Will keep you updated on my progress,and I wish you and Bogey all the best too.We should try and get a game sorted soon,i am well up for some long distance golf trips.Hmmmm,z-stars should be a good upgrade from my soft feels,nice!

Tiger
I’m assuming that you are looking forward to enjoying the other 9 Z-Stars after you have sent me my sleeve! ;0) Good luck with your own game and we look forward to hearing about your progress.

Just a few more to add from GM thread:

Society Fan – 18
Swinger – 22
Owen Thomas – 17

Great in theory

I played a reasonable amount of chess when I was at school. I was pretty good and got in the team. Problem was chess isn't that glamorous but as most matches didn't conflict with my 'real' sporting pursuits I never really got teased about it. Then aged 12 everything changed. A local school, Holmwood House, held an annual competition featuring six-a-side football, squash, basketball and er chess. I was in the junior school fooball 1st XI at the time and was looking forward to playing in the tournament when my house master and Geography teacher dropped a bombshell. As the third best player in the junior school I'd been selected to play in the chess team. You see there are loads of people who can kick a football about, but not many who played chess, so despite my remonstrations I sat indoors (in full view of the footy tournament) and played chess. Unsurprisingly, I lost and fell out of love with chess big time.

For me there is a similarity in golf. A lot of people who love beating balls with the big stick, but not as many who want to understand the theoretical side of the game.

Mini milestone...

So there I was browsing the Golf Monthly forum and I came across a thread by Gaz8 and how he was chuffed with his own personal mini milestone of chipping in. Well several posts later he then asked what our own mini milestones were and listed four of his own:

1. Par a hole
2. Birdie a hole
3. Beat his mate
4. Break 100

This got me thinking. I've only played one (almost) full round and have accomplished none of these. So my aim is to do all four by the end of February. There I've said it and written it and italicised and bolded it. No turning back now. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

The big freeze

Sod's law has it that just when you think you've cracked it the powers at be do all they can to prevent you from practising. Doubt I'll be able to make it to the range mid week and the snow has meant that I can't practice with my wedges on the heath. So until the weather improves I'll be honing my putting and enjoying reading through my two latest Bob Rotella acquisitions.

Hoping it improves so I can hit the range and par 3 on the weekend. Would be a nice end to the week if my performance and stats have improved since my last woeful showing.

In the meantime I can enjoy a subscription to Golf Monthly as a late Xmas present. Currently, an amazing 50% off, see this month's edition for details.

Lesson: January 2nd 2010

Lessons are brilliant and in my opinion if you want to get better at golf the sooner you have them the better. There are a lot of things that are difficult to teach, like feel, but if you have the mechanics of a solid repeatable swing the game has got to be easier, right? Well that's my thinking and today's lesson underlined that. We have been gradually developing my swing and most recently the focus has been on the foundations (minimal lower half movement with good posture) and grip (recent change to stop me hooking). Today my pro highlighted two faults.

Scoresaver 2: review

Regular GM forum poster Homer has kindly sent us through a review of Scoresaver 2 a golf statistics software package. I'll be downloading my trial package today with a view to getting the full package at the end of the month. I did try and create my own spreadsheet but given the size of our undertaking I think dedicated developed software is the way to go. To find out more about this stats package and how it could potentially help you with your ambitions for 2010 read Homer's review below or visit www.scoresaver.co.uk/Scoresaver2.

So it begins...

I've learnt a lot during my first four months and playing Waldringfield on Wednesday has really helped me develop my game plan for year one. My ambition is to be an 18 handicap by December 2010, which equates to a shot a hole. However, apart from par three holes I am generally hitting double or triple bogeys - so how do I plan on getting my scores down?