Dedication & Inspiration

Today's blog post is designed to serve two purposes. Firstly, it will explain to you my commitment to development over the coming season, secondly it will make a personal dedication to a man I've never met but can relate to, respect, deeply admire and is the main inspiring factor in my quest to reach scratch.

So to the plan, well I know I need to be dedicated if I'm going to make a respectable attempt at the challenge, let alone pull it off. I've broken my game down a la Pelz into the following components:

Mental
Management
Swing
Short Game
Putting

Each team has a mentor/coach (though one position still to be finalised) and I'll be setting myself a realistic practice programme and targets for season 2010/11. Detail on each plan will follow in early April.

My inspiration
In August 2008, my world came crashing down around me. I lost sensation in both legs and a few days later in September I lost sensation in my body from the neck down. I could still move my limbs but with out clear sensory reception I was unable to perform simple tasks like walking very far, dressing myself or making myself food. A month later I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. At the same time a friend put a Daily Mail article in the post about a golfer called Tony Johnstone.
Many of you will have heard of Tony Johnstone what you may not know was that his professional career was threatened when he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Not only did he come back, he has since won a tournament! I'll be honest - I had no idea who he was but I could empathise with his condition. We were both passionate about sport (albeit he had significantly more talent than me) and we both had the thing we loved, and in Tony's case earnt a living from, being taken away. I've kept that article and often re read it when I feel low or need an injection of inspiration.

I was fortunate to make it on to the same clinical trial as Tony (in fact we share the same excellent clinical team at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge). The treatment has made a massive difference to my life. So each step I take on my road to recovery and towards the zenith of scratch Tony is never far from my thoughts. I owe him a huge debt of gratitude for giving me belief when I could have feared and direction when I could have lost my way.

As a result this project will always be more than a numbers game and I pray it gives hope to other MS sufferers who may be reading. While I may fantasise of rounds at Augusta with Niklaus, Ballesteros, Hogan and co in reality I'd most like to play 18 holes in the company Mr Johnstone at the end of a successful quest, that for me would be the perfect conclusion.

Comments:

Simon Hutton
great post Tiger. Good to have the inspiration!

Homer
Interesting post as many on here are. I’m glad the treatment is going well. You should think about trying to get in touch and relaying your story to him. It might help him to know that fellow golfers are using him as an inspiration and who knows you may even get to meet the great man.

I hope your season kicks on now you’re in a club and can play regularly in competitions with better golfers and have access to practice facilities etc. Make friends with the pro. If he’s anything like mine he’ll always give you a 30 second tip if you’re struggling. Keep going

Time to reflect

My footballing exploits were drawn to a premature end in August 2008. As the season begun I had high hopes of beating my previous year's tally of 22 goals and successfully defending my position of top goalscorer. Sadly illness intervened but one year later I began a new, exciting challenge where I could compete on par with anyone. My addiction to golf had begun.

As I write I sit in hospital undergoing what will hopefully be my final three day course of treatment. I'll never be seen beating defenders for pace, or battering them into submission but I hope to be seen regularly knocking it stiff from 120 yards.

It's given me a chance to digest more golfing reading fodder, become excited about The Masters for the first time ever and take stock of where my game has got to over the past 8 months.

I'll save the game analysis for another day, for now I'm just grateful that golf has provided me with an opportunity to sustain my enthusiasm and passion for competitive and recreational sport.

On a nelson...

Today was supposed to be my first assault on breaking 100 but unfortunately it was not to be. For the non cricketers out there I posted a disappointing score of 111 and while there are a number of mitigating circumstances, the main problem today was my failure to stay in the present. On the whole I was much more consistent than my last venture, the problem was being consistently mediocre (if you take average to be a bogey a hole).

So what went wrong.

Love hate relationship

My Vokey Gap Wedge and I have had an interesting relationship till now. At first we did not get on at all and I often wondered why I had paid good money for the blinking thing. Duffs, thins, slices you name it anything but nice straight ball flight. I had a few more lessons, worked hard on my game and things are improving. During my lunch time practice session on the heath today I saw Reg (Waldringfield Club Captain) once again, who I've now adopted as my mentor and surrogate father.

He made three subtle suggestions:

1. Don't sit down quite so much in my set up (causing fats)


2. Maintain more width on my back swing (causing fats)


3. Use my left shoulder as a trigger of when to start my down swing (improved tempo)

All of them worked and got me hitting lovely clean wedge shots, with a sweet selection of divots. I really do feel that things are starting to come together and my love affair with the gap wedge is much less tumultuous.

Now if it would only behave itself on my chip shots we could well settle down in the near future and start a family...

Managing my game

My regular playing partner is a lovely chap. We both started to learn to play at the sane time, joined our first club together and are equally enamoured with the joys of golf. However, when it comes to course management we are chalk and cheese. He loves the big stick, even though he can't wield it properly yet, and unless it's a par 3 he pulls that or the 3 wood out. I have tried to reason with him but thus far to no avail.

I'm slightly more conservative in my approach. What's the danger on the hole? What's the risk/reward? If it's a par four could I get on the green with two decent mid iron strikes? The next thing I've learnt is assess the wind, lie, slope, ground conditions, distance. Think which club I want to hit, go one stronger and swing easy. Every par I hit on Saturday was because of that approach. I took a 6I over a 7 on the 3rd and 6th, an 8I over a 9I on the 9th and a PW on the tiny 11th which on paper should have been way too much club.

This is my simple starting point but there are still a number of challenges. The course only has markers at 150 yards, meaning guess work is required when you are close in. There are also a lot of blind greens so I'm hoping to get up there midweek sometime soon when it's quiet so I can take time on each hole to think about what the best lay up positions are as well as places I want to avoid.

I've only just scratched the surface of course management and am starting to realise the complexity and magnitude of the mission I've taken on. I'm hoping in time with more rounds under my belt, how I think around the course will get better.

Comments:

Simon Hutton
Sounds good. I’m learning that clubbing up and swinging easy is an extremely useful option – primarily because swinging easy means I have more chance of hitting the ball nicely and avoiding a slice.

Homer
If your course has a course planner, buy one and then add your own yardages on each hole bit by bit (obviously better if you can borrow a DMD but even a guesstimate at this stage will suffice) and give yourself as much info as you can.

Years ago I did my own one for Wimbledon Common as they didn’t have one. I pace the green out down the middle of each one and across the widest part. I made a not of the relevant features I wanted and then paced from the furthest back to the middle of the green. Next time I just paced from my starting point to the next feature and deducted.

The thing is you can then build up a detailed map for each hole (arguably more detailed than any DMD) and find safe go to areas so that even if you hit a bad tee shot you have options.

Tiger
Unfortunately they are making some course modifications at the moment so they are waiting till they are completed before they produce a new course planner. Went on MyCaddie and have mapped the course on there so will use my iPhone in the interim as a GPS. The main issue is they only have yardage markers at 150 yards so once you are closer than that you’re screwed.

Ball of Choice 2010

So there I am yesterday, stood on the second tee, getting ready to play my fifth shot. I'd already placed a Srixon Z-Star, a Titleist ProV1 lake ball and a Titleist ProV1 refurb on the sacrificial altar of the golfing gods (notice the steady decline on ball quality). My Sasquatch bag has a nifty ball holder and as I drained it of its last offering (another refurb) I was determined to keep this one in play.

Cue a hook to the trees on the left of the fairway and after two duffed attempts to get the ball in play on the shorter stuff, I caught it clean and bladed it out of bounds to the right. I had progressed about 150 yards on a 500 yard par 5 and used nine shots.

Seconds out...round two

Welcome back to the titanic tussle here between the challenger and the undefeated champion of the world, the glorious game of golf. Well golf is taking the fight to his opponent today and he can kiss that brand spanking new Srizon Z-Star goodbye as it slices into the rough and gorse on the first. It's 6 on that par three but the champ is showing no signs of abating, one, two, three lost balls (thankfully all refurbs) and the challenger is on the ropes, a whopping 15, thats 21 shots thus far and twelve over par on two holes.