Whee
Challenge Tour Pro
After a Texas Scramble on Wednesday where my ball striking and putting was the best it's been in a long time, I headed out for 18 holes yesterday morning full of confidence. As most of you know, confidence in this game is a winner, over-confidence is a sure fire way of being bitten in the arse.
Onto the first tee, a light stretch out after a football match the evening before. Tee up and address the ball - "groins a bit tight" I thought... on my downswing. Slice, only avoided the out of bounds marker by a few yards. No danger I thought, pop it up the middle and keep it safe. Cue a bit of a hook into the greenside bunker. The bunkers at our place are one of the worst things about the course in Summer, the sand just gets baked solid. I tried to nip the ball off the surface clean, ended up leaving it in the sand. Next shot was a thin into the back bunker. Another 2 shots to get out of that one, followed by a chip and 2 putts and i've walked off with a 5 over par.
Not the end of the world, i'll recover. The second is a 640 yard long par 5. Nailed my drive down the middle, and gave my second a good clout too. About 170 to the green, pulled my approach into a greenside bunker. Imagine my surprise when I left the ball in there. Treble Bogey when the ball eventually found the hole.
I lost heart after this, picked up on the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. After 6 holes i had 1 (One!!) Stableford point. Absolutely embarrassing.
I managed a bogey on the 7th, despite finding water with my tee shot, and a bogey on the 8th as well. Another pick up on the 9th and my Stableford haul had climbed to 5 points for the front 9. Shocking beyond belief.
What I was happy with was my recovery from that shambles to record 20 points from 8 holes on the back 9. 25 points made me smile, knowing it could've been so much worse. If I could just learn how to play shots out of/from hard, clay-like sand, i'd be onto a winner. Every bunker I hit yesterday cost me two shots, that's just not on. If anyone has any tips, they'd be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Onto the first tee, a light stretch out after a football match the evening before. Tee up and address the ball - "groins a bit tight" I thought... on my downswing. Slice, only avoided the out of bounds marker by a few yards. No danger I thought, pop it up the middle and keep it safe. Cue a bit of a hook into the greenside bunker. The bunkers at our place are one of the worst things about the course in Summer, the sand just gets baked solid. I tried to nip the ball off the surface clean, ended up leaving it in the sand. Next shot was a thin into the back bunker. Another 2 shots to get out of that one, followed by a chip and 2 putts and i've walked off with a 5 over par.
Not the end of the world, i'll recover. The second is a 640 yard long par 5. Nailed my drive down the middle, and gave my second a good clout too. About 170 to the green, pulled my approach into a greenside bunker. Imagine my surprise when I left the ball in there. Treble Bogey when the ball eventually found the hole.
I lost heart after this, picked up on the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. After 6 holes i had 1 (One!!) Stableford point. Absolutely embarrassing.
I managed a bogey on the 7th, despite finding water with my tee shot, and a bogey on the 8th as well. Another pick up on the 9th and my Stableford haul had climbed to 5 points for the front 9. Shocking beyond belief.
What I was happy with was my recovery from that shambles to record 20 points from 8 holes on the back 9. 25 points made me smile, knowing it could've been so much worse. If I could just learn how to play shots out of/from hard, clay-like sand, i'd be onto a winner. Every bunker I hit yesterday cost me two shots, that's just not on. If anyone has any tips, they'd be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
