First medal, any tips?

[SonicBoom]

I play off 17 at Goodwood and I have played a couple of stableford comps and done ok. I am playing in my first ever monthly medal in a few days and wondered how this will differ and if any of you have any tips on how to approach the round? Cheers.

 

[azazel]

My advice would be to take your medicine if you get into trouble. Don't try and smash it out of the rough if it isn't lying perfectly and if you have to chop out sideways or can only advance it a short distance then make a bogey your "par" score for that particular hole. I find that helps prevent the horror scores that can ruin a medal card which would otherwise "only" be blobs in a stableford round.

 

[RichardC]

Relax and enjoy it.

Whats the worst that can happen? You might get .1 back.

 

[Shaunmg]

With your handicap, and as a higher handicapper than you, I am hardly in a position to give advise on the game of golf to you, but just say I how play medal, as opposed to stableford. I will take more chances in stableford, as I'm not going to get a card wrecker if it goes wrong. I'm a little more cautious in medal, if I’m not absolutely confident of clearing the water or avoiding the AOB, I’ll lay up to avoid the card wrecker. One hole may not put me out of contention in stableford, but it has on many occasions in medal

 

[Slicer30]

For me stableford is 18 individual opportunities to score points, so any points bagged in the first 17 are safe regardless of what happens on the 18th hole.

In a medal, your not safe until you replace the pin on the 18th green.

 

[john0]

The best advice I can give you is go scratch your name off the comp now

Seriously though, just go out and enjoy it, try not to think about your score until you finish 18. As said above, the worst that can happen is .1

 

[SonicBoom]

All very good good advice and much appreciated. Wrecking your round in one hole does tend to focus the mind I guess.

 

[ADB]

Refresh your memory on lost or potentially lost balls/provisionals/balls in hazards etc. You have to keep one in play the whole way around and from recent threads knowing the rules that can work to your advantage is......well...an advantage ! Good luck.

 

[elliottlale]

id say dont go out with high expectations! if you know you can shoot lower, dont put the pressure on yourself to break your PB. i do this and melt down! keep the ball in play, even if it means shorter off the tee but enjoy it.

 

[ArnoldArmChewer]

Enjoy the game, concentrate and do your partner the honour of giving 100% the whole way round, that's all anyone can do.

Good luck

 

[Ethan]

Play golf, and try to play decently well, but otherwise don't worry about it. I don't treat medal and stableford any different. There is only one important shot in golf - the next one.

 

[CallawayKid]

Try and relax, deep breathing and keep the ball in play. I do think more about my shots when playing in a medal than a stableford. Also have a practice/stretch before you get up onto the tee, I find this relaxes me and gets me into the right frame of mind.

Most of all, enjoy it, you're not in the office!

CK

 

[Mungoscorner]

First of all,enjoy it !!!
Play within yourself,and if you cannot see your ball,ALWAYS play a provisional.
All the best.

 

[Richie13]

id say dont go out with high expectations! if you know you can shoot lower, dont put the pressure on yourself to break your PB. i do this and melt down! keep the ball in play, even if it means shorter off the tee but enjoy it.

what elliot said, i went out yesterday full on confidence and expected to play similar to how i did on my last round, i played like a mug!

just enjoy it and play sideways if need be dont try and force shots you think you can make

 

[G1BB0]

another tip alongside the provisional one is... if you really think you aint gonna get it out call an unplayable and take it back in line of route, the amount of cricket score holes I have had through being stubborn and trying to hack the ball out of absolute cack!!! 1 shot dropped but could end up with a double instead of a quad!!!!

 

[golfsaint]

My advice to you WIN WIN WIN !! oh and enjoy it

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Just relax and play. The more you think about what you should or shouldn't be doing and trying to protect your score will lead to you trying to control (steer) the ball and that leads to all sorts of problems of its own. You know the course, you know your game and you know you can score so just play one shot at a time, use the rules to help, a penalty drop doesn't have to mean a cricket score if you can play the next properly, and have fun

 

[benjamin]

Best of luck with it Sonic, I have my first ever comp next weekend and its medal so i have taken a lot of tips from this thread, cheers! Have to agree with the others who say just enjoy it, that is my latest mindset after playing terribly lately while expecting good scores.

 

[SonicBoom]

Thanks to all. There really was some useful tips here. I liked the one about not being overly optimistic about your lie in the rough and better to declare it unplayable. I'll do that (not that I ever go in the rough of course) and playing a provisional every time I can't see the t shot is good advice.
Thanks to all. I will post an update of how I get on.


unless I come last of course...

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Just go and play your normal game.