I played today and..(Rolling) -originally created by JohnnyDee

Crazy conditions today produced some crazy scores, not least by me.
Ground is rock-hard and twas very windy.
Seniors comp - white tee medal. It is the only seniors comp that has gold letter board.
Only 21 entered and I came 6th net.
We usually get about 40 enter this.

On the back nine, I got all the right scores but not necessarily in the right order.

250626 score.jpg

Two other chaps got a 2.
That's Β£4 each for them and Β£12 for me then. Haha.

14th was into the wind! That helped me bend it round the dogleg. Then a 42Β° iron pitched the green, rolled out into the hole.
16th was 3-off-the-tee for a lost ball.
Told you it was crazy.
Winner was net one under and CR is 0.8 over par.
SD of 6.2 is one shot outside my best 8.

Hard work.
 
2nd round of the Welsh Seniors at Bull Bay and brutal conditions when we teed off at 8.00, playing in glasses is no fun when it's like this so exceptionally pleased to be 4 over at the turn and finished with an 80 which sounds horrendous but by no means the worst .
Currently tied 39th and preparing to be blown away tomorrow,although hopefully no rain
 
Played against another classic club fan today at Oake Manor near Taunton.

I wasn't expecting much from the course as it looked like a typical parkland offering but was pleasantly surprised. Good variety of holes, good condition and we got round in 3.5 hours despite it being quite busy. Good value for Β£45 and a very enjoyable round.

I lost the match on the par 5 17th where I was giving a shot, I'd hit a good drive about 280 yards (following wind and dry, firm fairway) and my oppo had lain up short of a stream for two, so I felt I had to go for the green despite needing to hit a tiny draw round some trees, didn't quite get all of it and disappeared into the stream.
 
Play upminster golf club today.

Had higher hopes after having lessons there for a while

It's okay. Not a fan of courses that have so many holes running over the last one IE teeing over greens ..

Luckily very dead out today so we wizzed round. Must be a nightmare on comp days
 
I had a late call to make up a team for a county seniors event at St Annes Old Links, a bargain at Β£15. i was a tad windy but I started out really well with a birdie and a couple of pars in the first 5 holes and we all played steadily and had 43 points after 9 holes. The wind really picked up on the back nine and in trying to take it into account I hit some awful drives but mostly managed to make a bogey, which fine as I was getting a shot on most holes, we were still going well with 4 holes to go and then the wheels fell off, on two of the next 3 holes only one of the four of us manage to score and we finished with 78 points, with just a couple of teams to come in the leaders only had 83, so we didnt miss out by many.

Still the main thing was playing a lovely links course on a dry day for next to nothing, what's not to like.
 
I had a late call to make up a team for a county seniors event at St Annes Old Links, a bargain at Β£15. i was a tad windy but I started out really well with a birdie and a couple of pars in the first 5 holes and we all played steadily and had 43 points after 9 holes. The wind really picked up on the back nine and in trying to take it into account I hit some awful drives but mostly managed to make a bogey, which fine as I was getting a shot on most holes, we were still going well with 4 holes to go and then the wheels fell off, on two of the next 3 holes only one of the four of us manage to score and we finished with 78 points, with just a couple of teams to come in the leaders only had 83, so we didnt miss out by many.

Still the main thing was playing a lovely links course on a dry day for next to nothing, what's not to like.

:eek:
I hope it didn't put your playing partners off. ;)
 
I already play off the middle and back tees a lot so I know what to expect there in terms of consistency of scoring.

My main thought is learning to score low. Playing from 5300 yards I am effectively simulating what a scratch player might do from the normal tees. It will help build a scoring mindset. Force me to think more strategically about tee shots instead of always hitting driver - different landing areas off the tee, different hazards come into play. Mental affect of handling pressure knowing I'm scoring well and that it's ok to shoot 75 and not *** the bed. I do agree with the saying that the closest to the hole off the tee the better but it also is ok at times to aim for a bogey at worse on a stroke hole.

Looking at my course on maps from the forward tees I'm already thinking I can't hit driver on a lot of holes and that certain things become new hazards or bunkers are now in play/aren't in play etc and it's already forcing me to think like that which I believe will help me off the normal tees and at other courses.

If I have a 400 yard par 4 that I'm stroking on, that doglegs left to right which does not suit my shape then I absolutely do not need to hit driver as with the draw it'll go in trouble off the left. I could hit a 5w and take the trees out of play completely for example, leaving myself a 190 yard approach but it's the safe option and effectively rules out double bogey instantly, probably a bogey at worse from there. I am guilty of, especially on longer holes but also short holes, just pulling driver and being super aggressive when sometimes the smart play is to hit a lesser club off the tee to avoid the trouble and take the high numbers out of the equation. I'm hoping playing from the forward tees will make me think like that a bit more and a bit of a learning experience. It may be the difference in the future of me shooting 78 instead of 82 for example.

Although my handicap has dropped this year I am regressing a bit in the last couple of months and as such my morale and confidence out there has suffered a touch and I could do with a morale/confidence booster on the course. When I played Dunaverty which is a very short course, last year, I had 5 birdies but it gave me a huge boost at a crucial time in the season as I had been scoring poorly but my handicap plummeted from 16 to 11/12 after that in the coming weeks.

Honestly, I think you’re overthinking it. Which is never good.

I’m basically the same index, slightly lower atm and off the same tees my score can vary by 10 shots one day to the next very easily

We’re not good enough ballstrikers, and even if we were what’s the point hitting a hybrid to the spot as we might driver on some holes?
 
9 holes last night. It was warm, cloudy and very breezy. I don’t think I had considered how strong the breeze was until I got to the first tee. I stuck to my usual 5 wood and then was thinking actually driver might be more appropriate. But it’s short and even if the wind stole some distance I had enough irons in my bag to overcome that. So it was a case of playing with it into , across and down. Into, I was getting a 225 yard drive, down it I was 310 yards. Across really had little impact just giving the ball room to move was the key.
It was nice to be out, as it has been a little stressful over the last few days with hospital visits and work reorganisation.
 
Nice round of golf at Frinton yesterday. Lovely course.

Clacton GC today.

Stayed at a very Fawlty Towers-esque small hotel in Clacton last night. Comically dated, but cheap. Probably got a total of 3 hours massively interrupted sleep thanks to the gulls screaming all night. Any fantasies of retiring to a coastal location have been well and truly destroyed. I can understand why all the residents of Clacton appear to be on smack. It might be the only way to get a solid 6 hours sleep around here.
 
Another poor effort today..half decent front 9 but the mistakes kicked in after 7 holes...
Just another occasion where my game goes AWOL for a week or 3
It'll get better....
Until then it's still a stupid game
 
Took the afternoon off and played Rickmansworth with my wife - she needed some more practice before our golf trip next week. It's very hilly and the fairways are scorched to death at the moment so some of them were pretty impossible to hold a ball on, never mind the greens. I had a few stupid doubles on par 3s and two very poor topped/knifed tee shots on the front nine - got away with the latter due to the roll though. Back nine was a little better, but blobbed the 16th when I had to get driver out for only the 4th time, and sliced it right into the crap, on the wind. Driving is very annoying at the moment, I seem to lurch between aiming left and pulling it further left, or aiming up the middle and carving one right. Anyway, managed to scrape a few pars together either side of that blob and managed a 17 point back nine for 32 in total. 82 gross (it's a par 65).

Wife struggled, we didn't have time for a warm-up which normally helps her, and she finds it difficult hitting uphill and off sidehill lies, so only 20 points for her unfortunately.
 
Nice round of golf at Frinton yesterday. Lovely course.

Clacton GC today.

Stayed at a very Fawlty Towers-esque small hotel in Clacton last night. Comically dated, but cheap. Probably got a total of 3 hours massively interrupted sleep thanks to the gulls screaming all night. Any fantasies of retiring to a coastal location have been well and truly destroyed. I can understand why all the residents of Clacton appear to be on smack. It might be the only way to get a solid 6 hours sleep around here.
What did you think of the fairways and tees at Frinton?

I played there last week and they were not good....though I understand the course has had some issues with Leatherjackets and the like...and obviously the dry weather hasn't helped much. Greens were superb though.
 
Was our usual Friday gathering for skins today...teeing off at half eleven put the 19 of us firmly in the glare of the mid day sun.

Played really well over the front nine...3 bogies and a birdie, but the back nine was a little more ragged as 4 bogeys and a double were offset by a solitary birdie. Slowly coming into some form in recent weeks...this was the 4th consecutive decent round I've played.

Fairways: 10/13
GIR: 9/18
Putts: 33
Putts/GIR: 2.0
Putts/non GIR: 1.67

Only real balls up was the 15th....hit a drive down the left, looked like it was going to catch the edge of a bunker, but when I got there I found it right on the edge, with an impossible stance with me needing to put one foot in the bunker, but the swing impeded by one of our new rake stands, which have been deemed immovable obstructions.

Relief placed me in a good grassy lie with plenty of scope to get good contact with an unhindered stance...a simple 8 iron to the green drop it in short left and let the natural contours work the ball back to the right and roll up to the flag. Sounded good in theory. In practice I caught the ball thin, pushed it right into a bunker. The bunker shot was weak and it landed just outside in a terrible deep tuft of grass, I hacked out with the 4th and then rolled my bogey putt from 30ft to the edge of the hole. Stupid game. Stupid golfer.

Greens in good condition but so difficult to hold...especially as they are relatively small.

My two birdies were cancelled out by others but at least in our little side bet my partner and I won our betterball match...finally edging ahead on the 16th and closing it out on the next hole for a handsome prize of Β£2.
 
What did you think of the fairways and tees at Frinton?

I played there last week and they were not good....though I understand the course has had some issues with Leatherjackets and the like...and obviously the dry weather hasn't helped much. Greens were superb though.
The pro mentioned it to us before we went out and told us it's PL on fairways due to the damage. I honestly didn't think they were any worse than I've seen anywhere else recently. Everywhere is scorched.
I just really liked everything about the course. For reasons I can't quite explain it reminded me of Teignmouth - my all time favourite golf course.

Clacton GC today. The rest of my party seemed to like it. Decent condition but I didn't think it was a patch on Frinton as an interesting golf course.
 
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