tugglesf239
Journeyman Pro
I have always been quite self conscious about never having played a 'true' links course, seeing as i am a Scotsman. However yesterday i finally managed to get myself onto a links, namely Royal Liverpool .
Arrived quite early and it was blowing 30-40 steady and i was actually pleased that i would get a change to try and outsmart the courses main defence.
Got my kit out of the car and quickly realised that for the first time in my golfing life, i had committed the biggest schoolboy possible....
Id left my freshly polished shoes at home....
idiot
Straight into the pro shop to see what bargain bin shoes i could pick up and noticed the shelves were a sea of Ecco and FJ premium number... ouch. Now under normal circumstance i would have not bothered, however i was not going to miss out. Asked to assistant pro if he had anything slightly cheaper and to my delight he replied yes....some sketchers were on another display.
Still cost me a ton though. ouch
Still they were really comfy and quite smart looking. Not to mention a good investment that i can lock in the cupboard until my current two pairs are trashed (well that is the internal conversation i was having to justify buying them...)
Onto the first tee and the wind was hard into our faces, so i decided to just take a steady 4i and play to the dog leg. I hit it solid and it flew toward the apex of the dog leg right hand side, sweet shot until my natural draw was blown to the left hand side of the fairway...
Still i found my ball nested right against the gorse. Addressed the ball and proceeded to ham shank it right onto the practice range..
was pretty worried that had set the tone for the day but happily i steadied out and really started to use the wind or at least play against it.
Hit a few crackers and on the fourth hole "new" i hit an wedge that rode the right to left wind just short of the green. Was so happy to actually hot the shot i was visualising in my head and felt so much more confident that i could play using my natural high shot.
Few more decent hole with even a par of single blob and i was really getting into the swing of things. Shot of the day for me came on the 7th where i again hit the exact shot i wanted to and stiffed it to about 6 foot. Two putts later i was buzzing that i was not going to make a complete fool of myself on the links.
Wind played a huge factor. Middled a drive on one of the par 4's and i went a total of about 200 yards. Hit one slappy drive on the 14th with the wind behind and we measured it at 330which i then birdied after a duffed pitch, then sublime chip and putt rescue.
I also birdied the 16th after not realising it was a par 5, sinking a long out with zero pressure for par (i though) only to be informed it was a bird.
Never kept a full score as i did blob two holes by losing a drive in the clag but i think i would have broke 100 easily.
Was a real pleasure to play a totally different array of shots like bump and runs etc, that i just never even consider on a parkland track.
I can really see the appeal and cant wait to get my backside onto some of the local links courses in the NW.
Just thought id share
Arrived quite early and it was blowing 30-40 steady and i was actually pleased that i would get a change to try and outsmart the courses main defence.
Got my kit out of the car and quickly realised that for the first time in my golfing life, i had committed the biggest schoolboy possible....
Id left my freshly polished shoes at home....
idiot
Straight into the pro shop to see what bargain bin shoes i could pick up and noticed the shelves were a sea of Ecco and FJ premium number... ouch. Now under normal circumstance i would have not bothered, however i was not going to miss out. Asked to assistant pro if he had anything slightly cheaper and to my delight he replied yes....some sketchers were on another display.
Still cost me a ton though. ouch
Still they were really comfy and quite smart looking. Not to mention a good investment that i can lock in the cupboard until my current two pairs are trashed (well that is the internal conversation i was having to justify buying them...
)Onto the first tee and the wind was hard into our faces, so i decided to just take a steady 4i and play to the dog leg. I hit it solid and it flew toward the apex of the dog leg right hand side, sweet shot until my natural draw was blown to the left hand side of the fairway...
Still i found my ball nested right against the gorse. Addressed the ball and proceeded to ham shank it right onto the practice range..
was pretty worried that had set the tone for the day but happily i steadied out and really started to use the wind or at least play against it.
Hit a few crackers and on the fourth hole "new" i hit an wedge that rode the right to left wind just short of the green. Was so happy to actually hot the shot i was visualising in my head and felt so much more confident that i could play using my natural high shot.
Few more decent hole with even a par of single blob and i was really getting into the swing of things. Shot of the day for me came on the 7th where i again hit the exact shot i wanted to and stiffed it to about 6 foot. Two putts later i was buzzing that i was not going to make a complete fool of myself on the links.
Wind played a huge factor. Middled a drive on one of the par 4's and i went a total of about 200 yards. Hit one slappy drive on the 14th with the wind behind and we measured it at 330
which i then birdied after a duffed pitch, then sublime chip and putt rescue.I also birdied the 16th after not realising it was a par 5, sinking a long out with zero pressure for par (i though) only to be informed it was a bird.
Never kept a full score as i did blob two holes by losing a drive in the clag but i think i would have broke 100 easily.
Was a real pleasure to play a totally different array of shots like bump and runs etc, that i just never even consider on a parkland track.
I can really see the appeal and cant wait to get my backside onto some of the local links courses in the NW.
Just thought id share
