Khamelion
Tour Winner
I went into this golfing season and year full of optimism, hope and excitement, I’d finished last year just before Help for Heroes in October by putting in my 3 cards for my first official handicap and with no more comps I started this year with 17.1
Being more than a little confident I could get my handicap lower, a lot lower, I made the claim to Bill Elliot while sitting our evening meal at West Hill that I would be in single figures for the next Help for Heroes, I had a year to sort my game out. More on that claim below.
Over the winter I was having lessons once a fortnight I was getting plenty of range time but games only every other Sunday, I could only play once a fortnight due to being on call every other week, the dark nights didn’t permit play after work and I was 6 day member at Whickham so Saturdays were out as well, that written I was still playing to my handicap, knocking the ball in the low to mid 80’s.
Now I had to get playing more to get my handicap down, range time was good, but I needed time on the course to improve, things at work changed, that lad I was doing on-call with left and the company decided it would be better if there were more people on-call, so three others agreed. This meant I was going to be able to play three weekends a month, great more course time, but this is where I made my first mistake and probably biggest mistake of the year. No more lessons.
The guy who was teaching me went on 4 weeks holiday and while he was away I became a 7 day member at Whickham, in doing so I could now play in the competitions on Saturdays, however this clashed with my lesson time. The last thing I wanted to be doing was having a lesson in the morning and playing in a comp in the afternoon with the lesson still fresh in my mind, I thought that would be a recipe for disaster, however not continuing my lessons may have had the same affect.
The first signs of the wheels coming off my game came in early April, I’d had two consecutive 0.1 increases shooting 98 and 101, no reason to panic it was early and I wasn’t expecting miracles. Then came the Golf Monthly opportunity at The Grove.
New Golf Thinking, a new way to think about golf, seven ways to help a golfer mentally prepare themselves better and while a good few in the forum dismissed the ideas as common sense or bunkum, a similar good few embraced the ideas. Did NGT help lower my scores, no it did not, for me to lower my scores I need practice, lots of practice. Did NGT help me enjoy my game more, yes it did, it helped point me in the right direction in regard to coping with moaning playing partners, slow play, remembering good etc… and for that I appreciate being chosen to participate. I will continue to re-read the book dipping into it when needed.
While NGT had shown me the way to enjoy my golf a significant lack of lessons and practice time was taking its toll. I managed to play the last comp in April to my handicap, all through may each week was a 0.1 increase, now off 18 (17.7) getting to single figures to meet my claim was not looking good. The first week in June I played to buffer, but then came 6 weeks of increases and up to 18.3, then I had one of the two half decent rounds of the year and played to buffer again. The end of July into mid-August saw another 6 week run of increases putting me up to 19 (18.9), another round played to buffer, then increases all the way to this morning, my last comp of the season.
So my season comes to a close, not ever getting anywhere close to getting to single figures, just going the wrong way from the start. I had hoped that I would get one cut, even if it was just a 0.3 drop, but I couldn’t even manage to string a decent round together to get that. My best round of the season was an 86. That 86 was worse than the three cards I put in to get my handicap (82, 83, and 85)
What went wrong, some within the forum walls will say I put too much pressure on myself, maybe subconsciously I did, but the main reason was lack of game time and practice. While at the end f last year I was able to practice a lot, circumstances at work, and commitments in family life just simply meant I couldn’t practice enough.
I posted a thread on the 26th July entitled “The nay sayers will be happyâ€, many were very supportive in reply to my post and I really do appreciate the comments. A couple of replies suggested I was wrong in suggesting other would be happy I had failed in my goal. While I may have been little misguided in the title I was alluding to the article Bill Elliot had written on his as was back page, he wrote:
“Presently off a serious double-digit handicap, he insists he’ll be in single figures this time next year. I’ll let you know. No laughing at the back.â€
While the title suggested people would be happy, that was not my intention.
So, what have I learned this golfing season? Well :-
1. Without a lot of practice, I’m not going to get better, no brainer on that one really.
2. My innate golfing ability without practice puts me in the low 20’s handicap bracket.
3. Making claims to do something in golf is folly.
4. How to Ignore barbed comments from playing partners
5. How to Stop slow play getting to me
But mainly I’ve learned that getting into single figures is not he be all and end all and that just going out in the fresh air enjoying my game is way way better than sitting behind a desk working.
Cheers for reading if you got this far.
Being more than a little confident I could get my handicap lower, a lot lower, I made the claim to Bill Elliot while sitting our evening meal at West Hill that I would be in single figures for the next Help for Heroes, I had a year to sort my game out. More on that claim below.
Over the winter I was having lessons once a fortnight I was getting plenty of range time but games only every other Sunday, I could only play once a fortnight due to being on call every other week, the dark nights didn’t permit play after work and I was 6 day member at Whickham so Saturdays were out as well, that written I was still playing to my handicap, knocking the ball in the low to mid 80’s.
Now I had to get playing more to get my handicap down, range time was good, but I needed time on the course to improve, things at work changed, that lad I was doing on-call with left and the company decided it would be better if there were more people on-call, so three others agreed. This meant I was going to be able to play three weekends a month, great more course time, but this is where I made my first mistake and probably biggest mistake of the year. No more lessons.
The guy who was teaching me went on 4 weeks holiday and while he was away I became a 7 day member at Whickham, in doing so I could now play in the competitions on Saturdays, however this clashed with my lesson time. The last thing I wanted to be doing was having a lesson in the morning and playing in a comp in the afternoon with the lesson still fresh in my mind, I thought that would be a recipe for disaster, however not continuing my lessons may have had the same affect.
The first signs of the wheels coming off my game came in early April, I’d had two consecutive 0.1 increases shooting 98 and 101, no reason to panic it was early and I wasn’t expecting miracles. Then came the Golf Monthly opportunity at The Grove.
New Golf Thinking, a new way to think about golf, seven ways to help a golfer mentally prepare themselves better and while a good few in the forum dismissed the ideas as common sense or bunkum, a similar good few embraced the ideas. Did NGT help lower my scores, no it did not, for me to lower my scores I need practice, lots of practice. Did NGT help me enjoy my game more, yes it did, it helped point me in the right direction in regard to coping with moaning playing partners, slow play, remembering good etc… and for that I appreciate being chosen to participate. I will continue to re-read the book dipping into it when needed.
While NGT had shown me the way to enjoy my golf a significant lack of lessons and practice time was taking its toll. I managed to play the last comp in April to my handicap, all through may each week was a 0.1 increase, now off 18 (17.7) getting to single figures to meet my claim was not looking good. The first week in June I played to buffer, but then came 6 weeks of increases and up to 18.3, then I had one of the two half decent rounds of the year and played to buffer again. The end of July into mid-August saw another 6 week run of increases putting me up to 19 (18.9), another round played to buffer, then increases all the way to this morning, my last comp of the season.
So my season comes to a close, not ever getting anywhere close to getting to single figures, just going the wrong way from the start. I had hoped that I would get one cut, even if it was just a 0.3 drop, but I couldn’t even manage to string a decent round together to get that. My best round of the season was an 86. That 86 was worse than the three cards I put in to get my handicap (82, 83, and 85)
What went wrong, some within the forum walls will say I put too much pressure on myself, maybe subconsciously I did, but the main reason was lack of game time and practice. While at the end f last year I was able to practice a lot, circumstances at work, and commitments in family life just simply meant I couldn’t practice enough.
I posted a thread on the 26th July entitled “The nay sayers will be happyâ€, many were very supportive in reply to my post and I really do appreciate the comments. A couple of replies suggested I was wrong in suggesting other would be happy I had failed in my goal. While I may have been little misguided in the title I was alluding to the article Bill Elliot had written on his as was back page, he wrote:
“Presently off a serious double-digit handicap, he insists he’ll be in single figures this time next year. I’ll let you know. No laughing at the back.â€
While the title suggested people would be happy, that was not my intention.
So, what have I learned this golfing season? Well :-
1. Without a lot of practice, I’m not going to get better, no brainer on that one really.
2. My innate golfing ability without practice puts me in the low 20’s handicap bracket.
3. Making claims to do something in golf is folly.
4. How to Ignore barbed comments from playing partners
5. How to Stop slow play getting to me
But mainly I’ve learned that getting into single figures is not he be all and end all and that just going out in the fresh air enjoying my game is way way better than sitting behind a desk working.
Cheers for reading if you got this far.
