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Medal Winner
All,
I only joined this forum yesterday, where I posted that I was a genuine 25 HC up until 3-4 weeks ago and have taken on a challenge to get down to scratch as soon as possible, hopefully within 18 months. I appreciate it is a crazy target, and many have tried before, but I am serious about the challenge and am highly dedicated. I have a low boredom threshold and need to keep focused on very high targets, or I seem to lose motivation, hence this challenge I have set myself. To give a little background, I did my A Levels in 3 months as opposed to 2 years, I won a job in banking through a game of poker, and then I started a business with no capital which now turns over several millions per year. This is not bragging or bravado, and I mean that, it is more to illustrate that I tend to do well when I put my mind to things and I prefer to do things differently to others. The only reason I wanted to make this point was to put some background for all the doubters out there who might just sniff at this challenge; I actually will take those who think it is not reachable as a fair point, and I am sure it is those comments which will make me even more motivated when things get tough.
I wanted to thank everyone who commented on my post yesterday, the positive and negative comments were read and taken notice of in equal measure and I genuinely do appreciate it. There were a number of people who mentioned that I should make a note of my progress as they would be interested, and there were a number of people who said that this can become tedious as people list range ball after range ball as if that is interesting to others. For this reason I will keep updates at key points, but I will avoid being too tedious in doing so.
OK - the challenge started at the end of April, when I was hitting rounds from mid-90's to just over 100. At this stage I always felt that I had a competent and natural swing, but that I hadn't put time into learning the fundamentals and how to play the variety of shots which are required to get to a low handicap. I mentioned to someone that I felt I could get down to scratch with time and some lessons, and was laughed at, hence I took this on.
I have had 4 lessons since the end of April, one on general swing technique and spent with irons, two with the driver on rhythm and timing with focus on loosening grip and not trying to grip too hard to control the club, three on the short game and putting, four on further iron work and bunkers.
Over the course of the last three weeks I have hit around 6-7,000 range balls (and I won't go into the huge list I have of how each one flew), have spent around 4-6 hours on the chipping and pitching area, played around 5-6 rounds of 18 holes, and read around 3-4 golf tuition books as well as watching the Pete Cowen Pyramid tutorial DVD.
I should stress that I have genuinely maintained my job through this period, cut down my sleep from 8 to 6 hours per night to buy more time, cut out TV at home, and have maintained a busy social life! I promise that the majority of the rounds above have featured a hangover at the weekend, and practise area work has been spent at lunch times in between meetings.
The majority of focus has been on the swing dynamics and reducing the tendency I had for sideways movement, and a lack of pressure build up in the coil due to a lack of shoulder turn. I have also spent a lot of time with my wedges and now have a much better tempo which creates a more reliable stroke with a predictable distance and a judged flight path. From reading more I have also learnt shots I didn't used to have, such as basic punch shots with the ball at the back of the stance etc.
I realise that I am starting to get into the tedious phase of going into too much detail so I will try and cut it to being more brief now. The other thing I have really focused on after reading psychology book 'Silent Golf Mind', was to create a pre-shot routine. This has REALLY helped with my driver in terms of line up, routine, and also releasing some of the tension before striking the ball.
So - today, the first 9 holes with the pro and has all of this worked? The answer is that a lot of it has worked and I felt like I had made a season's worth of progress in 3 weeks.
I shot : Par - Bogey - Par - Bogey - Four over (long drive went too long and out of bounds, three off the tee) - Bogey - Par - Par (missed a fairly routine putt for birdie) - Par. This was a 7 over par through 9 holes.
The main differences for me were that the swing feels more 'grooved in' now and is really giving more confidence over the ball. The pre-shot routine is really helping with confidence before driving and I am hitting the shot which I visualise more often, which then helps me care more about visualising it in the first place. Putting has a lot of work to be done but only one three putt was acceptable for someone who usually can't judge distance. Irons were consistent and there were more GIR (or just off the edge of the green) than I have ever hit before. Short game has REALLY improved and two of the holes where I hit par were comfortable up and downs.
I realise that a lot more can go wrong over 18 holes but I feel like a different player after today, and it didn't feel like a lucky day but more a result of the hard work. It has filled me with a lot more optimism for the challenge, although I do know that the early progress is easier than the progress you make as you come down into single figures. I asked the pro what HC he felt I was playing at now and he said that I look like a possible 16, but a very definite and safe 18. This is huge progress and I am pleased to have taken a theoretical 7 strokes of the HC in such a short space of time. It has been hard work but I am more dedicated (and possibly obsessed) than ever after today. I appreciate there will be some harder days to come than this, and some nightmare rounds that will probably try and ruin my belief, but I will try and remember how today felt and keep moving forward.
Apologies to anyone I have bored, but I am sure you probably stopped reading at the beginning if so.....and to anyone else who does find it interesting, many thanks for your support.
I only joined this forum yesterday, where I posted that I was a genuine 25 HC up until 3-4 weeks ago and have taken on a challenge to get down to scratch as soon as possible, hopefully within 18 months. I appreciate it is a crazy target, and many have tried before, but I am serious about the challenge and am highly dedicated. I have a low boredom threshold and need to keep focused on very high targets, or I seem to lose motivation, hence this challenge I have set myself. To give a little background, I did my A Levels in 3 months as opposed to 2 years, I won a job in banking through a game of poker, and then I started a business with no capital which now turns over several millions per year. This is not bragging or bravado, and I mean that, it is more to illustrate that I tend to do well when I put my mind to things and I prefer to do things differently to others. The only reason I wanted to make this point was to put some background for all the doubters out there who might just sniff at this challenge; I actually will take those who think it is not reachable as a fair point, and I am sure it is those comments which will make me even more motivated when things get tough.
I wanted to thank everyone who commented on my post yesterday, the positive and negative comments were read and taken notice of in equal measure and I genuinely do appreciate it. There were a number of people who mentioned that I should make a note of my progress as they would be interested, and there were a number of people who said that this can become tedious as people list range ball after range ball as if that is interesting to others. For this reason I will keep updates at key points, but I will avoid being too tedious in doing so.
OK - the challenge started at the end of April, when I was hitting rounds from mid-90's to just over 100. At this stage I always felt that I had a competent and natural swing, but that I hadn't put time into learning the fundamentals and how to play the variety of shots which are required to get to a low handicap. I mentioned to someone that I felt I could get down to scratch with time and some lessons, and was laughed at, hence I took this on.
I have had 4 lessons since the end of April, one on general swing technique and spent with irons, two with the driver on rhythm and timing with focus on loosening grip and not trying to grip too hard to control the club, three on the short game and putting, four on further iron work and bunkers.
Over the course of the last three weeks I have hit around 6-7,000 range balls (and I won't go into the huge list I have of how each one flew), have spent around 4-6 hours on the chipping and pitching area, played around 5-6 rounds of 18 holes, and read around 3-4 golf tuition books as well as watching the Pete Cowen Pyramid tutorial DVD.
I should stress that I have genuinely maintained my job through this period, cut down my sleep from 8 to 6 hours per night to buy more time, cut out TV at home, and have maintained a busy social life! I promise that the majority of the rounds above have featured a hangover at the weekend, and practise area work has been spent at lunch times in between meetings.
The majority of focus has been on the swing dynamics and reducing the tendency I had for sideways movement, and a lack of pressure build up in the coil due to a lack of shoulder turn. I have also spent a lot of time with my wedges and now have a much better tempo which creates a more reliable stroke with a predictable distance and a judged flight path. From reading more I have also learnt shots I didn't used to have, such as basic punch shots with the ball at the back of the stance etc.
I realise that I am starting to get into the tedious phase of going into too much detail so I will try and cut it to being more brief now. The other thing I have really focused on after reading psychology book 'Silent Golf Mind', was to create a pre-shot routine. This has REALLY helped with my driver in terms of line up, routine, and also releasing some of the tension before striking the ball.
So - today, the first 9 holes with the pro and has all of this worked? The answer is that a lot of it has worked and I felt like I had made a season's worth of progress in 3 weeks.
I shot : Par - Bogey - Par - Bogey - Four over (long drive went too long and out of bounds, three off the tee) - Bogey - Par - Par (missed a fairly routine putt for birdie) - Par. This was a 7 over par through 9 holes.
The main differences for me were that the swing feels more 'grooved in' now and is really giving more confidence over the ball. The pre-shot routine is really helping with confidence before driving and I am hitting the shot which I visualise more often, which then helps me care more about visualising it in the first place. Putting has a lot of work to be done but only one three putt was acceptable for someone who usually can't judge distance. Irons were consistent and there were more GIR (or just off the edge of the green) than I have ever hit before. Short game has REALLY improved and two of the holes where I hit par were comfortable up and downs.
I realise that a lot more can go wrong over 18 holes but I feel like a different player after today, and it didn't feel like a lucky day but more a result of the hard work. It has filled me with a lot more optimism for the challenge, although I do know that the early progress is easier than the progress you make as you come down into single figures. I asked the pro what HC he felt I was playing at now and he said that I look like a possible 16, but a very definite and safe 18. This is huge progress and I am pleased to have taken a theoretical 7 strokes of the HC in such a short space of time. It has been hard work but I am more dedicated (and possibly obsessed) than ever after today. I appreciate there will be some harder days to come than this, and some nightmare rounds that will probably try and ruin my belief, but I will try and remember how today felt and keep moving forward.
Apologies to anyone I have bored, but I am sure you probably stopped reading at the beginning if so.....and to anyone else who does find it interesting, many thanks for your support.
