HRC99
Journeyman Pro
Well, my first full season at a club is nearly over now - just one more event to go. I had been a member at another club for a couple of years but rarely played. So this year is really my first full proper season and great fun it's been too.
I've managed to come down from 18 to 12, just creeping up to 12.5 in the penultimate competition and very much hoping that I can get a cut in the final medal to get back to 12.
My game has significantly changed over the last six months and I thought it might be time to reflect on that time and what I’ve learned:
1: I know that I know that practising my short game is very important and the best way to improve your golf, but now I actually believe it.
2: Drive for show, putt for dough? Rubbish. If you’re in a bush 300 yards from the green off the tee, then it doesn’t matter how good your putting is. If I drive well, I will probably score well. If I drive badly, I will definitely post a big number.
3: My course management and my decision making was crap. There are no prizes gained for hitting a miraculous shot out of that bush/pond/tree and no-one wants to hear about it either. They will, however, laugh at you and take the piss when you say “Put me down for a 10.†Take a drop, idiot.
4: There is an inverse correlation between how hard I attempt to hit the ball and how far it actually goes. Stop trying to hit the thing so damn hard.
5: Exactly none of my good rounds of the year have been preceded by my arrival at the club 4 minutes before my tee time. All of my good rounds have been preceded by a warm up and practice.
6: Having your chosen iron in your hands 20 yards before you reach the ball and then a casual look at the hole does not constitute an adequate pre-shot routine.
7: Getting cut to 12 and believing that you are a 12 handicap golfer are two very, very different things.
8: Despite being longer off the tee than most, I now know that I hit the ball considerably less distance than I thought I did. Damn you, GPS.
9: Betterball ¾ handicap golf just doesn’t do it for me. I need a card in my hand to make me play properly.
10: Shiny new clubs will not make me play better, I just need a better swing and a brain.
11: Swearing at slow players and hitting into them will not get you let through any quicker. In fact, the opposite. Your round will take as long as it takes and just enjoy it.
12: Play a provisional, stupid. Walking back to the tee to reload makes you look a ***.
13: The Hotchkin course at Woodhall Spa is bloody difficult.
14: As a new member, having good supplies of homemade cake and sloe gin will make you popular to play with in the winter.
15: My normal shot is a fade. Stop pratting around trying to hit a draw, you’ll only cause yourself problems. That one’s courtesy of Bobmac. Blindingly obvious as soon as he said it, but no one had ever said it to me before.
16: Your round is not over because you messed up the first one/two/three holes.
17: Smiffy is, apparently, a knob.
18: And incontinent. Allegedly.
That's my lot. Any others?
I've managed to come down from 18 to 12, just creeping up to 12.5 in the penultimate competition and very much hoping that I can get a cut in the final medal to get back to 12.
My game has significantly changed over the last six months and I thought it might be time to reflect on that time and what I’ve learned:
1: I know that I know that practising my short game is very important and the best way to improve your golf, but now I actually believe it.
2: Drive for show, putt for dough? Rubbish. If you’re in a bush 300 yards from the green off the tee, then it doesn’t matter how good your putting is. If I drive well, I will probably score well. If I drive badly, I will definitely post a big number.
3: My course management and my decision making was crap. There are no prizes gained for hitting a miraculous shot out of that bush/pond/tree and no-one wants to hear about it either. They will, however, laugh at you and take the piss when you say “Put me down for a 10.†Take a drop, idiot.
4: There is an inverse correlation between how hard I attempt to hit the ball and how far it actually goes. Stop trying to hit the thing so damn hard.
5: Exactly none of my good rounds of the year have been preceded by my arrival at the club 4 minutes before my tee time. All of my good rounds have been preceded by a warm up and practice.
6: Having your chosen iron in your hands 20 yards before you reach the ball and then a casual look at the hole does not constitute an adequate pre-shot routine.
7: Getting cut to 12 and believing that you are a 12 handicap golfer are two very, very different things.
8: Despite being longer off the tee than most, I now know that I hit the ball considerably less distance than I thought I did. Damn you, GPS.
9: Betterball ¾ handicap golf just doesn’t do it for me. I need a card in my hand to make me play properly.
10: Shiny new clubs will not make me play better, I just need a better swing and a brain.
11: Swearing at slow players and hitting into them will not get you let through any quicker. In fact, the opposite. Your round will take as long as it takes and just enjoy it.
12: Play a provisional, stupid. Walking back to the tee to reload makes you look a ***.
13: The Hotchkin course at Woodhall Spa is bloody difficult.
14: As a new member, having good supplies of homemade cake and sloe gin will make you popular to play with in the winter.
15: My normal shot is a fade. Stop pratting around trying to hit a draw, you’ll only cause yourself problems. That one’s courtesy of Bobmac. Blindingly obvious as soon as he said it, but no one had ever said it to me before.
16: Your round is not over because you messed up the first one/two/three holes.
17: Smiffy is, apparently, a knob.
18: And incontinent. Allegedly.
That's my lot. Any others?
).
