Morning all
Waking up this morning I realise it's now exactly one month and one day since I played my last game of golf. I haven't even been to the range. In fact apart from having a waggle with the clubs we sent out to the reader test panel just before Christmas I have barely touched a club.
This amounts to a major break from the game for me. I'm racking my brain I'm pretty sure that this is now the by the longest I have been without picking up a golf club since I started playing the game seriously.
The reason for the extended absence has as much to do with the weather and time of the year as the fact the last time I played (December 4 on the Old Course at Walton Heath) was easily the worst round I played all year leaving me thoroughly hacked off with the game.
Having made a very scabby double bogey at the 1st I redeemed myself with a good drive at the 2nd but with 200 plus still to go it was a tough shot. The fact my ball was on a hanging lie with the ball below my feet should have had me reaching for a mid iron and laying up but stupidly I opted for a hero shot with my 4 wood.
Predictably the ball went pretty much straight right - narrowly missing taking out Rob Smith (GM's course rankings moderator) on the way before nosediving into a load of bracken and general bund. Lost ball.
Successive pulled drives at 3, 4 and 5 meant the lost ball tally had reached four and I was nervously asking GM's instruction editor Neil Tappin how many balls he had in his bag.
At the 6th its started raining and by the 8th a weird fog had rolled in across the heath that only really lifted as we got to the 15th.
I proceeded to miserably chop my way the rest of the course. The only high point was a flop shot over a large tree at the par 3 17th after a tee shot that I pulled 30 yards left of the green. It was probably the best short game shot I have ever hit, getting it up and over the trees and stopping it dead 6 foot from the cup. The fact I then left the downhill par putt - which was to take thew match down the last - on the edge of the hole just about summed it up.
Due to work commitments opportunities for play and even practice in the next two weeks are non-existent but thankfully there is a light at the end of the tunnel. On January 18 (snow permitting) I'll be teeing it up once again, this time for the inaugural challenge Golf Monthly match on the Jubilee course at St Andrews where we'll be taking on four of the Scottish boys from this forum. I'm officially excited.
That means it's going to be a long 12 days waiting for the 18th to come around especially as I foolishly decided to give up drinking during January!
So, a rather long round about way of asking how long it is since other forum users played a round?
MikeH
(GM editor)
Waking up this morning I realise it's now exactly one month and one day since I played my last game of golf. I haven't even been to the range. In fact apart from having a waggle with the clubs we sent out to the reader test panel just before Christmas I have barely touched a club.
This amounts to a major break from the game for me. I'm racking my brain I'm pretty sure that this is now the by the longest I have been without picking up a golf club since I started playing the game seriously.
The reason for the extended absence has as much to do with the weather and time of the year as the fact the last time I played (December 4 on the Old Course at Walton Heath) was easily the worst round I played all year leaving me thoroughly hacked off with the game.
Having made a very scabby double bogey at the 1st I redeemed myself with a good drive at the 2nd but with 200 plus still to go it was a tough shot. The fact my ball was on a hanging lie with the ball below my feet should have had me reaching for a mid iron and laying up but stupidly I opted for a hero shot with my 4 wood.
Predictably the ball went pretty much straight right - narrowly missing taking out Rob Smith (GM's course rankings moderator) on the way before nosediving into a load of bracken and general bund. Lost ball.
Successive pulled drives at 3, 4 and 5 meant the lost ball tally had reached four and I was nervously asking GM's instruction editor Neil Tappin how many balls he had in his bag.
At the 6th its started raining and by the 8th a weird fog had rolled in across the heath that only really lifted as we got to the 15th.
I proceeded to miserably chop my way the rest of the course. The only high point was a flop shot over a large tree at the par 3 17th after a tee shot that I pulled 30 yards left of the green. It was probably the best short game shot I have ever hit, getting it up and over the trees and stopping it dead 6 foot from the cup. The fact I then left the downhill par putt - which was to take thew match down the last - on the edge of the hole just about summed it up.
Due to work commitments opportunities for play and even practice in the next two weeks are non-existent but thankfully there is a light at the end of the tunnel. On January 18 (snow permitting) I'll be teeing it up once again, this time for the inaugural challenge Golf Monthly match on the Jubilee course at St Andrews where we'll be taking on four of the Scottish boys from this forum. I'm officially excited.
That means it's going to be a long 12 days waiting for the 18th to come around especially as I foolishly decided to give up drinking during January!
So, a rather long round about way of asking how long it is since other forum users played a round?
MikeH
(GM editor)
