36 holes...

...this weekend, and much to think about. Will go into the rounds in a bit more detail at a later date (although perhaps not quite so much detail as last night's post) but had a few observations I wanted to note down.

On today's round I had a disappointing start, and in fact lost a ball on the first hole. I went back and started again, something I regret. It's just not golf, and if I had broken 90 it wouldn't, couldn't have counted. It's not something I'd do again. Fortunately I shot 96 so that wasn't an issue, but it could have been and I'd have been absolutely gutted if I had - not something I want to feel on breaking 90. 35 putts, 40 the day before.

Even with that mulligan, I started poorly, and had also done so the day before. I need to start focusing when starting the car, and thinking about the first tee.

My short game is rusty; my pitching is a lot more consistent, but just need to get the distances down. Chipping needs a lot more work on the stroke, as well as distances. Too often I'm hitting a short game shot, then needing 2 putts (or more). At the moment, even with the ball reasonably far away I'm getting the putt very close; if I can get even a bit closer most of the time that should mean a few more putts holed. I really want to get to the point where I feel there's a chance of getting up and down whenever I miss a green in regulation, I feel that the most important thing for my scoring is becoming a master of the short game; this isn't just about the old "drive for show, putt for dough" adage; when I did Carey Mumford's behaviour style test I came out as a "persuader", the dominant style of the extrovert. That suggests that I won't get the ball to fly straight all of the time, that I can play "Army" golf (Left,Right,Left) but be saved by an aptitude for the short game. And my experience backs that up; often I was in a position to make a decent score despite not deserving to, and just a bit more short game sharpness would have seen me save par (Given my handicap, that's effectively a birdie). I also like the idea of being the type of player that constantly who looks like they're out of a hole but grinds out a score due to their short game mastery- that would be pretty cool.

After writing last night's post I was in contemplative mood, and wrote down a few thoughts, and worked with half swings of my irons. I had a few relaxed and effortless swings that flew well, and I stopped to think what I'd done differently in these swings. I realised that my grip had been very light, lighter than I thought it needed to be, but it produced these lovely swings. It seemed that it made it an awful lot easier to avoid flipping the club.

I putted for a bit and hit a few chips before going back to check it out, as often what I think has made the difference turns out to be something that happened coincidentally but fortunately not in this case. I finally seem to be getting the hang of setting up square with my irons too. My drives now tend to be a pull, pull-draw/hook; I'm going to experiment at the range with using that swing but hitting the ball from the inside, which will hopefully straighten out the flight, although it's easy enough to aim for thankfully.

I managed to string a few good holes together today, and got the fear that comes with not wanting to mess up that run. I started second guessing my club-face aim, hit a power shank (the slicing equivalent of a duck hook) then did the same into a bunker. I'm glad it happened as I need to know how to deal with it if I want to score well. My plan is to use the ClearKey "Never Eat Shredded Wheat" if I'm at all tense prior to a shot or if anything is interrupting the flow of my routine. I'm also going to use it without fail after every poor shot (eg shank). Limiting damage to less than one shot on average if at all possible.

Family is away this week, so it's short game bootcamp for this geek up at the local pitch and putt. None of the proper practice greens are open yet, so that'll be where focus my practice. I feel if I can improve my pitching and also my 1/2 and 3/4 irons that should have a good knock-on effect with my irons and ball striking in general and also work on my aiming, something I often do poorly. It's not uncommon for me to think I've pulled a shot and then check my aim with a club across my legs and realise I've hit it exactly where I was pointing.

Putting wasn't the best again; on Saturday had 40, Sunday 35. I paid attention to what was happening though, and realised I was decelerating. I then tried to stop doing that and of course the ball sailed past the hole, so by the end of the round on Sunday I was taking the club much less far back which started to improve things. I think it's likely that this was the cause of deceleration in the first place. Going to do some work in the breaks in the Masters- although it's on the BBC so no ads, the host broadcaster does of course have them so there are large gaps. I've got putt pucks to use as a rebound tool, trying to get putts to bounce straight back after hitting the pucks, which I'll use as well as a putting cup.

Oh, and I sank a thirty footer for par on the 18th, most gratifying!

A lot to ponder, and some things to do. Hoping the practice greens are open soon.