How to break 90

With thanks to Jason Sutton, @onplanegolf and the Golf Guru. Jason's blog can be found here with the details on how to break 90 here (episode 4a). The main gist is below.

"When a player wants to go from 99 to 89……They must do three things. For those of you who follow my blog, you already know this but it is worth mentioning again. 1) You MUST drive it in play….you don’t have to be perfect but you have to eliminate penalty shots during a round….2) No 2 Pitches and chips/you don’t have to hit every pitch or chip close but you absolutely can’t miss the green from 40 yards and in…..3)NO 3 PUTTS! You don’t have to make everything but you can’t three putt. Distance Control is king when it comes to putting. I don’t care if you can’t read a green better than Ray Charles. If your speed is good, I can guarantee you will limit your three putts."

Now 90 is my goal figure, my target for this year. The interesting thing for me is that I've been able to get into the low 90's without adhering to much of this- how much is therefore possible when I train myself to do all of the above? Exciting times.

I'm also very excited as I've had a further "lightbulb" moment. I met a lad out on the Links on Sunday, who had previously played to a low teens handicap in his early teens- I'm always envious of those who learn gold young and who therefore have more natural abilities, and he commented on my alignment. In fact, my alignment with the target line was fine; I just had absolutely no clue what constituted a "square" clubhead, and thus had some challenging ball flights. Every so often I'd get it right by accident/automatically but after a few good shots would start to worry and it'd be away again. After both Keith and the Instinctive Golf team's intervention I explored what worked, and now get the feel of being absorbed in the process, almost "feeling" the ball onto the centre of the clubface. When putting I now at times get so absorbed I am looking at where the ball was for some time after it's gone.

Despite not lining up any club correctly on Sunday, I scored a 94. Short game had improved but not enough up and downs- the next frontier. Managed to have a couple of looks at birdie and one at Eagle (first par 5 green in two!). My first medal round at my new club on my old course. I'm very excited about this.

Currently my 5&6 I are out of my bag, replaced with a 24 deg Hybrid (4H) and 27 degree 9 wood. Perhaps not ideal for Scottish links golf in the wind, but I found a good bit of success playing it low by gripping down, and playing ball back in the stance. I may lose my nerve and remove my 9 wood for my 6 I but we shall see.

I'm going to commit a shot strategy for the King's Links to paper over the next few days, and will undoubtedly have some more thoughts on last Sunday's round and my upcoming Debut Medal,as I'm very excited.
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