Saturday 8th of May: 99 (Medal, Kings Links)

Details of the round can be found here

Another blowy day, and an improvement of 5 strokes on last week. My back 9 was pretty impressive by my standards, pretty solid "bogey" golf, with a par on the last. My putter hadn't really been firing on the front 9- more on that later- and as I made the turn I realised that I'd been tight and tense on the greens, and that more than anything was affecting things. I gave myself a little shake, accepted that I hadn't worked enough on putting technique or touch & feel drills during the week, and that on the course wasn't the time or place to sort it or to remonstrate with myself (there is also mitigation, honest!), but what I could do was relax and hit putts free from tension and as smoothly as possible. This worked very well for me- got a 4 at the very tricky 10th (elevated tee, elevated green with harsh bunkering and linksy gorse nastiness in the gully between) and played much better. Only slight blemish on the back 9 was a triple at the 17th; was by the green in 3, then thinned a chip way past the flag from a tight lie (for a moment I thought it might hit the pin and drop in or at least slow a bit, but no. Was annoyed as I usually play the Hybrid chip from that sort of lie, but had hit a poor one on the 15th, turning a look at par into a double bogey 7 so went for a 9 iron chip) Then I tightened up over the putt back, and three putted. Sank an 8-10 footer on the last for a scrambled par though, which made things look brighter. Sand play was pretty good, always out in one apart from the first. Although stats show lots of missed fairways, that's not all the story; many of the misses on the back 9 were where I was in semi rough, at a reasonable distance with a fairly clear shot; I may stop recording these as missed fairways as I'd rather have that than hitting a fairway 20 yards off the tee after popping the ball up). I didn't start the round well so I'm really proud of the way I stuck in to get a reasonable score- playing to my handicap for the first time in competition, on a day where one of my playing partners (18 handicap) NR'd, and the other (12) scored 95.

On the downside, I started poorly. I got to the club at an OK time, but as the other lads weren't there, I got caught up reading waiting for them and as a result we were rushed onto the tee- no stretching, no quiet time, no playing the preparatory NLP mp3, nowt! Still, drove the green off the first tee. Sadly it was a duck hook onto the 14th green...

I also hadn't done any putting preparation. I'd had an appraisal at work, an annual review, and because of illness my last to had been difficult; I was thus anxious about this one and spent a long time preparing. Although it went very well, it used up a lot of energy, so not much putting practice was had. And by the time I got home on Friday I was exhausted, so didn't really prepare.

I missed stretching on Friday and the following Monday, and only got a half set done before the round.

On the whole, though I'm pleased. Pleased with how I golfed my ball around the back 9 the back 9, at the way I changed my state, at how I hung on despite it not going well, at the par putt after the 3 putt on 17, at being able to accept my putting as it was and then focus on maximising how I used the stroke I have. No technical thoughts to speak of on the course, and I was unhurriedly swift. Kept energy on a much more even keel with fruit, sandwich and low fat cereal bar, and drank more water.

What needs to improve? Putting- short, long and lag. I am a wee bit frustrated that I'm making the same mistake repeatedly- I want to be making new mistakes! This therefore needs work. I don't want to be saying this after my next medal round (not the 15th, as I'm on holiday) so will use this as a motivator if I'm ambivalent to going out when I have the opportunity. My preparation was also poor on the day (again something I said last week) so will lay things out Friday, and get to the club earlier. Need to find a way to get into focus before the first tee, rather than muddling on into the middle of the round. Have added a Cleveland Niblick (42 degree) in place of my 44 degree PW (!- what business does a PW have being 44 degrees? it's a piece of nonsense just done to say clubs go farther...)

Because this handicap is coming down, like it or not!

Right, I'm off to stretch before bed. Toothbrushing exercise before brushing teeth...

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