No medal round this week...

...I gave up my tee time to let Mrs Geek shop early in her favorite store's sale. This was hardly altruism, as it saves us a fortune on clothes for us all. Mrs Geek also works bloody hard with the kids while I'm at work, and she knows that I need at least one round of golf a week to be happy, meaning still more work for her. Then add in all the time I'm Tweeting or Blogging about golf, far less the time I'm thinking about it and even a fairly selfish husband could see that my addiction requires substantial investment from her. This was, then, the very least I could do.

The problem is that I ruined it slightly by moping about the place. My weekend medal round is something I really look forward to, and I miss it when it's not there. Laurence called at 11.45 to let me know there was a gap in his foursome at 12.30, but sadly Mrs Geek was out of mobile range. This intensified the moping, and really started to negate the benefit of the (slightly) thoughtful gesture.

Fortunately I came up with the solution. I'd made a friend playing on the Kings Links in Aberdeen, in my phone as Keith Golf. Keith has a few other sports, and his commitment to golf varies, but he can be really quite addicted. He's been playing quite a bit recently, and I've had quite a few texts asking if I were playing. I hadn't been able to join him, using my weekly golf pass for the medal, so I gave him a bell, and we nipped out for a few holes (planned to play 9, ended up playing 14!). I think this is how I'll cope with the "missed medal blues"- seek to turn disadvantage into an advantage.

I was keen to play well; we hadn't played for a while, and I feel my game's come on quite a bit. Obviously I know if I'm too keen to demonstrate this it's counter-productive. I'm pretty certain that the best way to score well is to forget about score and to focus on every shot in isolation, letting go as far as possible from thoughts of past or future. I set up to hit a comfortable draw on the first tee, and stuck a 250ish yard drive up the fairway with about a 10 yard draw on it. Keith's "wow!" from behind me as I held my finish was vindication.

We played matchplay, and I got to 4 up, when we decided to head for home. I was keen to get back, Keith wanted to play the last few holes. He plays very quickly, and I thought I'd just hit my ball on the way back like him, so lost the focus on every shot. Got to the tee of the last hole, and Keith mentioned I was back to one-up, so he had the opportunity to tie. Once I got over my surprise (I thought we'd finished and were just playing for fun, I'm still unsure of Keith's maths!), I realised this was a good thing. We've never been nastily competitive, but we both like to win. Keith tends to perform poorer under pressure, which is always helpful. Our final hole was a downhill short par four, 267 yards from the tee to the front of the green. I hit another 250 yard draw off the tee, leaving me 30 yards from the pin. I didn't catch my 54 degree wedge pitch cleanly (I should probably have chipped from the down slope, would do if in the same position again), so came up slightly short of the pin, with a 10 footer. Keith played 2 to the fringe, and we had a bit of banter- he felt he had to hole his putt from the fringe, as he was certain I'd get down in two. I joked that I could easily still 3-putt from where I was. That might seem a self-defeating strategy, and not something I'd always do, but I'd managed to "see" the path for the ball, and get a good feel for the pace, sinking the putt into the middle of the hole for the bragging rights.

Things were good at the start, when I was focused on every shot,and again on the final hole. I was trying to shape the ball, without having consolidated at the range, so I didn't play perfectly, and when I went 4-up (and in fairness thought we'd finished!) I lost a bit of focus, and concentrating on my shots took a backseat to catching up. My putting was a bit off, and I think I didn't have my shoulders near perpendicular to the club face (now, I'm not advocating trying to be perfect in an OCD-like fashion, but I wasn't close enough to perpendicular to a square club face). Really pleased with how I played the last to close out the match, always nice to have a birdie, particularly on a par 4 and particularly to close out the match. Pleased also that I managed to perform when I was really quite keen to do well, as this can often be a barrier to good performance.

The biggest benefit of the round? Keith once again has "got the bug" and is joining the Northern. This should mean that we'll be able to get a regular club time- there are always afternoon times available, I'm just not able to take advantage as I've been on my own. All good!