An abortive return

As I had the weekend before last free, I'd decided to end my self imposed exile from golf, and ease myself in with a medal round. I'd enjoyed my break, and had filled it up with good quality family time to the point where I hadn't really managed to visit the range as I'd planned. I'd thought I'd have been able to have picked things up close to where I'd left them in spite of the lack of practice time.

Sadly this wasn't the case. I should really have listened to the omens when no of my prospective playing partners had turned up, and gone off for a solitary "refresher" round, in which I'd have got myself back into the groove. Even one range session, or a quick practice round on the 6-hole course would have done, but instead I'd ended up waiting to get squeezed in with a 3-ball from another club that plays on the course (members of any of the 3 clubs can sign a competitive card to allow for this sort of eventuality). I ended up with two single digit handicappers and a 10 handicap; this wouldn't have been an issue if I'd been playing to my pre-break form but I was nowhere near. My playing partners were helpful, patient and polite, but after losing a ball off the 11th tee (I'd thought it had flown the gorse bushes when it hadn't, so I hadn't played a provisional ball) I NR'd. I eventually took my leave of them at the 14th, which let me cut my losses and spend some more time with my Geeklets. I'd been quite proud of never having NR'd, so it stung a bit to have done this, but I really hadn't wanted to hold up my playing partners by trudging back to the tee on a day when I'd been playing so poorly.

Lessons have been learned. I'll never return from a break of more than two weeks straight into competitive golf; there will need to be at least one range/practice session or a round on the par-21 course if not both. If I am in the situation where playing partners haven't arrived, I'll weigh up the merits of trying to get a competitive round with the difficulties that come from hanging around getting "stale" on the 1st tee, and if I'm in any doubt I'll play on my own rather than wait for a space. It's also reinforced that if I'm in anydoubt about the whereabouts of my ball I'll play a provisional.

In this case, the lack of practice time probably meant that I wasn't ready to come back and play after my break; had I been ready I'd have found time. I've not played a round since, but I've had a good couple of range sessions as well as a lot of time in my parent's back garden, just working on the interaction of clubface and ball, in clubface angle to path, angle of attack and swing path as well as on my routine. I'm not going to play competitively for a little longer, but do plan to play matchplay competing with friends. I view strokeplay as the pinnacle of the game (the equivalent of a Test in cricket, with matchplay closer to a limited overs match) but want to play for the joy of creating shots for a bit rather than the patient defence of a good strokeplay round.

This round may have been disappointing at the time, but when I look at what I've learned, I can see just how useful it's been in the long run. That really outweighs any disappointment I may have felt in the short term.