Bulldog2k's Journal

bulldog2k · #61 (**permalink**) 06-17-2007, 06:31 AM

I think I've said before - I'm a driving instructor. I was halfway through my day yesterday when my car gave up - bloody thing. Had to cancel my lessons - so annoyed. Got back early, and as a mark of my annoyance, went straight to the website about a golf coaching course I'd read about in Today's Golfer.

The more I read, the more interested I got. The test of playing ability is a round of 83. Hmm. 11 over par? I can do that.

I'm a long way away from that, though. I've only just started. It's typical me to start thinking about teaching it. But then that is me - I've always taught. I was a secondary school teacher for 7 years. I was a qualified snowboard instructor, a guitar teacher, not a driving instructor. Teaching is what I do. Whilst I can only imagine how arrogant this is going to sound, I know I can teach golf.

So I come to a decision - I set myself a target; I'm going to qualify as a golf coach 2 years from when I started playing - ie; April 2009.

Accordingly, my amended targets from the above post;

1) Bogey golf (a) - 18 over par
2) Bogey golf (b) - 18 over SSS
3) Shoot 11 over par - the figure needed for the coaching course
4) Half bogey golf (a) - 9 over par
5) Enrol on the coaching course
6) Half bogey golf (b) - 9 over SSS
7) Single figure HC
8) Qualify as a coach by Apr 2009

So - with that in mind, I'm in the mood to go out and get some practise in. I decide I'll go up the range first, then shoot 18, then work no my short game on the course until it gets dark and I have to pick my girlfriend up from work.

At the range I don't warm up at all, and on the second shot feel a muscle pull in my back - well, under my left shoulder blade. It really affects my followthrough. This is absolutely idiotic, and I fully deserve it for not warming up. Accordingly I tell myself - not for the first time, after having read about the back troubles of several esteemed members on here - that I MUST ask advice about a proper warm-up regime, and I MUST stick to it.

Down to the course; first tee, driver straight up the middle, but it goes very wrong from there for a 7. This doesn't, though, set the tone for the round - I follow it with par, par, bogey, par, bogey, double bogey, bogey, par. Out in 41. Awesome. I smell the tempting scent of PB, and maybe that golden target #1 for me - bogey golf, +18 over par. The par on the nineth has given me one shot in hand - at the moment, I'm +8. I've also hit every single fairway so far, which is unheard of for me!

I steam another drive up the middle of the fairway, and steam the following 60 yard SW pitch in to the extremely deep greenside bunker. The first shot rolls back to my feet, and the second is out - 2 putt for a 6.

My one shot in hand for my round of bogey golf vanishes. Gulp. I really want to snatch some shots back on the easier holes coming up to comensate for the much more trouble some 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th.

Bogey, par, bogey, par - and I stand on the tee of the 15th with my most hated tee shot with two shots in hand for my bogey golf target - that is, I'm +12, having played 14. The tee shot is ok - it's drawing, but just clings to the left edge of the fairway. Simple 8I to the valley at the front of the green - and I get too greedy over the trees. It's always left - or a heart-stopping moment, I think it's OB, but it crashes into the branches and down to the floor.

Man - I'm in the middle of the wood! There's not even a shot sideways on to the fairway. I honestly think all I can do is thump it low with the hybrid and hope for the best. I get lucky, and it just squirts out, but still well short. The SW to the green is ok, but as I look at it, a bloody dog runs up to it and picks it up! The seems to be some sort of omen. Played 4. Really need an up and down here. The chip is to two feet, but I'm really casual about the putt, and deserve the result - it bends around the hole and stays up. 7.

My two hard earned shots again vanish, and I now need 3 bogeys on the last three holes to make my target. I don't think the lump of grey between my ears is up to the challenge.

The tee shot off the 7th (16th) is always a test, but I can hit it. It's a draw down a big hill - I know as a 26 HC I shouldn't be trying to shape shots, but I can do it. Indeed, I did it on the first nine on this round.

Well not this time. Pushed miles right on to the 8th fairway, and my heart sinks. I don't think I can do it. When I get to it, at least there's a shot back between the trees to where I want to be. I end up where I should have been on the tee shot, played two. 5I down the hill - and it's beautiful, straight, great contact - how far's it going to roll?

Not far enough - front of green, maybe 25 yards short. The chip is a good line, but probably 6 feet short. I'd love to hole this putt - but don't. 6.

So I trudge up the path to the 17th with a heavy heart, knowing I need bogey and par out of the last two holes. I actually don't think - deep down - I can do this.

I run the key thought through my head as I swing the driver a few times; do not try to hit it hard, do not try to hit it hard. I address the ball, and at the top of my backswing, the synapse fires across the front of my brain that says, "Try to hit it hard". I get the inevitable fade/slice round the corner - that must be in the dry water hazard that runs the length of the hole up the right.

That's the second fairway I've missed, but more importantly, it's the last nail in what was a very pretty coffin. When I get there, it is in - only just though. Sim-rough, about 150 short, with a tree just blocking my view of the green. I now have nothing to lose, and decide on an easy six with an open face, and see if I can fade it round the tree. I know, though, that I have my work cut out, with the ball in the hazard, and not being able to ground the club or make a practise swing.

I think - not for the first time - of the 40 foot bronze statue of Scrags outside his Melbourne clubhouse, with the inscription in latin on the pedestal that says, "SWING EASY!"

So I do.

Oh, that felt like a nice shot. I look up. The fade doesn't happen enough, but it's great contact, and heading for the left of the green - not the bunker, but perhaps for the dry ditch on the left. It was, I thought, as I trudge towards it, a valiant effort. When I get there, I'm delighted to see it's short of the ditch, in the semi rough.

This leaves me probably 30 yards short of the pin, and luckily the line doesn't really go over the bunker. I hit a sweet shot - it always looks good - a SW up high, and it rolls to 6 feet.

Somehow, I should have managed to rescue a bogey out of this, and then I would still need a par on the last. As I stand over the putt, I think, hmm, three inches of borrow from the left, 6 feet, uphill, gotta make sure it gets there. Wouldn't it be sweet if I could drop this and take the pressure off the last hole?

It never looks like missing, and I can't stop myself jumping, shouting and punching the air. What the hell, the course is deserted - it's 8pm

So now - with the game not only rescued by the par on the last hole, but now actually looking fine, I take the 9I again. The only things here I mustn't do is drift left down the bank or find one of the bunkers at the front.

Swing easy. I do, and it looks good, as long it's long enough to clear the front right bunker.

It lands right in it. ****.

The shot out at least is out and at least is on the green, but is 25 feet away, and I know I have to two putt now. I allow for 4 feet of borrow from the right which doesn't happen, and I'm left pin high, 4 feet from the flag.

So this is what it comes down to?

What else is there to say? I know I must not leave it short, and jam it down the throat of the hole for a bogey.

Again, I punch the air. That was it. The best round of golf I;ve ever played, but more critically, one in which I set myself a target, and held it together while it tried to unravel.

For the record;

84 (+18) - a new PB, nett 8 under par; 28 putts (a new PB) with 45 feet of holed putts; 10 out of 12 fairways hit (7 out of 8 with the driver); up and down on 9 greens; 7 pars (no birdies); scrambled on 37.5% of holes

I took a moment before the short game practice! I started doing Nicole's drill - the Par 18 - it's a great drill, and one I want to come back to, before I thought, wait - this is silly. My short game's never been better. Wouldn't I be better evaluating what I'm good at and what I need to improve?

So - I figured my driving was fine in that round - not the longest but straight. My chipping was as good as it's ever been, and my putting likewise. My approaches from 40-100 yards aren't great, and my irons into the green off the deck are probably the weakest part of my game. I'm also not comfortable in bunkers.

So I toddled off to the 150 yard marker on a couple of fairways and hit balls in, and it did, in fact, underline the fact that I need to practice this. I'm a lot happier with gentle shots with the 4H than I am with the 5I, but then I'm planning to get my pro shop to order me the 5H to match the 4H I bought from them, and that should make this kind of thing easier.

I then spent some time in the really deep bunker on the first, and started to see that I think I was trying to belt it too hard and taking too much sand, and that the nore important thing for me to focus on is not so much trying to empty the bunker on to the green, but focussing on the follow through. Then it starts to get dark, and I realise Ive been playing for about 5.5 hours, and my hands are slightly sore - so I head down in to town and wait for the missus to appear.

Happy days. Happy enough that this morning, I decide to take a morning off, and give the back muscle a chance to recover. Good luck to all playing golf this weekend.

snowman · #62 (**permalink**) 06-17-2007, 12:42 PM

Congrats on the new PB Bulldog! I don't know how you do it with all the mental baggage you carry by adding up the score as you go (I know you use a handheld thingy). Maybe that is what works for you, I know it would kill me if I told myself, "you NEED a par on this hole for a PB" etc. I play best when each shot is just a ball, a target and a golf club, send the ball to the target.

You should maybe try a round where you take a scorecard and write down the numbers and tally them up at the end. You might surprise yourself. I think the main problem with thinking ahead (i.e a par and a bogie needed) is that you get greedy on the tee or go for crazy recovery shots (like we have seen in the US open). It didn't seem to affect you so maybe that is how you work.

As for sandshots, I have been having a bit of a problem with them lately, I tend to only land in the sand once a round, but it is still enough to ruin my score. I went back and re-read Pelz short game bible and practiced his "scoot and spin" shot with pretty good results, at least now I know I won't leave one in the bunker and it will land somewhere on th green. I just have to keep practicing to get it closer to the hole.

28 putts is awesome. I envy you, I haven't been making a olot of putts lately and seem to just tap in from an inch or two on every hole. I am going to try and log the total length of sunk putts like you do to see where I stand and if I am inproving. I have been practicing with the flatstick as I seem to have next to no confidence lately. I have two putters and have swapped in my older putter for the time being and it seems to give me more confidence on the practice green, so I hope I can take that to the course. Any tips on putts?

Anyway, sorry to ramble. Congrats again on the PB!

bulldog2k · #63 (**permalink**) 06-17-2007, 04:56 PM

Thanks dude.

Yeah, I know I'm flying in the face of received wisdom here - I think most people are with you and Scraggs, in that they'd rather not know. Me - hmm. I guess it's how I play. I look at it this way - I have a definate plan for each hole which includes a target score. Accordingly, whether I like it or not, that includes a target score for the round. I think it would be meaningless to set a target that is unachievable and equally pointless to set one that is trivially simple.

If I do not meet my target - and most times I do not - the sky doesn't fall in and the four horsemen of the apocalypse don't gallop down the fairway past me. I just try again the next day. Maybe that's something to do with it - maybe the amount of golf I play (everyday) makes it easier to not see it as pressure.

Like you said, it's just how I do it. And the buzz I get from meeting a target outweighs the bad side of not meeting it. I think a lot of people recognise the importance of setting targets in practice - in fact, I think you suggested it yoursefl, if memory serves? Well - that's how I see most of my rounds of golf - practice. I could go to the range, but I'd rather play real holes on real courses.

Does any of that make sense? Maybe not...

Pelz - I intend to buy the short game bible soon, and the puttingt bible, but I also wanted the Tiger 'How I play golf' book - so much to do - so little time!

Putting - I think if I can, tomorrow, I might try and post a video of it. It would be easier than trying to describe it - not that I have any right to offer advice to anyone! But there are two thoughts I have when I putt - one is everything from the shoulders moves as one static unit (and the easiest way for me to do this is to stick my elbows out at right angles so that my wrists could not move if they wanted to - the only that can move is my shoulders rocking), and the other is that (and this is the bizarre one that I'm going to get told off for!) my putting stroke starts from my left knee. I'll explain more when I post the vid.

All the best mate - thanks for the comments!

BrianW · #64 (**permalink**) 06-20-2007, 08:58 AM

Hey Buldog!

I noticed on your video you mention Farrington Gurney, is that where you hail from? I used to live fairly local in Portishead before moving up to Malvern in Worcestershire some time ago.

bulldog2k · #65 (**permalink**) 06-21-2007, 05:43 AM

Yeah, at the moment, I live about 5 minutes away from Farrington in Midsomer Norton. It's the first time I've been to that club, because it's the nearest range to my house, but not to where I tend to be at the end of work!

Could not BELIEVE the speed of the greens - even the practice greens, and the pratice bunkers were of astonishing quality

I'll look forward to going back and playing the course properly soon!

bulldog2k · #66 (**permalink**) 07-01-2007, 10:08 PM

I played in the club 'roll up' this morning - the first time I'd made it to one of the Sunday sessions, and I was pretty much universally rubbish. Off the tee I was all over the place (took driver on 12 holes and only found the fairway on the last!), long irons rubbish, chipping not as good as it has been, and only my putting was of any note - 32 putts for a total distance of 50 feet.

I just squeaked a 99, and was thoroughly disgusted. The course was pretty soggy, but that was no excuse - I just played, as my Grandma would say, "Like a man made of band." Come to think of it, I'm not exactly sure what the literal meaning of that is, but the spirit of it was exactly correct.

I had to drive my girlfriend in to work, and had three hours to kill this evening - so guess what?

I'd tried to think about what I was doing wrong. Definately I needed to slow my swing down a little, but I also thought I'd lost the feeling of extension in my left arm, and the feeling of my right wrist (cocked in the RHD stylee) pulling it away as wide as I can. I've also been working on keeping my right knee flexed.

Right off the first tee, the difference of trying to keep the wide extension was clear. Driver straight up the middle. Smile.

I end up with a bogey 5, and follow it with a nice up and down on the par 3 2nd for par. Bogey, bogey (including a slightly galling three putt), bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey - man, this is so cool! The arm extension is great and the short game is keeping up with it. I'm getting up and down on several holes, and I've hit hardly any duffers. I'm on the nineth tee - starting to realise that what looked really odd to me in my video about my left knee is actually a way of getting my club inside, and if I don't, it kind of gets trapped outside behind my hip. The 8 iron from the tee isn't great contact but it clears the bunker. Chip to four feet, and the par putt dies in the heart of the hole. That's a shame, but it's still +8 - two more than my best ever nine hole score.

Ok. That familiar tempting echo rings around my head. Is there a PB on?

I try to shake it clear again. There's a lot of golf to come first.

10th hole: driver off the tee, leaks right into the rough on the bank but not probalematically. I play a gentle 4H, which zigzags the other way, up into the rough on the bank above the green - probably 10 feet above the green but I have a fair bit to play with. The SW rolls to 3 feet, and I drop it for par.

11th: 7I straight as a die, but maybe a little short. I chuck it up in the air with the SW from 30 feet, and it rolls to 5 feet. Amazingly I drop that for par, and whoop a little - it's only me out here anyway at this time of night. That puts me at +8 over par having played 11 - great stuff - there's a little cushion for the harder holes coming up to make my bogey golf target - how much would I love to shoot +17 though?!

12th: Driver off tee leaks into the left rough, sweep a SW 60, a little short, but a chip-and-putt up and down puts me in the ridiculous position of having played the last three hole for par.

13th: 8I is straight but strong, and ends up nestled against the bank. I toy with a Texas wedge, but take the 8I which is what I like to use for chipping if I can, and from 25 feet away, leave myself with a one foot tap in for par. I look at the 8I dumb-founded. This is ridiculous.

14th: driver, straight down the middle, but make a mess of the 2nd shot - trying to hit a hybrid too hard, and top it. I think of Scragger, and tell myself to swing easy. Play to the front of the green, chip and two putt. The 6 is slightly disappointing but I tell myself not to be so stupid and get on with it.

15th: my hated drive, but the 4H is great, straight down the middle. Unfortunately, again, I try to do too much with the 2nd, get the third to the front of the green, chip and two putt. Grr but still ok.

16th: 5I on to the fairway, but right and slightly short. Approach into the heavy right rough, 90 short, but the PW out is pretty good. It doesn't quite stay on the green but is only about 15 feet away. I choke on the chip, though, and two putt for another 6! Gah!

So I walk up the path to the 17th, not at all thinking what might have been, because I know the PB is on, but I run it round in my head, and look at my phone. At this stage I'm 73 with a par 4 and a par 3 to play. I guess a 5 and a 4 would be good - that would give me 82, beating my previous best by 2 shots.

Ok then, I tell myself. Make it happen then.

So I take the driver off the twee, try to get the swing thoughts in my head, but I'm determined not to hit millions of practice swings. I just need to swing easy.

It's good contact, but leftish. I peer into the gloom. It's getting kind of dark now. Surely that's sliding back right a little? If it isn't, I'm in trouble. I see it drop on the fairway, 10 feet from the left rough. That's the one! An easy 4H follows, though I drive down a little too hard into the sodden ground, and catch it a little fat. It drifts right a tiny bit, and I have a horrible feeling it's heading towards the right greenside bunker. There's more grass up there than I always think, though, and plenty of times I've thought I've been in trouble when actually there's a lot of room.

When I get there, I'm 10 feet short, probably 40 short of the pin. Again, I chuck a SW in the air, and straight away, I say, "Hello..?" to myself - it's always left, drifting on to the thickish fringe.

15 feet away, nasty bendy downhiller. Is this a chip or a putt? I want to chip, but I look at it again. Hmm. Ok. Putt. I watch it, great speed, turning, SURELY THAT'S IN??? Dies in the heart 2 inches away. Gah! But still good.

So I trundle up to the par 3 18th, 8I again, easy swing - OOPS! I've caught that. It bounces on the green, and teeters perilously on the edge, threatening to roll down the huge steep bank, but it's safe, just deeper than pin high, 12 feet away?

I try not to think about this too much, just get the 8I out, and chip - to a one foot tap in. My shoulders sag slightly. This almost seems anti-climatic? Tap in for par, and a PB of 81, +15 over par, beating my previous best by 3 shots

I'm so chuffed. Really delighted. 29 putts though for 27 feet isn't amazing. 1 3 putt. Up and down on 8 greens. 9 out of 12 fairways hit (5 out of 8 with driver).

At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, the cleanest, neat and tidy golf I've ever played. It's heading nicely towards my long term target of playing to +11, and I just had a blast out there. Happy days and this morning is a distant memory...

bulldog2k · #67 (**permalink**) 07-06-2007, 06:38 AM

I drove up to play golf with my brother this week. We were going to play a round with my parents, but h suggested we get up early (4:15am

) and get 18 in first at the club at which he plays first.

Well, you can never have too much golf, can you?

So off we toddle at stupid o'clock. His coure is a mess - soaked, what with all the recent rain in the midlands/South Yorks. Much of it it is borderline unplayable - even though we're playing preferred lies, there's frequently nowhere better to play it. That said, my brother and his playing companions have recently clearly been abusing this, to include once they got into a bunker with a puddle in it, they just dropped out of the bunker, claiming it 'was impossible to play out of a bunker on wet sand'. This was such rubbish that I thought I'd wait till I got in a bunker and then play out of it, but didn't actually get the chance.

On another day, there may have been good stuff to learn out there in terms of ball striking out of puddles, but for me it was a pretty miserable experience, scoring 121

, and the only saving grace for me was that my brother (who is a 13 HC compared to my 26) shot exactly 13 shots below with 108, and therefore whilst I'd played some memorably **** golf, at least some of it was clearly due to the conditions.

Then in to the car and on to Allestree - a muni course with what my bro described as the worst greens he'd ever played on.

Ah, this is very familiar - much like my home course! Hill everywhere, interesting and tight holes, drives through narrow gaps over tree-filled ravines. The greens are perfectly acceptable, even though three of them are temps due to the current weather.

The outward nine is 68, which is cool on a course I hadn't played before which is longer and harder than my home course. I birdied the par 6th with a great 15 foot putt, and put a lot of long ones down. The back nine was less good - 53 - by now getting v tired, and concentration starting to slip, but the resulting 99 will be filed under 'Generally Satisfactory'.

Again, I got frustrated with my older brother, but maybe that's what they're for? After taking 4 shots in a bunker he announced in venemous frustration that these bunkers weren't bunkers, they were mud traps, and it was impossible to play out of bunker with no sand in it, on which he dropped his ball out of the bunker and finished the hole.

I looked in the bunker - it was sand that had become hard-packed from the rain from which you couldn't play a splash shot but with which there was nothing wrong - it was just a question of trying to pick the ball off cleanly with a PW or 9I. It happened again in a later bunker, and when he later still put his provo into a bunker, I dropped a 'practice' ball in and played it anyway without saying anything (which I know I shouldn't have done) in an effort to forestall any more *****ing. Ineveitably he declared that bunker wasn't like the other ones

Ah well. More importantly, I shouldn't have let it annoy me. I know it's a basic rule of golf, but I guess it's even harder when it's your own family. Anywho - I was marking the card so I just subtley didn't write his score on those holes and I think he got the message

slater170 · #68 (**permalink**) 07-06-2007, 07:04 AM

HI Dog
hoping to find a course this weekend that is playable as im certain my home course will closed for the 2nd weekend in succession!
its not a lot of fun playing in these conditions is it and its not really golf as we know it.
looking forward to the summer months

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