Neil18's Journal

Round date: 13th September 2007.

I have started to keep my own "Stat Tracker" on my PC at home. I have a spreadsheet of 47 rounds that should take me right up to the start of next season (around April/May). It details driving accuracy, GIR's, putts per round, up 'n' downs, sand saves and score for my home course. If I play at a course that has the same number of par 3's, 4's and 5's, I can use it there too.

I had my first round yesterday since starting it, and the figures do not look good.

It was a perfect day. Warm, sunny, a light breeze and a fast running course. Great weather for scoring. Surely. My home course is 6600 yards from the back tees and a par 72.

When I got home I input the figures into my spreadsheet (or was that spreadsh!t ?!). They read as follows:

Fairways hit: 5/14
Greens hit: 5/18
Sand saves: 100%
Putts: 27
Up 'n' downs: 47%

Score: 78 (+1 to handicap).

The bizarre thing is I didn't feel like I was having that bad a day. I think I made the best score out of it that I could, in the end.

The first two holes at my club are par 5's. I hit both fairways and both greens and two-putted my way to start with 2 pars. "Great!" I thought. Solid start and no dropped shots. The ball was going where I wanted it to.

From then on, I couldn't hit a fairway if you'd paid me and my ball-striking deserted me so calling a yardage and hitting a green became a lottery. My timing was well off and I was pushing or hooking (no advice please. I'm just stating it as a fact!!).

I did, however, make no worse than bogey on any hole and managed to keep a 6 off my card. I made one solitary birdie on 16 and should have had one on 18 (lipped out). 7 bogeys is too many though.

The stat of 100% sand saves looks impressive, but really it was an "up 'n' up"! I ended up in one bunker all day. Somehow, despite the lack of rain, the sand was very wet (must have been watered whilst the groundmen were doing the green). As is the case with compacted wet sand, the resulting ball flight can be a lottery. I must admit I didn't accelerate through the shot as I would have liked. I got it out, but left it short of the fringe in the light rough, 30 feet from the hole. Then I chipped it in! Result.

I guess, upon reflection, some of the "missed fairways" were only by one or two yards and a couple were courtesy of a bad bounce or two off the rock-solid fairways. It was the missed greens that bugged me.

When I think back, some of the missed greens were because of the lack of drop 'n' stop due to the dry conditions, but a fair few of them were not hitting the green on the fly, hence taking any spin I had managed to create from the ball. I either had the right club but pushed or hooked it wide, or left it short with a dodgy strike. The yardages were just not there consistently. I felt like I was hitting the ball solid in general. I may have become a bit stabby with my swing and too quick on the way down. Next round I'll play one more club and a smoother downswing with a shorter backswing. Just gotta tighten it up and not try to crunch the ball every time.

On thinking about it some more, I liked the fact that I was focused on hitting fairways and greens. It helped pick my shot for me. OK, I didn't hit that many, but lord knows where my focus would have gone had I not been concentrating on fairways and greens.

That's another thing. I never stopped thinking about hitting fairways and greens all the way round. It kept me from getting worried about my swing or how I was doing. I guess it's because I know that scoring well starts with fairways and greens, so why change that approach? It also helped to compartmentalise (is that a word?!) each hole and helped me stay in the present. On the tee I had one job. Hit the fairway. On the fairway I had one job. Hit the green. This may well have meant that I had a better day than usual with an "off" swing. If I can spray it and only come in +1 to handicap, I'm looking forward to a good ball-striking day.

__________________
Luke: I don't believe it!
Yoda: That is why you fail.

Round Date: 15th September 2007

Ok. Playing a different home course today, and for the next 10 months. Can't be bothered to explain, but a screw up on the membership front was to blame!

Anyway, the par for this course is 73 and 6850 yards from the back.

Wind was blowing a bit and the fairways were rock solid.

I started solid enough but made a reeeeeeeeeeeally bad decision on the 3rd tee and plopped my tee shot into the lake. Hence a double bogey. Always nice to get one of those in early!

From then on, my concentration knew no bounds. I was the "up 'n' down king" as my playing partner called me. Ball striking and club selection was still nothing short of pants though.

Fairways hit: 7/15
Green hit: 6/18
Sand Saves: 100% (1/1)
Up 'n' down: 9/12
Putts: 25.....................that's right people. 25 putts.

I didn't miss from inside 8ft and even when I thought I'd missed, I hadn't!

It felt like I got up and down from everywhere (most notably after spraying a drive into trees on a 426 yard par 4, laying up to 100 yards, hitting the pin with my wedge and then holing the resulting 6 footer! What a par!).

There was no putt I didn't like the look of.

I shot +2.

Well chuffed.

You really can score well even if your long game's ****.

Although my ball striking was lousy, there were glimpses of my ability. A faded, held off 189 yard 4 iron to a back right pin against a right to left wind was one. Set up a converted birdie putt of 6 feet. Also, a faded 9 iron to within 8 feet on the second which is a raised green was one I enjoyed.........................but that's about it!

I must be patient and wait for my ball striking to sort itself out. When it does, I could be looking at -6 with 25 putts.

Bring it on.

__________________
Luke: I don't believe it!
Yoda: That is why you fail.

Got myself on video for the first time in two months yesterday. I guess you don't need to have a look at your swing when you're blitzing it.

Turns out my old habits have crept back in. Top half getting ahead of the ball on the way down and too much "give" in my lower half on the way back. Plenty of lag though which is good. Been working on that. Couple lag with getting ahead of it though, and I'm in a world of trouble!

I'm pleased though. At least I haven't got anything new to figure out where it's going wrong. It'll be easily fixable. Been there and fixed it before.

A range trip today and I should be back on the straight and narrow.

Also, although my putting has been excellent, I have found that when reviewing my stroke that my eyes were a little inside the line of the ball and the toe of my putter head was off the ground. If I'm honest, if I ever have an "off" putting day, it's because I can't trust my line because I can't see it properly when I'm over the ball. I can pick a line when I'm behind it on the green well enough, but I have a bit of mental work to do to just trust it because I can't see it over the ball. If I can remove a bit of that brain work and really let the putt go because I can see the line, so much the better.

Gonna get my putter cut down today so I can stand nearer the ball without gripping down.

18 putts per round, here I come!

__________________
Luke: I don't believe it!
Yoda: That is why you fail.

Round date: 22nd September 2007

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Lovely day for a round today.

Practiced my swing and was hitting it well on the range.

Got my putter cut down and was holing everything in sight on the practice green.

Got on the first tee. 136 yards. Took an easy 9 iron and air-mailed it into the lake 15 yards behind the green. Double to start. Gravy.

On the 2nd I hit the fairway, hit the green and holed a snaking 25 foot birdie putt.

Excellent.

Having been practicing my swing I was in the mindset to put the ball out of danger so I could play my next from untroubled spots. So on the 427 yard par 4 3rd I hit 3 iron to take the lake on the right out of play................... Pushed it slightly. "No worries" I thought, that's exaclty why I took 3 iron.

Went in the lake. Turns out I was hitting the ball extremely well today. Another double. +3 after 3. Not great when you're playing off 5.

Mind you, the fairways are in desperate need of heavy rainfall. Some of the bounces are off the planet. Hence, I only hit 5 fairway out of 15. Done wonders for my stats, that has!

It also turns out that I am a pretty decent "rescue a round" player as I was +6 over 9 holes. Finished +7 in the end. So despite dropping 4 shots in the first 3 holes I didn't let it destroy the rest of my round.

I started the back nine really well. 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4.

The thing that frustrated me most is that I seem to chip and putt really well when I need to save par or bogey, but do you think I can hole a birdie putt with the same confidence and assertion at the moment? Er. No. I hole par putts cos I need to. Why do I miss birdie putts so often? It's still a putt innit???!!! Jury's out on that one but I'm working on it.

34 putts I had today. What a load of ****. I hit 11 greens in reg so I had 11 birdie putts and sunk 2 of them. I also had two 3-putts. When was the last time I had a 3-putt????? I have no idea! But I had 2 of the buggers today!

Harumph. Still, 2 over handicap wasn't a bad rescue after an abominable start.

Hey ho! On to the next round! It's a comp on Wednesday. It'll be the first competition I've played since July. Should be interesting! A northerly high wind is forecast! I can se a scrambling round coming!

__________________
Luke: I don't believe it!
Yoda: That is why you fail.