I had a quick nine holes on Thursday morning at Saffron Walden with Dave – the first attempt in my quest to improve my golf scoring and get to a 6.5 index by the end of the year. We only played nine because both of us had too much work to get done, and I’d just spent the previous two days in Paris).
A 7.20am start with 5 minute warm-up is never going to be optimal, but it’s all we can fit in sometimes.
A reminder of the formula I’m aiming for…
Regularly shooting around 80 (+8) based on…
Off the tee
Hit 8 out of 14 fairways, with the other 6 at least in play.
Approaches / Par 3s
Hit 9 greens per round
Recovery
Get up and down twice per round, with the other 7 times no worse than three shots to get down.
Putting
Average 2 putts per green in regulation
Average 1.78 per missed green
How did I get on?
Um, not great!
I shot 10 over for the front nine. Six more than my target, but there were definitely a few that I ‘gave away’ out there.
Not the ideal start
On the 1st I was only just off the fairway to the left, but then hoiked a wedge well left and right behind a massive tree. Almost managed to knock it on to the green, but it came up short, resulting in a 6.
A solid 3-wood on the 2nd left another wedge into the green, but I contrived to shank this into the trees. A good flop shot got me back onto the green, followed by some awful putting for another double.
Big sliced drive to the right on the par 5 3rd, but found the ball and hacked out, leaving 200 yards to the green. Pull-hooked 5 iron, followed by a chip onto the green and two putts for yet another double bogey. Not an ideal start…
A glimmer of hope…
The 4th is a short and severe dog-leg par 4, with OB right. I usually play it safe and hit an iron to the corner, but today I risked going with 3-wood over the top. Took a more aggressive line than planned, but it worked perfectly and left me middle of the fairway about 50 yards out. A decent wedge left about 20 feet for birdie, and I holed it!
Solid 7-iron on the 5th just went off the back, but I hit a poor chip and couldn’t save my par. Bogey.
Nice drive down the middle on 6, followed by an attempted 3-wood off a downhill, hanging lie (not really in my skillset) which squirted right towards the trees. Got away with it and had about 105 left. Thought I’d hit my wedge well right but it somehow ended up 8 feet from the pin. Missed the birdie putt. Par.
The dreaded OB
The 7th is a tough par 3, playing about 175 on the day. Hit a solid 7-iron but missed the green. An OK chip and two putts for another bogey.
On 8 I hit a lovely drive right down the middle. Kind of forgot to factor in the wind behind, and airmailed the green by about 20 yards. Failed to get it back on the green, but then hit a really nice chip for a tap-in bogey.
And finally on 9 I hit a massive push-slice OB. Reloaded, again off to the right, but playable. On the green in five and two putts for a fourth double bogey.
What have i learned?
This all pretty much confirmed everything I already knew and, clearly, four doubles in nine holes is not going to get it done!
I need to find a bit more accuracy off the tee, but it’s the approach shots and around the green which offers the lowest hanging fruit.
Need to find some time to get to the range for a bit of practice, which is easier said then done with three kids and working for a living…
Dave McLean
Writing a review of your round when it’s not gone according to your fairly rigorous standards will never be easy can’t have been easy but thanks for sharing as it reminds me not to get hot under the collar when my own golf goes in the wrong direction.
I’m reminded of the infamous words from Dr Bob Rotella – golf is not a game of perfect. I am certainly far from perfect !!
I love that book. Have read it maybe three times – maybe need to go back to it! I thought keeping a record of my efforts to get better (good and bad) might help, or at least be an interesting experiment.