My Golfing Passion...

19.12.10
It is with a sense of self satisfaction that I can say my year of golf in 2010 has been a success. Yesterday was the Summer Open at Kingston and my score of 88 Gross (69 nett) was good enough to win my first Div 2 (B Grade 14-20 hcp) competition. It has been a good year as always on and off the course and the result yesterday was the culmination of the past 2-3 months of practise and persistence coming to fruition. Avoiding the time honoured golfers cliche “I could have played better” is easy in this “warm fuzzy” moment. There was no moment of ‘Zen’ consciousness when scoring a good result was in my minds eye vision of the achievable. The final score was a result of playing within my limits, not trying to push my limits. When the conservative safer option existed that had a higher percentage of success associated with the effort, I took it yesterday.
A return to the way I played last season has been on the cards all season. To do that had to include the additions to the way I play now; A) Using a Driver off the Tee and not Irons on all holes. B) Using #2 Hybrid on fairways and tees. C) Being able to hit the ball with more consistency and accuracy with all clubs. The difficulty came with being able to accept being a better golfer able to play shots that previously were ‘too risky’ and could now be played with a much higher success rate. This was not easy to adjust to. My confidence was shattered a few times when I played a shot that failed in the main because I was breaking the “what is possible” template from 2009.

The conditions yesterday were not perfect either, with a consistent wind that threw in some very strong gusts out of the blue and an occasional shower. In retrospect today is a crap day, very strong wind plenty of rain overnight and showers predicted for the day. Whereas yesterdays conditions had a beneficial affect in contention on the game, today it is a challenge to be able to lift myself and go out and play in much more adverse condition. I will accept the challenge and that is not because of ego but the desire to enjoy being able to have a crack and push my limit. Winning is a definite bonus that gives a lift in it’s reward for the effort put in over a season. Even though the 88 gross was not my best score off the stick, it is playing to a 16 handicap on one of the 2011 Southern Ports Tournament courses. There is a day between rounds during the actual tournament, today I will be going out and playing 18 holes on another Southern Ports course, in more trying conditions as part of my conditioning program.

Time to start getting ready for the days competition, Thankyou for your time and attention all, Hit ‘em Straight all”

20/12/10

Golf forums are markedly different to many of the sports forums which are popular on the ’net. Whilst most sports forums have the posters commenting mostly about the Highest Professional Competition ie AFL, NRL, FA, NBA etc. Golfing forums do cover PGA competitions yet there is a great deal of comment on individual golfers, club and regional competitions. Golfers are not in the main spectators and importantly we are not team members like players of football, basketball, hockey and other sports. This is perhaps self explanatory to why golfers can openly discuss their own performance and not be treated with derision for doing this as most of the readers are not armchair critics who do not play the game and can relate to what is being said.
Getting very close to the end of the season/years postings for 2010 and keeping my list of goals short and sweet in the results targeted has been a success. Well I am calling it a success, the most important goal was to achieve a 16-15 handicap and at the minute I am waiting for the last two rounds played to be loaded by the respective club handicappers. As posted above (yesterday) prior to the round that followed Sunday afternoon, on Saturday I won the Kingston SE Summer Open Div #2 (B) grade with an 88 (69 nett), this was matched with an 87 (68 nett) 41 stableford points in the Robe Club Competition the next day. In the two days I played to a 15-16 handicap and my handicap at the minute was 19 so I expect to drop to 17-18, (have not done the calculations myself for now).

That is good enough for me to accept as a win in achieving a goal. October and November were hard months as my game began to improve and the vital consistency had not established itself. Also the necessary mental adjustments to how I played the game were not strengthened to match ready. This was the most difficult transition to make, being mentally on the same level as my improved playing ability.
It was a difficult struggle adjusting to play in my preferred low risk percentage game whilst the shots the previously were safe, would play too well now, as I could hit the ball so much better. Golf is a game of millimetres and that is how little change in a shots execution can happen to make the result very different. For now though it is time to sit here and wallow in the results and satisfaction of my golf in 2010. Thankyou all for reading and commenting though the season. Best wishes for the New Year and a happy Christmas to all. “Hit ‘em Straight all”