Wednesday 18 January 2012
Monday 16 January 2012
Frosty but Fun
The winter League certainly lived up to its name at the weekend. Conditions were......let's say just about playable. Although the temperature was down at 3°c/37°f the air was still and with the morning sun out it was quite nice. The course looked great......if only as a golf Christmas card (see pics) and as it was the first real frost, it hadn't fully frozen the ground solid though there was no high wedges to be played into the greens ha ha.I normally don't care much for golfing in such conditions but in a strange way I was looking forward to the challenge. We were a 2 ball, which was a good thing as it's harder finding 4 white balls in the frosty rough and also It was good to have a catch up with my old school mate Mark. The round started well even though I pushed my tee shot right into a small coppice ( swinging too hard Dexter :) ) I managed to save par. The 2nd, par 3, I over clubbed this was the first blob on the card (stableford). The next 2 holes were bogeys, the par 5 I hit a frozen fairway bunker (see pic) that was different.... and the next hole, after a fairway hit, my approach to the green hit, bounced and ice skated off again ha ha. The front 9 ended with a few errant drives resulting in tough second shots which had to be hit into the mouth of the green to stand any chance of holding them and another blob due to a lost ball just off the fairway ( one of those mystery disappearing golf balls ). A nice par on 9, which in normal conditions my approach would've been a tap in birdie, and I was still enjoying the challenge and had played some really nice long irons.
The back 9 started really well,although my tee shots weren't particularly accurate, I managed to make 3 pars on some pretty difficult holes. By now the sun was at it's winter highest and the exposed parts of the fairways were thawing slightly but unfortunately the greens and bunkers were just as unforgiving as the front 9's. Strangely, I was still really enjoying the round and all it's challenges, the course and surrounding landscape was looking really picturesque and the overall temperature had risen slightly and I was able to remove one of my many restricting top layers. I managed to find more fairways and hold more greens in regulation this improved my stableford score and gave me a card worthy of competition entry. Just as on the front 9, I finished with a really nice par which capped off a thoroughly enjoyable mornings golf. I handed in a stableford score of 28 points( scorecard/round performance ), which considering the conditions, I was reasonably happy with as I knew the rest of the field, over the next few days, would have to play to a similar standard.This round, as the title says was pretty much just for fun and It didn't disappoint. I hit alot of good shots and made some ridiculous putts so all in all very enjoyable..............but can't wait for the good weather.
Thursday 12 January 2012
Swing like Stricker
Going to the range.......I either leave with a feeling of, well that wasn't much help or, I cant wait to get out on the course. I think the problem is I'm a bit of a purist and like to feel the grass under my feet instead of the rock hard overused range mats, that coupled with the fact that I never had a range routine and struggled to overcome the urge to aimlessly drill balls into the abyss. All that's now in the past and after creating an interesting routine my time on the mats is going to be much more productive.
For all golfers like myself, I'm sure the 2012 golf season couldn't come quick enough and what a cracking way to start with 4 days of beautiful Kapalua scenery in the background with some of the best players from the PGA Tour. Stricker set the pace for the event and kept it going right through to trophy time ( the guy is a legend ). It was great to see Simpson, Laird, Byrd and the boys putting on a show with their vast array of shots, which just proves that to play good golf you have to have a good imagination.
The reason for this post was to explain how the first event of the season gave me another simple yet very effective lesson. After watching the majestic/seemingly effortless swing of Steve Stricker I went out to the range for my regular Wednesday session ( accompanied by Damian and Caroline..... see Damian I said I would mention you ha ha ). My first thought was swing within yourself, don't ask me why but WOW. I seemed to be getting much crisper contact with a nice trajectory with all my irons, although the swing only felt 3/4's I was getting the same distance if not a touch more. This new easier feeling swing accompanied with the routine has left me with such a positive outlook to the range and a lot of promise for the Winter league at the weekend ( scorecard to follow )....... Big thanks to Steve Stricker.
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