My "Pro-Tournament"-Experience

[mihi4]

Well, since everybodys talking about Golf not being a "sport" and all the things about "not being physical" I decided to do some sort of self experiment this week. I wanted to find out, how it feels for the pros, to play 4 18-hole rounds with something on the line on 4 consecutive days.

Something about me:

* age 37

* played professional Volleyball for 20 years (so quite a bit of overall fitness)

* didn't play tournament golf for 2 years, so my hcp stayed at -27,7 (no sandbagging, just no time to play tournaments), but did quite a lot of training and played a lot of golf otherwise, so I guessed, I should have been around 20.

As it happened, there were 3 tournaments of an amateur series very close to me:

Tuesday, April, 19th

Wednesday, April, 20th

Thursday, April 21st

So out went my registration for the series and my holiday request at the office :)

Since you may have recognised, these are only 3 rounds, so I scheduled a round for

Friday, April, 22nd

on another course (which will be played against my gf with something on the line)

Day 1:

Starting time on Tuesday was 11:20, I arrived at the course at 09:50, about 90 minutes to check in and warm up.

As I recogniced too late, that was too close, since changing between the putting and chipping green and the driving range was quite a bit of a walk. Warmup was good, hit the ball solid and got a nice feeling for the greens.

When the round started, I got quite a lot of first tee jitters. On the first hole I didn't find my 2nd shot (hooked it into some bushes) walked back and hit the next shot OB. Some minutes later I walked off the green with a 10 on my scorecard and no help for my jittering hands ;)

But I didn't let that (or the meltdown on 4 and 5 with more 8s) bring me down and always thought, there's quite a lot of golf to play.

After horrible 51 on the front, I played very solid golf on the back 9 and came in in 42. Afterall a 93 on my scorecard, 36 putts, won the Net Stableford Competition with 46 points and finished 13th overall.

New handicap: -23.4

I wanted to do some practice afterwards, managed to do a good set of putts but when hitting some balls on the range, I realized, that I wasn't concentrated enough anymore.

When I arrived at home, I felt quite tired. The round lasted 5 hours, and playing in middle of the day (11:20 to 16:30) at 24°C can be quite exhausting. Had a great shower and streching, went to bed about 9p.m.

Day 2:

After my experience the day before, I decided to be more agressive with my shortgame and putting, because usually that are my strong parts of the game.

This day I arrived 2 hours before my starting time (again, 11:20), got a good warmup, no hurries and on to the tee.

Again, first tee jitters were there, not as bad as yesterday, but I felt it.

Short story, since this course played a bit easier I managed to keep my game together. I followed my strategy great (except one meltdown on 16, where I collapsed mentally for 2 minutes, enough to put a snowman on the scorecard), played the front nine in an all time career best 39 (it's par35) and finished the par-37 backnine in 44. All in all my all-time-best round of 83, again won the Net Stableford Comp., this time with 48 points, and finished overall ex aquo 1st with 27 Stbfd. points (yeah!!).

This time I didn't bother with practice after the round, I already felt tired enough wanting to go home.

Again, I felt, I wasn't too agressive enough around the greens, but the round was solid with 32 putts, highlight was a  12ft birdie putt on 12.

New handicap: -18.6

Now I'm sitting here, typing this text, and longing for my bed (it's 10p.m.).

After just playing 2 tournamet rounds I already feel really tired and exhausted.

Just to top it off, silly me put on the new shoes I got 3 weeks before, so the blisters on the heels are already there :)

Let's see, what tomorrow will bring. I hope to play more relaxed then the days before, because I played some of my best golf today. To be better, I have to work on my driving and short game, my iron game is one of my greatest strengthes at the moment.

I'll keep you updated!

Thx for reading and good night!

michi

[mihi4]

Ok, here's the rest of the story:

Day 3 :

The course we played usually is only fun when riding in carts. To keep to my commitment I decided to walk (one of only a few in the whole tournament).

I brought my old golfshoes, so the blisters were not that bad like the days before.

My golf was ok:

- solid long game (no balls lost, no penalty shots)

- horrible short game

- completely f.cked up putting

I never adjusted to the big and fast greens on the course, and once again was not as agressive as I wanted to be.

Score was a solid +20, so right around my hcp-number.

The last days were already showing up, I felt tired the whole back nine (mentally and physically).

I also let the ranting of my fellow players get to me, when I completely could shut that off the 2 days before.

Day 4 :

Matchplay round with my girlfriend.

I already felt exhausted when we arrived at the course. During the round i pulled the wrong club out of the bag 4 times!!!

Got beat by my g/f pretty hard, 5 and 4.

My game was horrible, lost 4 balls.

Looking back, it was a great experience.

I realized how many mistakes I made based on mental fatigue and plan to work more on my overall fitness and stamina.

My worst parts of the game at the moment are putting and short game, I am not able to adjust to the big greens and faster speeds, that's something I'll have to work on more in the future.

My hat's off to all tour players, more than ever before.

Playing 4 rounds each week, _AND_ going to the practice area before or after the round, is really hard, hard work and completely challenging for the body.

greetings

michi

[Lofty Lefty]

That's a pretty big week! How much golf had you been playing leading up to the week?

About a month ago now I went on a golf trip for 5 days with a mate of mine. 5 rounds on 5 courses in 5 days. We played match play each day whilst keeping our own score on the side.

The weather was challenging on days 1,2 and 4. It was ATTROCIOUS on day 3, and half decent on day 5.

We stuck it out and whilst we did cart the 3rd and 5th days (on pretty tough walking courses) we manged to keep up ok.

The other factor you didn't put into your week was the travel and accomodation side of things. We stayed in a motel with dodgy beds, limited cooking resources etc. So we were out for tea each night etc.

It was a good eye-opener none the less, and I certainly came away with much greater appreciation for what the pro's go through on a weekly basis.

Hope you keep up the playing now you've lost 9 shots in 1 week!!

You also need to get some revenge on you girl friend ;)

[jetsknicks1]

Some people don't realize how much alot of golf in a short time takes out of you. A group of us do a golf outing every year, playing 5 rounds in 3 days, all for money. By the last round I'm just totally wiped out. Never mind the physical part (Which is hard enough) trying to stay focused is the hardest thing.

[Kieran123]

Nice story.

I would be wary of a guy with a 27 handicap shooting 83 if I was playing

[Tomboys]

Originally Posted by Kieran123

Nice story.

I would be wary of a guy with a 27 handicap shooting 83 if I was playing

Agreed.  If he keeps that level up, we're going to move him to this thread;

http://thesandtrap.com/forum/thread/45881/beware-of-the-sandbaggers

[WUTiger]

I played in some three-day individual tournaments (amateur) down in Oklahoma. I would usually landed in B flight, and always ended up in the group behind the A flight cluster. These guys acted like every putt was going to decide the U.S. Open.

Championship flight played at nice pace, B flight would be OK without obstructions, but A flight was a major pain. Took six hours to play 18 on a course about 6,400 yards long.

I need to get onto the everyday amateur circuit around here. Mainly want just to play golf three days straight for  the first season.

[kevin.chan]

I did play 4 rounds in 2 days , 2 x 18 holes each day , during autumn. Started from 7am and done by 6 pm , we break an hour for lunch. Kinda exhausted . In summer , 2 consecutive rounds , will drain you , some will get heat stoke !

[gwlee7]

During the summer, it's not uncommon for me to play 18 walking 16 or 17 days in a row.  If you're in good shape and drink plenty of water, it's not that big of a deal in my experience.  And yes, plenty of those rounds will be for a little sumpin on the line.

[clubchamp]

My family has a lot of golfers and once a year we get together to play a ryder cup match. Two day 72 holes and by the start of the 4th round I'm exhausted. Last I was training for a marathon so I thought it wouldn't be bad at all but still by the start of the 4th round I was hurting.

[mihi4]

Quote:

That's a pretty big week! How much golf had you been playing leading up to the week?

Hmm.. The tournaments started on Tuesday, I did 2 practice sessions on Saturday and Sunday, about 4-5 hours each, including one 9-hole round (par3-course). Quite a lot of shortgame practice involved, so physically not quite that hard.

Quote:

The other factor you didn't put into your week was the travel and accomodation side of things. We stayed in a motel with dodgy beds, limited cooking resources etc. So we were out for tea each night etc.

Yes.. but for me it was quite comfortable, since I could sleep at my parent's house.

Quote:

It was a good eye-opener none the less, and I certainly came away with much greater appreciation for what the pro's go through on a weekly basis.

FULL ACK.

If you consider the much more tiring travel time of the pros _every_week_, that's another thing that's quite impressive.

Quote:

You also need to get some revenge on you girl friend ;)

Yeah, she's playing off an official 54 hcp, because of her limited spare time, she's not been able to do the necessary TE-lessons to get at least to 45.

But in reality, she's something between 35 and 40, I'd guess.

Quote:

I would be wary of a guy with a 27 handicap shooting 83 if I was playing

First, no worries, I never gamble on the golfcourse :)

Second, the reason why I was a 27 was my limited time to play tournaments the last 2 years. Here in Austria your hcp only get's adjusted in official tournament rounds.

I played a lot of golf in this time and the breakthrough came this winter, where I practiced _a_lot_ and changed my swing according to TGM. That made me _very_ consistent with my irons which helps a lot on the course ;).

Quote:

Never mind the physical part (Which is hard enough) trying to stay focused is the hardest thing.

Completely agree. But during my 20 years of professional Volleyball I realized that better physical shape lets you stay in better mental state longer.

greetings

michi

[deasy55]

46 points with a 10 and 2 8s..........oh the joys of a massive handicap

[mihi4]

Quote:

46 points with a 10 and 2 8s..........oh the joys of a massive handicap

The rest were 6 pars and 9 bogeys :).

My really best round was the next day, 48 points, with one 8, one doublebogey 7, 7 bogeys, 7 pars and 2 birdies.

As I said - I practiced a lot the last 2 years (about 5000 balls per year on the range, plus practice rounds on par3-course and shortgame practice).

My history as volleyball player, coach and student of sports helps me to make my practice really productive. Add a Casio FH20 highspeed cam to help with technical analysis and it's been a great leap for me.

greetings

michi