NeilV

91 last weekend. 8 pars, including 4 in a row holes 8 through 11 which is a section that has ruined many a round for me, 6 bogies, 3 triples and a quad. This is getting infuriating now and I can't put my finger on the problem. I was solid off the tee (8 FW and everything that missed was in play), putted about average for me (33 putts but 2x3 putts) and didn't miss anything inside 4-5'. 1st Par 4. Driver missed FW left, hit green with 9 iron, 2 putt. 2nd Bogie 5. Driver hit FW, pull left with 7 iron just off the fringe with a poor lie and downhill chip, ran off the green about 15' past the hole, chip, putt. 3rd Par 3. Hit green with PW, 2 putt. 4th Bogie 5. Driver hit FW, 5 iron deliberately short (best miss), chip on, 2 putt. 5th Triple 7. Topped 3 wood short of FW, pushed 6 iron to a lie with ball 6" below my feet, somehow pulled a 9 iron into the pond on the front left of the green, drop, pitch on fringe to left, chip, putt. 6th Par, Hybrid missed FW just right, hit green with 8 iron, 2 putts. 7th Quad 7. 7 iron into bunker short of green. bunkers out of play. Thinned chip back into bunker twice after drops, chip over back of green, chip on, 3 putts. 8th Par 5. Driver hit FW, 5 iron, wedge, 2 putts. 9th Par 3. 6 iron onto green, 2 putts. 10th Par 4. Driver hit FW, 9 iron to back of green, chip on. putt. 11th Par 4, Driver missed FW to right rough, 6 iron deliberately short, pitch, putt. 12th Bogie 4. Hybrid short of green. chip on, 2 putts. 13th Triple 8. Driver hit FW, 5 iron round corner of dogleg to FW, 5 iron to about 55 yds, 2 chunked partial wedges, pitch on, 2 putt. 14th Bogie 5. Driver missed into left rough, fatted full GW, pitch on, 2 putts. 15th Par 4. Driver hit FW, 8 iron to fringe, chip on, putt. 16th Driver hit FW, 7 iron pin high right of green, chip on, 2 putts. 17th Triple 8. Driver missed FW just right. 2 chunked 5 irons, drop for an unplayable, 9 iron to right of green, chip, 2 putts. 18th Bogey 6. Driver hit FW, hybrid into FW, punch 6 iron to front of green, 3 putts (misjudged the amount of dew that started to settle and left 1st about 8' short). So, my observations after writing this down: It's not trying the hero shot that's causing the big numbers which has been the case in the past While it looked and felt like a lot of shots were dropped on short game, as many if not more were lost on long game. Mostly with irons. If I hit a bad shot, I often compound the mistake with at least 1 or 2 more bad shots. I was poor inside say 75yds. 18 shots inside that sort of range. Where I did hit the green from inside 75yds, I only made 2 up & downs from 8 opportunities. If you made it this far any comments are welcome. That was a valuable exercise for me and I need to think about solutions now.

Had a competition cancelled last Friday due to a waterlogged course. The organiser decided to run a comp at a Toptracer range instead. I shot gross 77, nett 62, 15 under handicap at Royal St Georges. I might give up the version of golf where you have to chip and putt and stick to the one where you only need driver, irons and a reliable 75yd wedge shot!!! I was only 2 shots behind the teaching pro who organised it. It may be an indicator as to where I need to spend my practice time 😄

Played last Sunday, and for a change the course was empty 🙂 After a poor start I was 9 over after 5 holes. Then had a run of 12 holes where I played close to single figure handicap golf to end up standing on the 18th tee at +15. Made triple and shot 90. Stupid game. I need to figure out how to make those runs of focussed, high concentration, decent quality play last for 18 holes.

I get really irritable with people who don't watch their own ball. There's a guy in our regular weekend group who turns away in disgust after a poor shot (of which there are quite a few) and then asks everyone else if they saw where it went. Couple of weeks ago we had this 3 times in the first 4 holes. On the 5th he raced a putt 6 feet past the hole. I pointed to it and said "It's over there". He had the cheek to get annoyed with me 😄 We've brought it up with him many times, but it's not changed anything, The rest of us have discussed letting him struggle along losing balls until he learns to watch them, but have reluctantly ruled it out for the sake of the people behind us.

Cheeky 9 today due to an extra public holiday because some funeral or other was taking place. 43 round the par 34 front. Traditional 3 putt bogey on the first and a slightly less traditional 3 putt bogey on the 9th plus a poor tee shot on 6 and a poor 2nd on the par 5 8th after a big drive cost me a very good score. Hey ho. 5 GIR. Take the positives.

Solid front 9 of 42, even with a triple on the 9th. Then the hangover kicked in and I finished with a scratchy, ugly 94. Still, another handicap cut to 18.5 🙂

Can I have a broke 90 one please. Done on 16th July this year

So having broken 90 for the first time in the middle of July, my last 3 at my home course have been 89, 87, 88. Yesterday’s 88 gave me a lot of satisfaction as I started with a triple and was not driving well all day. Mentally I managed to stay in a good place throughout, and would probably have been a few shots better if my dodgy hip hadn’t started to give trouble on about the 15th. Full of painkillers and back out again today🤦‍♂️ Forgot to press submit on this ^ earlier. I can now add a fourth successive sub 90 😊 Had to fight really hard for it today. After a less than stellar first 11 holes I shot 2 over for the last 7 to scrape under 90.

So having broken 90 for the first time in the middle of July, my last 3 at my home course have been 89, 87, 88. Yesterday’s 88 gave me a lot of satisfaction as I started with a triple and was not driving well all day. Mentally I managed to stay in a good place throughout, and would probably have been a few shots better if my dodgy hip hadn’t started to give trouble on about the 15th. Full of painkillers and back out again today🤦‍♂️

87 today, improving on my previous best by another 2 shots. Only hit 1 fairway and 2 GIR, but wasn't missing fairways or greens by much and my chipping and wedges were pretty good. 33 putts. Couple of birdies and 4 pars. Definitely left a few out there. We'll gloss over the 115 I shot on Saturday, where I couldn't keep the ball in the same postal code off the tee with any club, and looked like I'd never picked up a club before.

Shot my second sub-90 yesterday after a couple of weeks off. 89 with a 9 on the SI 1 par 5 13th. I finished par, bogie, par, bogie, birdie to scrape in! 67 yard wedge to 4' on 18 and holed the putt 🙂 31 putts total with the only 3 putt on the 200 yard par 3 12th after hitting the green. My putting achilles heel seems to be largely resolved. 6 pars and a birdie. I'm starting to believe!

75 ft left to right bomb for par on the 18th that dropped dead centre of the cup, ensuring I come back again next week after a particularly uninspiring round where I made 3 others pars on difficult holes and made a complete mess of the rest. One of those putts that you know is going to be close as soon as you make the stroke.

We have 3 sets of tees in the UK. There's about 5-10 yards between the back (white for competition) and the yellow (for general play). Red (ladies tee) is about 110 yards up. I don't get to choose the tees I play from. The distance I quoted above was for the yellow tees. Typically if I drive well (about 270 this time of year) I'll be able to see the left hand 150 marker past the end of the trees but not the green so am hitting down to the fairway around that mark. Fair enough. Let's say 320 as a with a 350 yard drive you will run out of fairway into some fairly thick stuff. Anything under 300 will give a you a blind second shot to the green over more trees. Even with a perfect drive, it's going to leave you about 270 in to the middle of the green, so my apologies, it's not impossible, just very difficult. OB all the way down the right side of the hole. There is about less than 10 yards of rough between the edge of the first bunker and OB. Off topic, sorry OP 😞 Scorecard

Every score I'm able to enter even for general play goes in. There's only one other member of our regular group that maintains a handicap though, so if he's not there or not playing in my 4 ball I don't register to enter the score. The handicap is bouncing all over the place though, as i haven't yet got to the full 20 rounds.

Playing the 13th, 600+yd par 5, hit my 4 hybrid pin high to about 20 feet 175 yards into the breeze. The sort of shot that has you coming back for more. Also playing 9 during the same round, a 148 yard 9 iron to just over 3 feet. Immediately followed by the worst shot of the day not even hitting the hole with the putt.

Fairways are rock hard at our place at the moment and I have been on par 5s in 2 twice. Both were in the same round a couple of weeks ago. I 3 putted the 523yd 8th and made birdie on the 486 yd 17th. I was through the back with a 5 iron on the 17th last week and still managed to make bogie 🤦‍♂️For full disclosure, 8th was downwind both times. The other 2 par 5s are too long for me to reach. 13 is a 618 yd dogleg right. Hit a 4 hybrid onto the green from 175 into a fair breeze on 13 last week after hitting my Sunday best drive and a solid 5 iron. Never in a million years am I getting there in 2. I've never birdied it and don't par it too often. Having just had a play with Google Maps, I'm not even convinced it's possible to get on in 2 even at 350 yd carry pro distances. 18 is 576 yds and I think the closest I've ever been in 2 is 50 yds. In summary, no eagles, albatrosses (albatrii?), holes in one.

I was also a gutted for Rory, but having a few shekels on Cam Smith at 25/1 each way, I have to confess to feeling a bit conflicted. 😄

Not today, but last Saturday, shot my first sub 90 since my first golf career 20 years ago. Gross 89 net 66. 8 FW 3 GIR 32 putts Had a pretty poor start, and was 8 over after 5. Stayed patient and played the last 13 holes 9 over, finishing birdie, par on the 2 closing par 5s to scrape in under 90. It's been a mental battle as much as anything, and I've shot a few 90s and 91s recently. Glad I've got that one out of the way. 85 next 🙂

Hi all, I'm Neil from the South East UK. I've been lurking for a while and decided it was finally time to register. I'm a returner to golf, having played (semi regularly and not very consistently) back around 20-odd years ago in my late 20s and early 30s and stopped around the time family and kids came along. I was never better than a 21 handicapper in old money. I came back to the game late summer of 2019, just before being locked down for months and to share the course with about a zillion other people. The first few rounds were frighteningly bad (I'm talking 120+ here). I decided to take a series of lessons and with the help of them I have just broken 90 for the first time during this iteration of my golf career. and dropped to and index of 20.2 which is a PB I guess 🙂 My target is to get to 18 this year which should be possible as I'm mid to low 90s regularly at the moment. and to start scoring in the 80s regularly. I also want to play a few new courses, and find some better players to learn from. Longer term my aim is single figures. At 53, my best days are probably behind me, and I'm not a long hitter (Trackman says about 235yd carry with the driver) but my course is not long at 6700 off the back tees., but I feel that my game is progressing well enough to get down to the level I want. I'm in better control of my emotions than I was last time around, I don't feel as though I have to hit the hero shot at every opportunity, and my short game and putting are streets ahead of where it used to be. Just missing the 10mph extra swing speed that I had when I was 30. I've LSW recently, and I'm just about to go around again and try to make sure that I'm putting those principals into practice. If I can tighten up my iron and wedge game I should be getting close. Anyway, a bit of a ramble, but if you made it this far, thanks for reading!