Medal Weekend

I did not feel confident this morning when I woke up as I am currently full of cold but I made sure I was up early to have breakfast, drink a berocca, take some cold and flu tablets and pack a couple of bottles of Lucozade to help me through the round of golf.  The plan was to get to the club way before my 9:06am tee time so I could get ready for my round without rushing and so that I could have a putt on the practice green.

A phone call from my Dad to tell me traffic was bad near the golf club made me chuck my trainers on and rush out the house.  I am less than a five minute drive from the golf club on a normal journey so thought even with bad traffic I should still have plenty of time before my tee slot.  I get half way there and realise I still have the kids seats in the back of the car, I head back home to drop the seats off as I would not be popular if Jen and the girls were stuck in the house all morning.  Due to a football tournament at a local school traffic right by the golf club was bad and I pull into the golf club car park 8 minutes before my tee time.  I rush to sign in for the competition, grab a scorecard, change my shoes and get myself to the first tee.  It was not ideal rushing and missing the chance to warm up but there was little I could do about it.  I find a few practice putts can help you get your eye in, help get some rhythm with your putter and sometimes can even help get a steer of what the pace of the greens will be like.

I feel my putting has improved recently and I believe this is due to the Super Stroke Fatso grip I had fitted to my putter.  Today I sank a 10ft putt on the 1st hole for par and continued to putt well all day.  Does this mean I should not bother having a practice before each round??  I took the lowest number of putts I have ever taken at Hazlemere Golf Club today, I just wish I had taken advantage of this.  I drove well and was great with the putter but sadly some of the shots in between were a little poor.  Playing with a handicap of 15 does allow you to have the odd bad shot though!

Despite a few bad shots my card was looking good as I stood on the 17th tee, 2 pars would allow me to finish 4 under my handicap and because I pulled together a few good scores on the previous holes I felt this was possible.  My tee shot on 17th hole par 3 was not great, I pulled it left but I still had hope I could make par or bogey.  My second shot was awful, it raced through the green and down a steep slope into some thick grass and I struggled to recover.  It hurt walking off with a 6 (triple bogey) so late in the day.  I followed this up with a fat shot off the 18th tee with my 6 iron leaving me just over 180 yards from the green.  The plan was to lay up but with much less distance to go than that.  My second shot was good for distance but again I found myself left of the green.  My chip was a little shorter than I hoped for but found the green and a long putt was ahead of me.  Two putts for bogey would give me a Nett 70 (Level Par) and I was happy to take that but my putter had other ideas and came good again.  I sank the putt and finished the round 1 Under my handicap.  Next week I don’t think I will bother having a practice putt before my round!

The weather today was great and it was pretty warm by the time we finished.  It was a little chilly when we started off at 9am so today I wore the Alto Playa Jacket.  This jacket is perfect for a spring morning, it is comfortable and has a stretchy material so does not interfere with your swing.  It looked great with the black Nino Tech pants and the red and black belt – please see links below for each item;

Alto Playa Jacket

Black Nino Tech Pants

Red and Black Belt

The post Medal Weekend appeared first on Bunker Mentality Magazine.