Big Question
What brings you the most joy when playing golf?
Feels
My feeling this week is one of joy.
After my 2 best rounds this week, it is hard not to allow myself to enjoy it! My future self will look back on these rounds with fondness. My past self couldn’t have imagined they were possible. Today, I feel a sense of balance and know I need many more of these rounds to enable me to meet my targets for the season.
Practice and Lessons
Another piece of the puzzle to add into practice this week: the pivot.
I have heard the word used lots of times but never engaged with the concept. Having spent last week working on ‘dipping the grip in the water’ before the clubhead, this is the next step.
A key part of developing understanding here came around 4 minutes into the video. Here Ryan explains and demonstrates what happens with the clubface looks like when the turn in the upper body happens ‘correctly’. This is counter to my initial concept of what my hands were doing in the swing. This feeling appeared to bleed into my pitch and chip shots at the weekend too (more on that later).
During play on the weekend, I used the move as my practice swing in the ‘think box’, lined up and swung away. When I got it right the start direction (club face) and the low point were excellent. When I got it wrong, my hands got more involved and the result was a draw/pull draw.
Lots to work through to build on learning so far. I have spent the week practising the move at home and will build up to hit some balls in the coming week.
Play
Round 1 Matchplay - My lowest-ever round*
*Putts given on the 1st, 6th and 15th all for Par.
Friday’s round brought me so much joy. Playing in a Winter Quarter Final Matchplay event at my home course proved to be a good test of my concentration and how the swing would hold up under pressure.
I know that I can’t count it as my lowest-ever round as playing in pairs and having putts given on 3 holes, changes the outcome. However, my feeling of joy comes from never experiencing a round where I keep control of the ball for 18 holes. 14 pars which were all stress-free, either a GIR and two-putt or a simple chip and 1-putt (3 given of course).
Tee shots were the best they have ever been! Barring the first hole where I had to play a recovery shot from inside the tree line on the left; I had a shot for the green on every hole. What also pleased me was my short game and pitching. The work I have been doing with Ryan had involved some wedge play but mainly up at 90-130 yards. My 2 birdies both came from good pitch shots into par 5 greens leaving short putts which I holed.
What interests me from a Strokes Gained perspective was how I felt my approach play was and what the actual SG was (-0.27). That means in this round I ‘lost’ 0.27 shots on a 5hc. This is a clear eye-opener and experiencing this is useful moving forward. I now have a benchmark for what a 5hc approach play round looks like and it was at my top end. It will keep me working hard. It provides me with an example of what I need to do and how good I need my ball striking to be to get to my target for 2023.
Finally, I had never experienced what some golfers describe as an ‘easy round’. The round where you pick a club for the shot, line up and ‘pretty much’ execute the shot. I have experienced it for 6 holes but never 18. I am not getting carried away, however. The first tweet I saw after the round was from Jon Sherman. He posted a timely reminder to remain balanced during the positive and negative.
‘If you shoot a personal best, this is not your new standard of golf. If you have a disaster round, you have not lost your way’. This was so timely as a was having thoughts of ‘what next’ and ‘can go lower tomorrow’. Jon Sherman @practicalgolf
I sat on Friday night and committed some of those good shots and scoring to my brain. In the long term, however, balance will help me develop as a golfer.
Round 2 - My second lowest-ever round
My second-best round ever was very different to my round on Friday. Ball striking and tee shots, although reasonable, were nowhere near the level they were the day before. I had a number of chip outs/recovery shots from the trees. I missed several greens from the fairway. But it remained level-headed, managed my expectations (and had Jon’s tweet running through my mind the entire round).
After 6 holes, this was very challenging. I hit every fairway with good distance and strike and hit the green on those holes and it still felt ‘easy’. I 3-putted 6 and it caused a ‘mini wobble’. More great learning for me and noticing when this is happening in the moment is a skill I hope to develop over time. I sprayed a tee shot on the next hole, clipping a tree and landing 100 yards away. Took a hybrid and hit that into the trees down the right, compounding the initial error. I had to play a recovery shot then didn’t get up and down ending with a double bogey.
The rest of the round was satisfying but I definitely leaned on my short game, which held up in the main. Bogeys at 11 and 17 were the result of missed greens and not getting up and down. Both approach shots were inside 130 yards too!
These two rounds were the first time I felt like the 26 weeks of work is beginning to show. I hope it doesn’t leave me as quickly as it came and I can continue to build on some positive scoring and keep learning.
Speed
1-speed session last week around the gym and 2 rounds. Finding it tough to get an effective blend of strength work, practice and play! Something is better than nothing though! I’m stuck at 120mph at the top end but still experimenting with getting the mix of work and rest right for me. I will only be playing one round this coming week so will plan to get 2 or 3 sessions in as hope to break through the 120mph barrier.
Reflective questions
How do you deal with playing a great round?
How do you ensure you commit your great shots to your memory?
Do you stay out of your way when things are going well?
Brilliant stuff! Absolutely nothing wrong with savoring these great rounds.
A small thought - maybe you didn't want to do so in a club comp - but for the sake of counting it as a true strokes round, knock in your gimmes (just move the ball an inch and the gimme still counts in the match)
1. How do you deal with playing a great round? - badly! I usually notice I’m playing well around 10/11/12 then blow up.
2. How do you ensure you commit your great shots to your memory? - Jon Sherman/Adam Young, The Sweet Spot episode with Kent Osborne (10-Jan?) discusses a good technique for this where you replay good shots in your mind in the 1st person and bad shots in the 3rd person.
3. Do you stay out of your way when things are going well? - No! I’ve played the front 9 well a number of times then around 10/11/12 I get disproportionately annoyed by a single error fearing I’m going to blow my lowest round ever. The mental state leads to more mistakes and a blown card on the back 9, like 30pts made up of 20/10.
I’m working on all of the above this year, hard.
Great to see your hard work paying off and you’re sensible; you know you haven’t solved golf! Love hearing your progress.