Week 33

Lesson time

The meandering 1st hole, Par 5 @ Durham City GC

Feels

I feel excited this week. I have sent my swing to Ryan for analysis and feedback after 2 months with none. I have also had my Zoom call catch-up with him to discuss our direction and what we'll be working on in the coming month. It has left me feeling positive and added focus to keep going and working on my game.

I have added a Buy Me a Coffee link if you care to support my writing (mostly done in a coffee shop or while thinking about coffee).

Practice

Practice this week has been mostly technical. This is due to starting back up with Ryan on Skillest. I recorded some video of my swing, from down the line and front on. I then received my feedback and lesson drill within 10 hours (amazing!). My feedback was great and identified the need for more of a lateral shift in the downswing. I was essentially getting to the top of the backswing in a good spot then spinning out from there causing all kinds of face and path issues.

My first drill involved a bottle placed on my trail heel to feel like I am pushing away from it and not knocking it over. The second drill is placing a ball under the outside of my trail foot to get the feeling of how that should be banking in the downswing.

Drill 1 and Drill 2

I spent the last couple of days working on that feeling, both in the house and while swinging the club in the garden. Once I have spent some time on this I will return to sessions based on the thirds principle; technical, random and competitive.

I will post my lesson video on YouTube and on Substack Notes around the time this post goes live.

You can sub on the link below;

Lesson planning going forward;

• Iron swing check-in and tweaks

• Short game (50y and in)

• Putting (10ft and 30ft putting analysis and lessons)

Play

Hole 6 (SI 1, Par 4) Durham City GC

Two more rounds this week and generally, more approach play woes.

Round 1

I played off the white tees in the Midweek Stableford on Wednesday. I came in with 30 points and it felt like I had done well to get that. My driving was steady with one or two simple recovery shots. Putting was solid throughout, with 1 early three-putt on the tough 2nd green.

Approach play and short game (100y and in) were poor. 6 greens in regulation despite having 16 opportunities to do so. I have a pretty even miss left to right but my issue is still with strike and some poor clubbing decisions. 6 greens were missed short, 2 of which were from inside 100y.

Despite this, my feeling after was one of determination. I can work on low-point and now Ryan has identified one or two things, I can work to tweak and improve.

Hole 10 Par 5 3rd Shot into the green

Round 2

A casual round but one that I submitted to England Golf as part of my handicap rating. I shot an 84 (+13) with 6 of those shots coming across the 4 Par 3 holes (yikes). You can see from the strokes gained statistics (below) that the rest of the game isn’t too far off but again. I had another 6 GIR with 5 shots coming up short of the green.

SG for Round 2

My technical practice will have a focus on the lateral shift which should have a positive impact on my low point, moving it ahead of the ball. Many of my iron shots over the last 2 weeks have been a little heavy, killing total distance. This has led to several awkward 20/30/40y pitch shots.

It’s weird to say but it still feels really close to coming together. Shooting 84 and knowing my iron play is poor and low point control not where it should be, is actually giving me confidence rather than destroying it.

We can see how it plays out over the next 4-8 weeks.

Reflective Questions

Do you sense when a ‘good’ round is coming?

What part of your game needs the most love right now?

What are your practice and skill-building plans moving forward?