Week 41

Inner Conversation

View of the 17th green (near) and 3rd Tee Box (far)

Feels

I tweeted about my ‘Inner Conversation’ this week, following a solid but mediocre round. It was filled with negativity despite feeling content about my scoring directly after the round.

What I have found myself doing lately is engaging with these thoughts and trying to rationalise them. The reality is, I just wasn’t feeling it, across the round. There is no reason. I don’t need to consult the statistics or reach out for support from a coach. It is just part of the game. It is completely normal given the number of balls I am hitting per week and the time I have for practice.

The pleasing thing for me is that I managed to keep hold of my ball for the majority of the round and score around my handicap again, despite this!

By the way, I've added a "Buy Me a Coffee" link if you're feeling generous and want to support my writing endeavours. I love sipping coffee while penning down my thoughts, whether it's at cosy coffee shops or just pondering over a cup at home.

Practice

After listening to the pod below, my mind was racing with ideas and intentions for practice. Or listen here!

Some of the ideas and games discussed will need to be simplified for my level of golf, but the principles of practice design remain.

I did 1 practice session, based on a game from the Practice Thinkers Depot (FREE). After 4 weeks of poor driver statistics, I decided to stump for a Driver-based game. The game I went for is called ‘Thread the dog’.

Thread the dog – Driving

Level 1 – Complete all Armoury individually (armoury being the shots in my ‘locker’)

Start with a target of 4 fingers and move down a fingers width each time with the final shot being 2 fingers wide. New target every time. If you miss a drive it's back to the start. (I amended the 4 fingers to 5 and the 2 fingers to 3)

Do it individually for each of your armoury off the tee, I did it for;

● High Bomb Draw (max drive with little danger)

● High fade (stock drive)

● Mid Flight Fade (second serve style to make sure its ‘in play’)

Level 2 – Hit 8 shots in a row with Driver or 3wood Armory

Hit 8 drives in a row between a 3 finger gap. If you are successful with the shot within a 1 finger gap, then you gain an extra life (i.e., if you nail within 1 finger and miss the next shot you are still in the game…. I didn’t manage this!)

If you miss a drive it's back to the start (if you have no lives left).

I enjoyed the session and had very little focus on ‘technical’ aspects other than set-up. All focus was on my target and the shot I had chosen. There is a level 3 that decreased the size of the target area and increased the amount of shots to complete. I will add this next time I revisit this session.

Play

2 rounds this week, both on my home course. The first was in the midweek Stableford, off the back tees. I hit the ball well and finished the round with an 81 (net 70). It took 0.2 off my handicap (9.3 differential), leaving me at 10.0 from an 11.9 start of the season. Another super pleasing round in terms of approach play, with 9 greens hit over the round, with a couple very close. Oddly, my impressive short game from the previous week didn’t hang around, with my only up and down coming on the final hole, from the fringe.

The second round, a practice round but one that I submitted, was one of the weirdest I have played in a while. The scorecard is above in the tweet regarding my ‘inner conversation’. I shot 82 from the yellow tees and didn’t feel like I could concentrate or get anything to click. I drove it a little better overall but had 2 shockers, losing a ball on the 2 toughest driving holes at Durham City, 4 and 6. This negatively impacted the stats for driving but apart from those 2, distance and accuracy were much better.

My putting has remained the only real constant across the previous 6 rounds, which is very pleasing as I have worked hard on my speed control and routine. My approach play is also beginning to turn into a more solid weapon as opposed to the area of my game that always let me down. Very pleasing to be able to change the narrative there!

My SG stats (vs a 7hc) for both rounds are below;

Reflective Questions

Have you had a round where you didn’t feel like you could concentrate but scored OK?

Do you monitor and interrogate your ‘inner conversation’?

Could you ‘gamify’ your practice more to explore skill development rather than focusing on technical aspects?