Winter League 2

And the Remembrance Day Stableford

1st Hole Durham City GC

Feels

Another mixed bag of play for me to reflect on!

Lots of positives of course including a low round and some fine short game shots. There are few better feeling of being in control. They don’t come around for me too often so I am enjoying it while I can!

At the time of writing this, the full competition results hasn’t been posted, so i’m not sure if I have placed!

Play and Reflections

Our Winter League round 2 match was called off as the course was closed so we met our 3rd round opponents, a 16 and a 6 handicap. It had a different feel to it compared to the previous match as we were now giving a fair few shots away. The first 5 holes were all halved with pars and it was pretty even. Then the putters went cold! We lost 3 of the next 5 then we clinging on heading into the back 9. We finished 5/4 and it felt like a real hammering!

What really struck me was the huge impact of the short game and putting. They had some fantastic up and downs and also holed 2 or 3 long putts. There was very little in it but it came down to the moments on and around the green. Lots of work and improvement to be done in those areas.

We have our round 4 match next Sunday against 2 higher handicappers.

Remembrance Sunday Stableford

4th Hole Durham City GC

Finally, a good round in competition!

I managed a solid 74 (+3 and 43 Stableford Points), hitting 10 greens and having 6/8 up and downs. I wouldn’t say I hit the ball extra well but low point and hitting distances was good throughout! I am still having a couple of issues with the driver but a push for distance and monitoring and moving strike are on my list of winter practices.

I was 3 over on the front and level on the back. Something really clicked from the 5th and I went on a bogey-free run, spoilt by a silly three-putt on the 14th. The first of my two birdies came from a nicely struck 9 iron, which looked like it was going in after it pitched. The second one was a chip-in on the 17th after just missing the green to the left. Picked my landing spot on it trickled down the hill and dropped. My double was poor and it irked me a little but I managed to keep it together. I hit the fairway but will a heely drive and hit my hybrid up to the green, missing it pin-high right. I then proceeded to thin my 30y pitch shot over the flag and off the green behind. I hadn’t let the emotion drain and duffed my chip shot to the fringe and 2 putted. My 2 worst shots of the day, back to back. Frustrating!

My stats tell the story of how the round played out. Solid across the bag with some excellent chips and short game, helping me to 12 pars. It wasn’t a great driving day, ball wasn’t travelling far in the cold and was plugging on landing but I am pleased to see a positive number in the SG Driver column.

Practice will be around short game and putting this week. Practice Thinks game of the week is a challenging putting game. The game is designed to encourage positive putting and good speed control on ‘gettable’ putts. A link to the game is on the button below:

Thanks for reading!