Winter League Knockout

Just.....

Feels

The weather has not been kind! I feel a little under-practiced and overall, like I am not quite doing enough. I recall having a similar feeling last year, around this time. ‘It is, what it is’ though and making small gains and being consistent is where it’s at!

I have made the time to practice this week as well as adapted my morning routine to enable me to fit in some strength and mobility work. My pulled quad is close to 100% so Stack sessions will return around my strength training. In the past I have made the mistake of returning too quickly to high intensity work and set myself back. In an attempt to learn from those mistakes, I have given myself an extra 2 weeks and some training time before working up to building swing speed capacity using the Stack.

Practice

A lovely practice session this week. I had some new toys to play with and wanted to hit clubs throughout the bag after limited opportunities to practice and play of late.

The new toys are beautiful and they feel amazing. I spent some time warming up with some pitch shots to different distances (40, 50, 60, 70 and 80y), using different clubs. More on these later!

Once warm, I ‘played my home course’, hitting the shots I would need to score on each hole, e.g Par 5 first hole is Driver, Hybrid then a short wedge shot (usually around 120-100). I continued until I got through my large basket.

I aim to spend the majority of my practice time this season working on shots that I need based on my Arccos stats. I will use a variety of consequences and rewards to keep me on my toes and to replicate the on course feel, where possible.

Play

We played in the last 16 of the Winter Matchplay Pairs this weekend. We were drawn against a 7hc and 9hc giving my playing partner and I, 4 shots.

It was a fantastic match! We spent the majority of it 1-down or level and didn't take the lead until the 17th. We had ‘hung around’ on the front 9 with a few half’s and took the 6th with a long birdie from myself, to get back to all square.

We started the back 9, 1-down and got back level with another long putt birdie on the long Par 5. The wind was hard against so I decided to hit my hybrid from 170 into the green and it worked out great! Pin high, middle of the green with a 30 footer, left to right. I judged the pace well and it dropped.

We then sloppily lose the short Par 3 to a Par. I caught the bunker and didn't manage to get ‘up and down’.

We get to the 16th 1-down but with a shot each in hand. A steady 3 wood and nicely struck 8 iron left me 16ft up hill. I secured the Par and got us back square.

The first real mistake of the day from the 7hc came off the tee on 17, hitting a slightly heavy iron, leaving a tricky decision. He went for it, got himself in some deep in trouble and ended up conceding the hole. For the first time, we went 1 up.

Up 18, we both hit solid tee shots and approaches and I managed a Par on the last to half the hole but won the match.

Into the quarter finals we go!

Overall, I was very happy with how I played and how we played as a team! We can become over reliant on each other and often struggle under pressure but we showed a lot of grit and coped well in the circumstances, to get over the line!

Bag Update

The Titleist TSi 3 wood goes into the bag in place of my 19 degree hybrid. I hit two shots with it on Sunday, one good tee shot and a ‘balloony’ one into the wind. Lots of potential for tee shots moving forward as well as second shots on Par 5s.

Into the bag goes 3 new wedges. All Titleist Vokey’s in 50/54/58 set up. My PW is 45. I'm psyched about practicing and refining distances over the next couple of months prior to the season. Thanks to those who voted last week!