Format: Medal
Venue: [Home course]
Score: 79 (including an 8 on the 18th!)
Handicap mark: 3.5
Themes in reply: Putting; the insidious threat posed by “thoughts”
Hi Colin,
I hope you are well.
Here are the details of my round on Saturday.
It was the monthly medal and I played with ST (2). We were due to play in the morning but decided to go over later as the weather was improving so we teed off about 1pm. It was very windy with a SW wind into and across from the left on the first.
1st – I hit a good 3 wood off the first but hit a 6 iron heavy for my second and similar shot with a wedge for the 3rd to the front of the green. I then 3 putted for a 6.
2nd – Was playing extremely difficult – good drive followed by a 3 iron to the right, a good chip but missed the putt from about 5’ so a 5.
3rd – Ok drive to the right, a good 4 iron to the front of the green but I pulled but approach putt to the left and I missed a tricky 3’ putt – so another 5.
It then got a lot better and although I didn’t think I was striking the ball quite as well I chipped well and holed some very good putts.
Scores from the 4th were 3,4(birdie), 4, 3, 5, 4, 4, 3, 5, 4, 3, 4, 4, 5 – all pars with the one birdie.
So, I am standing on the 18th tee at 3 over par – ST has also played really well and has birdied the 17th to get back to 3 over also.
On the 18th the drive is ok but its in the rough on the left. It’s a bad lie and I debate about hitting my 6 wood but in the end chip out to the end of the fairway. I’m on the upslope and the wind is blowing into and across from the right. I decide to hit a little low 7 iron but it didn’t happen. Instead, the ball goes high with a hook and finishes out of bounds by the clubhouse on the left. I hit another one which finishes on the front left of the green and 3 putt for an 8! Absolute bo****ks!
I really don’t know what happened with the 7 iron shot. I had hit a couple of shots like that earlier in the round ok. Really the problem was the drive, it should have been much more to the right and on the fairway.
Anyway – the positives were the way I played in the middle of the round. I hit many good shots and got up and down loads of times. I was confident in my chipping and put a few right next to the hole.
The negatives are the way I putted to start with and of course the 18th.
Even though I had a 79 I thought my handicap would come down – as shots worse than a double bogey are ignored – so for handicapping reasons I had a 77 less 4 giving a net 73. However, WY had a 78 less 6 for a net 72 and this brought the standard scratch down to 73 so my handicap didn’t move.
We have a match on Wednesday vs Southerndown at home so I’ll let you know what happens
Regards,
John
Dear John,
My sciatica is still hurting. I’m getting very fed up with it!
Thank you for the e-mail. As I have said before, these “reviews” are absolute gold dust to me. I also get the feeling that from the “tone” that you are developing in your writing that they act as an excellent “clearing” mechanism for you. Having someone like me to tell the “story of the round” to, is enabling you to “put the round to bed” and be fresh and clear for the next round. You are certainly playing consistently well.
Once again, I am very impressed with how you recover from poor shots. The first or the second putt on the first green must have been below your recent standard and you must have been very disappointed to have started with a 6; yet you hit a good drive down the second, followed by a long iron to the green, then a decent chip to 5′. Very, very good. (Just to nit pick for a minute. You write: “The 2nd was playing extremely difficult – good drive followed by a 3 iron to the right, a good chip but missed the putt from about 5’ so a 5.”
As I mentioned in the last reply you need to be very careful not to put too much strain on the expectations of your putting. A better description would have been: “I get a shot on the difficult 2nd. I hit a good drive, a good 3-iron and a very nice chip to 5′. I took the regulation two putts for a safe and, given the 6 on the first hole, a very pleasing 5.”)
The 3-putt on the third is disappointing, but at least your description is good! The point to ponder here is your mental state as you approach the “… tricky 3′ putt”. From your description of the first two holes it is possible for me to imagine that as you approached the putt you were in danger of clouding your imagination with an opinion about your putting “form” that you were developing from these “facts”:
- you have 3-putted the 1st
- you have missed a par saving 5-footer on the second
- you have pulled your first putt on the 3rd
Again I am nitpicking, and this is all in the pursuit of pointless perfection, but if you had approached that tricky putt with the assessment of your “form” so far that I have written below then I think you would have had a better chance of holing it because your visualisation and feel routine would have come from a clearer space.
- In difficult conditions, I have slightly mis-cued my approach shots to the first green leaving myself with a long first putt of the day. My “timing” wasn’t quite there for the approach shots and I am having difficulty locating that lovely rhythm that I know will put this putt close. Being unable to really feel the rhythm I want, makes me a little tentative and nervous and I leave the putt short. The next putt is no gimme and so I concentrate on finding the rhythm, knock it close and accept the 3-putt as a punishment for the three less than perfectly timed shots that got me there.
- By contrast I hit three nice shots to the second green, including a chip to 5′ which I am pleased with. The putt doesn’t drop but it is a safe 5.
- I get to the front of the 3rd green easily enough with an okay-ish drive and a decent 4-iron. For the first time in ages, I seem to pull my putt and I leave myself a tricky 3-footer.
I might be in danger of over-egging the pudding, but I want you to get away from “old-think” style of assessment because it isn’t helpful. I think there is a more helpful way of looking at your performance, and that it works because it is more logical and therefore easier for your conscious brain to accept and quicker for it to assimilate. This makes it more likely that you are able to approach the next shot with a clear head and thereby give yourself a better chance of creating a sharp and vivid “visualisation and feel” routine. And given the often short time between putts on a green this could be an invaluable technique.
The excellence of the rest of the round is very pleasing and encouraging, and is yet more evidence that you are finding “timing” easier to locate, easier to re-locate, and easier to hang on to. And more evidence that with “timing” comes performance. To keep pace with Geoff (2) over 17 holes says it all.
18th – There is a chance that you got a little tense on the 18th because you were facing finishing off a good round. There are a couple of “giveaways” in your writing. The first is that the drive went left. Swings that produce left-ish shots seem to start off all right but end up feeling a bit tight on the follow-through. Another “giveaway” is your description of the shot you were attempting for your third. I quote: ” … but in the end chip out to the end of the fairway. I’m on the upslope and the wind is blowing into and across from the right. I decide to hit a little low 7 iron …”; and later on ” … I really don’t know what happened with the 7 iron shot. I had hit a couple of shots like that earlier in the round ok. …”.
It is a “giveaway” because your description has “conscious thought” written all over it. The way you have written it makes it sound to me as if you have decided that the shot requires a “little, low 7-iron” and then instead of going through the routine you have consciously played a “little, low 7-iron”, whatever that is. This is a subtle point but it is NOT that the “little, low 7-iron” was the wrong shot to play, rather that you have decided to play a “little, low 7-iron” instead of playing a shot which you could then describe as being: “a little, low 7-iron”.
If you encapsulate a shot into words before you play the shot (and I am only saying that it appears from your writing that that is what you have done) then there is the real danger that the conscious brain will take over playing the shot from the sub-conscious. There is no need whatsoever to compare the shot you are facing with any other you have faced in the round previously. What you are facing is unique: there is a target, there is a lie, there is the wind, there is your stance. From this unique combination of factors you need to allow the shot to appear to you. Previous shots will help in this visualisation but only in the background. If they appear too strongly (ie strongly enough to have a verbalised label attached eg: “little’ low 7-iron”) then the process is in danger of being dominated by the conscious brain.
Learning that this is a danger point will help next time you are facing a difficult shot. That third shot into the 18th green required subtle ball control from a difficult lie into a difficult wind – and it was already your third shot! To achieve the required level of ball control you needed your method to be at its sharpest. For this to happen you needed to have as little overtly conscious brain activity as possible so that you could devote all of your imaginative energies to visualising then feeling the shot, and then to finding the rhythm that would deliver “timing”.
Your second attempt was fine so there seems little wrong with the choice of shot, it is just that something went awry with the execution the first time. You need to take from this experience the realisation that pressure in a round or on a hole is only a threat if you stray from the method. As I have said before, if you stick to the method then pressure turns from being a threat to being an advantage because your conscious mind responds to pressure by doing what it needs to do more intensely. If you make it go through the method, so it does the method more intensely, and you get sharper visualisation and easier access to rhythm and feel, so making “timing” more likely to be delivered. So, the more the pressure, the better you are likely to play. Great, innit!
I’m really chuffed that your chipping and putting are coming along so well. We just need that one “good” round (the one without the horror-hole) to really get you going.
Thanks again,
Regards,
Colin
