Autumn progress

 

 

Since my last post I have played quite a bit despite the weather, I had a good day playing Caldy on the Wirral on a cold but bright morning. Caldy is a few mile down the Wirral from Royal Liverpool (Hoylake) and is partly links and partly parkland. I started and finished well but had a bad bout of slicing drives in the middle of the round.

 

Caldy

Later in the week I played a Open turkey shoot at Pleasington, near Blackburn, Pleasington is a lovely course and I was so impressed I have already booked to play it again in their open next season. I played very steadily and despite a couple of blobs I ended up winning.

 

Pleasington

Last weekend I played at High Legh in Cheshire, and to be honest the course didnt really do much for me, its a pretty flat parkland course with lakes and doglegs to make it interesting. I played well from tee to green but could not chip or putt, regularly taking 4 to get down from with 30 yds of the green, I can't blame that on the course sadly just one of those days, the high point was I did get a birdie 3 on one hole.

 

High Legh

Back at Ellesmere, I have generallyplayed pretty well, winning 2 winter league matches. We are now playing off fairway mats, which are a bit of a pain but if they protect the fairway and mean we can play when the ground is wet then fair enough.

I am definitely benefiting from the lessons and I have mostly been driving well and hitting my irons ok, my worry is my short game which can be erratic, good one day poor the next and as usual my putting leaves a lot to be desired most of the time.

Today I had my best round of the winter although my putting did let me down in the middle of the round. Due to course work we ended up play 11 holes, 2-8, 10-12 and 18.

I started steadily with a bogey 5 for 2 points hitting the fringe in 3 and 2 putting.
2 good shots on the 3rd gave me 2 putts for a par and 3 points.

 I was on the 4th in 2 and 2 putted for a bogey and 2 points,

On the 5th I was on in 3 and 2 putted for a bogey 5 and 2 points.

 Then the putting went off,

 I was on the par 5 6th in three but 3 putted for a bogey and 2 points.

 One the 7th I had to lay up short of the ditch and put my 3rd in the greenside bunker, I got out ok but then 3 putted again for a triple bogey 7 and no points.

Onto the par 5 8th, where I often have to lay up short of the ditch, the was behind a little and I hit one of my best drives leaving me about 50 yds short of the ditch and 180yds from the green ( I dont usually get inside the 200 yd marker, so very pleased with it). Now although I can't hit woods very well from the fairway, I can hit them better of the mats and I hit one to about 10 yds short of the green. I was on the approach to the green so I decided to putt for the eagle something I have never done before, sadly I mishit it and barely reached the green, my putt for the birdie missed so did the 2 footer for par so I ended up with a very disappointing bogey 6 but still 2 points.

I received 2 shots on the 10th and hit a good drive, an indifferent 5 iron and a pitch followed and then again 3 putts for a double bogey 6 but with the extra shot 2 points.

On the par 5 11th, I hit a decent drive and second, my chip was on a bank infront of the green but I pitched to within 2 feet and holed the putt for a par 5 and 3 more points.

I made a bit of a mess of the par 3 12th taking 3 to reach the green and then 2 putts for a double bogey 5 and 1 point.

Finally we played the par 3 18th, the pin was at the front but I hit my tee shot to the back of the green and was faced with a long putt downhill for the 2nd half, I wouldnt have minded taking 3 from here but I left my first putt a foot from the hole and popped it in for a par 3 and 3 points.

So for 11 holes I scored 22 points despite 3 putting 4 times from reasonable distances I thought I generally hit the ball very well and but for the blip in putting in the middle of the round would have had a very good score, I also finished first out of an unfortunately small field.

I played today with a new girl who has just joined  the club, its nice to get new members especially younger ones, I think she will do very well next season.

Lessons

At the end of the season, I saw a Groupon offer for a hour long video lesson for £19, thinking a little tweaking would help me a lot I took up the offer. What I saw was quite an eyeopener. I had a very crouched stance which meant I was forcing my swing and swaying a lot too. The pro suggested a couple of little things, slightly changing my grip and also getting my back straighter. He also suggested that he could change a lot more if I had more lessons, a nice ploy, which I agreed to and booked a series of 5 half hour lessons.

I started trying out the first things he suggest and although I found the lighter grip a problem I was hitting the ball  a little better.

In the second lesson we concentrated on drills to straighten my back, and again I could see a little improvement on the course, in the next we started drills to get me rotating my body better, this was a struggle to take onto the course and to be honest I didnt stick at it very much, although I did do the drills in fact I played a winter league game when I couldnt hit a fairway with my driver,

In the 4th lesson, we worked on my swing along with the body rotation and this time I was determined to keep at it, after mixed results at the range, I played in a winter competition. I had lost 6 balls by the 6th hole and really struggled.  I seemed to be concentrating so much on sliding my hips that everything went to pot. So I decided to stop dwelling on that aspect and this did help as I eventually started hitting the ball a lot straighter.

I mentioned this at my next lesson and he told me to concentrate on getting my left elbow past the ball, this has had a good effect and I found myself hitting straighter and a bit longer.

My fifth and final lesson  was on my takeaway to get the club in the right place at the top of the backswing.

I now need to spend time at the range to learn by repetition and keep at the drills. After Christmas I will have a few refresher lessons in preparation for the start of the season.

I can definititely see improvements, went I get it right my best shots do go further than previous, but I am still quite erratic, one day good, one day bad, so thats why time on the range is important to get me doing the good things automatically. Time will tell if I can acheive this.