Time for a think about my game.

Over the last week or so I have played in a few opens as well as two competitions at Ellesmere. I feel I have been hitting the ball well but there is always something that lets my down ,so  thought I would go through the various aspects n the hope that seeing it down in black and white helps.

So first of all driving, after the lesson a couple of weeks ago, this has got back to being a lot more consistent again and over recent games. I would say that maybe 80% of my drives are good, sadly, however I still do have a tendency to hit the occasional slice and pull one left now and again, Overall I am  pretty happy with how it is going and would give my driving 8/10

Woods off the fairway, when I hit these correctly there general go pretty straight and a decent distance, however  far too often I still look for the ball, which results it a topped or scuffed shot. I know its a basic fundamental to not look up until you have finished your follow through but even though I tell it to myself before the shot, I still do it far too often. So my rating for my woods are 6/10

Long irons, I generally hit them pretty well but I do often pull them to the left, this means I will often aim to the right of the target, which is fine unless I then hit them straight. I am really not too sure why I am doing this, maybe I have sometimes have too round a swing, I will still give them a 6/10 rating.

Short irons, mostly I hit these well and am pretty good with my distances. another 8/10

Chipping, this is an area where my inconsistency shows, if I have a little grass under the ball I will normally hit them pretty well, however I occasionally look for these shot too which means I will scuff or thin them, I also do this a lot more off bare lies, I will score myself 5/10 as  I am never totally confident when playing these shots.

Bunkers, since I had a lesson earlier this year, I do feel far more confident in sand than I used to, I don't always get out first time but I always expect too and more often than not I do. I am not great at judging the distance from sand but I am mostly happy just to get out first time so I think 6/10 again.

Putting, again this is something that I have improved although I am still not completely happy, I generally putt better at Ellesmere where I am used to the speed of the greens as well as the slopes, but get me on a strange course, especially with slower greens and I do tend to leave longer putts way too short then I try to compensate which means I them start hitting them far too hard. I also have a lot more confidence when stood over short putts and although I still do not hole them all, at least I expect to rather than in the past where I expected to miss them. I would rate myself 7/10 at home but only 4 away so overall I will say another 6.

Altogether then 45/70, which is around 6½/10, I would be nice if  could this perceived average up to 7½ or even 8.

There have been some good examples of this inconsistency recently. Today we had a Stableford competition and I plated well over the first 7 holes wth 4 pars and 3 bogey for 16 points but after a bad 8th and then a couple of poor putts, I started to try and chase things and ended up scoring only 10 points over the remaining 11 holes.
I did judge my putt well today for the most part, particularly pleasing where 3 long putts which all ended up within 12 inches from the hole, contrast that with Monday when  played in an open at Hesketh and one each of the first 4 holes I had long putts and left them all over 10 feet away from the hole.

One sad fact of this recent inconsistency is that  have had 2 0.1 handicap increases and with time running out before then end of the season  would really like to reverse this.

Tomorrow is one competition where I will not be worrying about the effect on my handicap as I will be playing in the final of our knockout competition. I am playing a girl off 10 and on paper it should be a good match. I just hope I can raise my game for it.

Anyway, after all the circumspection, a few photos from the last week or so.

 Manchester GC

 

 

A very windy Hesketh

 

 

 

Hesketh, approach to 15th green