YoYo Golf

Generally happy with game at the mo but scoring seems very inconsistent flopping between high 70's to mid 80's. Main causes being disaster holes and crapola putting on the the hollowtined greens. At least my handicap revision has come through with a further cut to an index of 6.4 (from 7.1) which means I'll be playing off 7 from the whites at RCC.
Need to work on my consistency and putting. Interestingly enough picked up a book from the Library by Tiger's first coach (Rudy Duran) on how to teach kids which I thought would be useful for our two kids. Tried some of the drills on the range last night myself and I swear blind that its added another 10-15 yards to my irons and driver!!! Could be the wind blowing the other way but all shots were definitely more solid and consistent. Can't wait to get out there and try it again and of course converting it to the course is an entirely different matter. I need the improvement if I'm to keep my handicap down and improve to my target of under 5 by the end of the year. I also tried his putting drill of putting through a gate 3 inches ahead of the ball. This seemed to work too but I still see a few hours of practice getting my putting stroke much better if I'm to shoot low scores. Would love to equal or beat par at least once this year!!

Natural Swing

Check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ_k68ZXoF8
Its my 4 year old son Ryan hitting balls. To me it just proves that the golf swing is a natural motion just f***ed up adults like myself who over analyse it. Whilst he doesn't lways get a perfect strike he never misses the ball and pretty much all of his shots go where is aiming and he manages to belt his little driver about 70-80 yards on average.

Stupid Game

Maybe its my fault for trying to tinker with my swing rather than just hit the ball but my game is going backwards. Plus the greens at RCC have just been tined and sanded which cost me a few shots which is understandable.
Played terribly on Friday but somehow managed to hang onto an 81 which at least knocked an 84 off my last 20 scores for handicapping. My miserable form continued on Saturday and i shot a more game resembling 85! Finally on Sunday I started to hit the ball pretty good again but this time I had the opposite problem to Friday and couldn't turn that into a decent score, ending up with an 82!
Trying to not get too down hearted as I think I found something on the Sunday round and I should of scored in the 70's if it wasn't for the fact I putted so poorly.I'm sure if I had a psych coach they would tell me to blame the greens (see above) so that's what I'm doing.
Looking forward to when the greens come round as the course is looking in great shape and I need some more sub 80 rounds to keep handicap going in the right direction!

No golf last week ........

but it was worth it. No golf at all for 7 days but all because the Duramed Futures tour was at RCC and what a great week it was. The club staff and volunteers did a great job and the golf that the ladies played was a treat to watch. I even did a couple of stints as unofficial scorer and cart driver with a couple of groups. Hope I didn't screw up too much !!! Kristen and I went to the Casino night put on as part of the tour festivities and we managed to win a sightseeing flight round Richmond with the daughter of one of the members of RCC. That was neat as a couple of weeks prior had promised my daughter exactly that experience and had been disappointed that I couldn't find any opportunities for it on the web.
And the best news is that my handicap adjustment came through today giving me a handicap index of 7.1, playing 8 off the whites at Richmond. Yay.
Now time for a lesson or two and see if I can't get that down to 5 before the end of the year (some hope I think but I'll give it a bash).

Pain and Ecstasy

After another horrible round yesterday (86!) played again today and shot a 75. If it hadn't been for three putting 3 greens would have been a 72. What a frustrating game golf is. It seems so easy when scoring well but hard work when not. I guess thats what keeps us coming back for more. Not sure why the difference today but I think mainly I have given up trying for extra yardage. It works on the range but can't transport it to the course. Also putting and chipping much better today which takes the pressure of of other shots. Anyway thoroughly enjoyed the round today. Great weather, good golf and good company with Barry, Steve and Joking Joe.

Good News .... Bad News

Yay .... handicap index adjusted to 7.8 which means I'm playing off 9 on the whites at RCC. Of course under pressure of trying to play to single figure my game went to pot today and I shot 85. Started out 10 over for the first seven holes!!!! At least something started to click again and I managed to limit the damage to 4 over for the last eleven holes which included two doubles.
Time for a lesson I think. My target for this year was to get to a single figure handicap at RCC so now I'm going to see if I can't get to 5 or 6 before the end of the year.

New Handicap?

Shot a 79 today. Played pretty poorly but scrambled well and no complete disaster holes. Excited to see what GHIN says about my handicap adjustment when its posted tomorrow. Currently 8.6 which gives me 10 shots on the whites at RCC. Hoping that I'll be adjusted down so I'm playing off single figure handicap for the first time in over 5 years!

Its been a while ......

since my last update. Since then took it easy due to injury plus had two weeks in the UK which has given me time to fully recover. I did play once in the UK which was in the middle of a heatwave (just nice for me compared to the oppressive heat/humidity we have in VA at the moment). Using borrowed clubs and with sun baked fairways shot something like a 90 which was understandable if a little disappointing.
On the local front my golf had been continuing to improve until this weekend. Prior my scores had gone 82 - 80 - 78 - 77 and everything seemed to be coming together and golf was beginning to seem easy. This continued into this weekend covering the first six hole in one under par. Then .... the wheels came off and covered the remaining 12 holes in 12 over ending up with an 82! Trying not to get too down about that given that's still a respectable score given how badly I was striking the ball on the back 9! I'm putting it down to tiredness and heat (Hey ... I'll grab any excuse) and I'm hoping that it won't affect the downward trend of my handicap when they updated at the end of the month. With any luck I'll be playing off single figures on the Whites at RCC.

What a pain

Well .... seems I've over done the comeback. I have been experiencing pain beneath the bottom of my right rib cage for the last few weeks but seemed to manage to play thru it. Put it down to playing too much after a five year layoff and the long term affects of post op scar tissue from a long while back. Anyway a big sneeze Friday sent me thru the roof and basically incapacitated me for a day. Went to the doc's who suspected a rib crack/break which given the voracity of my 4 yr old sons jumping over me didn't seem surprising. X-rays came back okay so it seems that I've damaged cartilage/tendons in my lower ribs. Quite a common thing for golf/tennis etc apparently. Especially with older people like myself who think they are younger than they are and don't stretch/warm up properly (guilty as charged you honour!). Now I'll have to rest up just as things were starting to improve :(. On an interesting note not wanting to disappoint my boy, as I had promised him to enter the father/son comp at the weekend, I did manage to get thru the 9 hole comp without trying to hit the ball hard in the slightest. Strange how little impact that had on shot distance and it improved accuracy. Something to bear in mind for my comeback whenever that maybe.

That's better

After no golf for a few days (just hitting some balls at the range) managed to play 9 yesterday today. Scored 41 yesterday and 39 today for combined 8 over. At least things are moving in the right direction, mainly because I'm getting my short game going at last.

No golf .......

again today and weekend looks doubtful. Have to make do with watching the golf on Tv when possible. I like the look of Ernie's changes to Wentworth. I hear the pro's are giving mixed responses to them though. Thoughts?

Shaking!!

No golf today. I think I'm suffering withdrawal !!!

Chipping

No play today just a bit of practice. How come in the practice area I can chip like a demon but when I play its uber c**p? Currently its costing me several shots a round. Very very frustrating!

Just when I thought it was going well ..........

after shooting 2 84's in the club championship this weekend I thought things were on the up, then I go and shoot a sh**ty 89 today. Oh well ... back to the drawing board.

First Post

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