Hi All,
I truly enjoy reading threads about peoples journeys to become better golfers so I thought I would create my own. I do this both for my own sake, since I think it will be fun for me, but also maybe others will enjoy following my journey.
Let me start with some background:
I am 42 years old,live in Sweden and I am married with three children (16, 14, 12 years old). I have always known that the day I would start playing golf I would get hooked, so I have not dared to start until now when my kids are older....and yes I was right, I got hooked directly!
My older sister started playing last summer and during my vacation I followed her on one round on a pay & play course (9 holes) and really liked it. When I got back to work an old friend, who happens to work at the same (quite big) company contacted me and asked if I would be interested in starting playing golf....my answer was YES! Two relatives to him was also interested to start, so we were 4 guys starting playing together.
I already had some old clubs that I got for free from a former boss at work some years ago, so I started using them and we played some more pay & play rounds during the autumn. Late last season I bought a set of used Callaways from another work colleauge (X-18 irons, old Big Bertha Driver, a bit older 3 hybrid and 3 wood and a new Odyssey putter). Getting these clubs was a big improvement from my first really old set.
During last winter we played appr. every second week in a indoor simulator and I also changed some clubs (Nike Covert 2.0 driver, TM R11 4wood and Cobra Baffler 4 hybrid).
In Sweden you need to get an official handicap to be able to play most courses, so as soon as we could we joined a local club, booked a newbie course with the club PRO and did some classes and then we got our handicaps.
Also in Sweden (maybe it is the same everywhere) first you get a so called "Club Handicap" of 54 and then you play yourself down to 36 hcp which is then a "official handicap" and you are then allowed to play more or less everywhere.
My target is (besides having fun) to one day get down to a single handicap figures. I should add also that my home course is a 9-hole course and I mostly play 9-hole rounds due to work and family commitments.
So there is some background and here is my journey so far:
I got my club handicap of 54 in beginning of April and I quite quickly played me down to 36 hcp which was a nice feeling.
In mid May I had hcp 23, 4 and I decided to enter my first competition (a low key competition at my home club). None of my friends entered, but I thought "what the heck" and entered the comp anyway. The night before the competition I actually was quite nervous and had some sleeping problems, which was a feeling I had not experienced for a long time
Anyway on the morning of the competition I got paired with some really cool people in my ball and I told them directly that I had not done this before, but they were very helpful. We had a fun round in very windy conditions and I thought that I at least had played decent and did not need to be ashamed of myself.....on the prize giving I got very confused when they announced that I had actually won the competition (18 persons entered). As I mentioned it was very windy and I probably got a bit lucky and I had 33 points on 18-holes (1 point more than 2nd placed).
I really got a kick out of this competition and this coming weekend I will play another one. This time a greensome (18 holes) which I will play in the same team as one of my mates. Will surely be fun!
At the moment my hcp is 21,4 and originally my target for this season was to get below 20. I sure understand that it will be harder and harder to lower my scores/hcp, but I think I will re-think the yearly target and maybe strive for 18.
I would call myself a "bogey-golfer" right now. In a normal round most of my holes will be bogey, with maybe a par or two thrown in there as well as a double bogey.
I really need to work on my short game. I have a decent "low flight-PW-pitch-shot" which works if I have some green to work with, but I am not very confident when the flag is close to my side of the green. Need to work on higher shots with my 56 wedge. I can make them sometimes...but it is like a 50/50 chance that it will be a bad shot. So short game training needed!
My driving is OK. I guess I normally hit appr 220 m and mostly land on the FW or close by in the semi ruff.
Iron play is also kind of OK. I mostly hit the ball quite good, but still have some issues with aiming it towards the target, so often I tend to land a few meters beside the green instead of on it, so definatelly room for improvements there as well.
So there is my journey so far. Next up is the greensome comp on saturday, and due to other commitments I will probably not have the time to play any rounds before it (I did play 9 holes yesterday night). I will get some shortgame practice in however in my backyard...maybe even getting a tiny bit of confidence with the 56 degree.....
I will update this thread hopefully quite often, and probably bugger you all for advice as well:bulgy-eyes:
I truly enjoy reading threads about peoples journeys to become better golfers so I thought I would create my own. I do this both for my own sake, since I think it will be fun for me, but also maybe others will enjoy following my journey.
Let me start with some background:
I am 42 years old,live in Sweden and I am married with three children (16, 14, 12 years old). I have always known that the day I would start playing golf I would get hooked, so I have not dared to start until now when my kids are older....and yes I was right, I got hooked directly!
My older sister started playing last summer and during my vacation I followed her on one round on a pay & play course (9 holes) and really liked it. When I got back to work an old friend, who happens to work at the same (quite big) company contacted me and asked if I would be interested in starting playing golf....my answer was YES! Two relatives to him was also interested to start, so we were 4 guys starting playing together.
I already had some old clubs that I got for free from a former boss at work some years ago, so I started using them and we played some more pay & play rounds during the autumn. Late last season I bought a set of used Callaways from another work colleauge (X-18 irons, old Big Bertha Driver, a bit older 3 hybrid and 3 wood and a new Odyssey putter). Getting these clubs was a big improvement from my first really old set.
During last winter we played appr. every second week in a indoor simulator and I also changed some clubs (Nike Covert 2.0 driver, TM R11 4wood and Cobra Baffler 4 hybrid).
In Sweden you need to get an official handicap to be able to play most courses, so as soon as we could we joined a local club, booked a newbie course with the club PRO and did some classes and then we got our handicaps.
Also in Sweden (maybe it is the same everywhere) first you get a so called "Club Handicap" of 54 and then you play yourself down to 36 hcp which is then a "official handicap" and you are then allowed to play more or less everywhere.
My target is (besides having fun) to one day get down to a single handicap figures. I should add also that my home course is a 9-hole course and I mostly play 9-hole rounds due to work and family commitments.
So there is some background and here is my journey so far:
I got my club handicap of 54 in beginning of April and I quite quickly played me down to 36 hcp which was a nice feeling.
In mid May I had hcp 23, 4 and I decided to enter my first competition (a low key competition at my home club). None of my friends entered, but I thought "what the heck" and entered the comp anyway. The night before the competition I actually was quite nervous and had some sleeping problems, which was a feeling I had not experienced for a long time
Anyway on the morning of the competition I got paired with some really cool people in my ball and I told them directly that I had not done this before, but they were very helpful. We had a fun round in very windy conditions and I thought that I at least had played decent and did not need to be ashamed of myself.....on the prize giving I got very confused when they announced that I had actually won the competition (18 persons entered). As I mentioned it was very windy and I probably got a bit lucky and I had 33 points on 18-holes (1 point more than 2nd placed).I really got a kick out of this competition and this coming weekend I will play another one. This time a greensome (18 holes) which I will play in the same team as one of my mates. Will surely be fun!
At the moment my hcp is 21,4 and originally my target for this season was to get below 20. I sure understand that it will be harder and harder to lower my scores/hcp, but I think I will re-think the yearly target and maybe strive for 18.
I would call myself a "bogey-golfer" right now. In a normal round most of my holes will be bogey, with maybe a par or two thrown in there as well as a double bogey.
I really need to work on my short game. I have a decent "low flight-PW-pitch-shot" which works if I have some green to work with, but I am not very confident when the flag is close to my side of the green. Need to work on higher shots with my 56 wedge. I can make them sometimes...but it is like a 50/50 chance that it will be a bad shot. So short game training needed!
My driving is OK. I guess I normally hit appr 220 m and mostly land on the FW or close by in the semi ruff.
Iron play is also kind of OK. I mostly hit the ball quite good, but still have some issues with aiming it towards the target, so often I tend to land a few meters beside the green instead of on it, so definatelly room for improvements there as well.
So there is my journey so far. Next up is the greensome comp on saturday, and due to other commitments I will probably not have the time to play any rounds before it (I did play 9 holes yesterday night). I will get some shortgame practice in however in my backyard...maybe even getting a tiny bit of confidence with the 56 degree.....
I will update this thread hopefully quite often, and probably bugger you all for advice as well:bulgy-eyes:
