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MacTS´s journey from newbie to hopefully single digit handicapper one day

MacTS´s journey from newbie to hopefully single digit handicapper one day

I have played a few 9 hole rounds since last update. I did have a couple of decent rounds (one 17 points and one 18 points) end of last week and then today I was quite sure that I would make a good round after 2 days rest...and boy I was wrong! I made easily the worst round ever. 1st hole was ok with a bogey and then the disaster started. Two holes in a row without a point and then a par...followed with another zero point hole...and then I basically gave up. I finished 9 holes with 7 points (18 points is my hcp par), and well, I hope it will go better next time. My hcp got raised to 18,3
 
Puh, a quick bounce back!
Played 9 holes again this morning and played much better. Had a chance to lower the hcp but hit a deep green side bunker on the last hole and then topped the bunker shot which gave me a double bogey on the last hole. Got 18 points at the end which I am pretty happy for.
 
Cool thread MacTS. I subscribed. :act-up:

A topped bunker shot is the worst because after it's all said and done you're usually still in the sand :crying:. I have a bad habit of "giving up" on my bunker shots and not hitting it hard enough or following through. Both are recipes for disaster.

Keep up the great work and keep us posted!

Jim
 
SixYardDrive said:
Cool thread MacTS. I subscribed. :act-up:

A topped bunker shot is the worst because after it's all said and done you're usually still in the sand :crying:. I have a bad habit of "giving up" on my bunker shots and not hitting it hard enough or following through. Both are recipes for disaster.

Keep up the great work and keep us posted!

Jim
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Thanks!
Yeah, bunker shots are nightmares for me.....probably because I do not practise them enough. This topped one did not stay in the sand, it flew past the green some 20 yards:)
 
Yeah I've done that a time or two myself. I usually top them and the ball hits the lip and then it's more like pinball :)

The good news is we get another shot at it ;)
 
Lycka till!/good luck! Going to be interesting to follow this.
 
Another update. I played 9 holes today and played my best round up to date. Managed 22 points (40 strokes) and lowered my hcp to 17,1. I guess I need a new target for the season, so new target is 15 hcp.
I was quite lucky on the last two holes today. On the 8th hole I chipped from appr 10 m and holed it for birdie and on the last hole I made a similar chip for par. On the other hand it was quite windy and som approach shots that normally would have been on green did not stick on green so I guess it evens out in the end. Played with my father (who just have started playing at age 74) which was really nice.

Now it is time for a golf free family vacation for 10 days...
 
Today was the first day of golf since 10 days. I played 9 holes this morning and my good game from before the vacation did continue and I managed to get 21 points and got down to hcp 16,2. I had 4 pars and 5 bogeys on the round and apart from one three putt I am very happy with how I played. New round tomorrow....
 
Good luck in your quest. Just remember to have fun doing it.
 
Long time since the last update. I have stabilized around 16 hcp at the moment and feel quite comfortable at that level. These past weeks I have played some new courses during my vacation and last weekend we had our yearly company championship (1st time for me). We were 30 ppl travelling to a course 4 hours away where we played 3 18 hole rounds and 1 9 hole scramble during three days. Played quite well and ended up joint 3:rd which I am pleased with.
Tomorrow we have one of two club championships at my home club where we will play 9 hole match play until we have a winner. Since we play without hcp I will have no change of winning, but it will for sure be fun.
 
Time for a little update.
Today I entered another company tournament. The preparation was not excellent. Earlier this week I could not get out of bed due to a hurting back. The back is better now, but still not good. That also meant that the training round at the tournament course (that I had never played) was cancelled earlier this week. Anyhow, today, after 3 days of quite heavy rain we were greeted with sunshine which was very nice and we were 94 entrants in the competition.

First hole was a disaster, where I after a decent drive, topped the second shot (on a par 4) and went into the woods. I made triple bogey on that one..not a great start.
On hole two, three and four I had great approach shots..and three putted them all for bogeys.The greens were quite a lot slower then I had anticipated (due to the earlier rain I guess) and it took me a few holes to get the putting ok.

But then everything turned and I started to play (for my game) great. I made many pars (and was very close to a few birdies) and also some bogeys.
In the end I managed to get forth place (same point as 2nd and 3rd, but since I had higher hcp, they got the higher places) and 42 points.
Very happy with my game and the result and I won some money that I will spend on a Wilson D200 GW and a new "fat" grip for my putter.
Also I made a decent hcp jump from 16,2 to 15,0 which was my goal for this season to reach.
Very happy to play ok again after a month of not that great rounds.
Tomorrow it is time for a new competition of "Irish Greensome" which will be fun...I hope my back will survive it:)
 
Good luck to your journal. Some suggestions:

You can use this post to review what you did right or wrong during the game, rather than just counting strokes. That way you can figure out where you need to improve next based on your previous games.

In your course, when there is opportunity, try to play two 9-hole rounds one after another. That gives you the idea of the stamina you will need to play 18 holes. You could also keep score, just to compare it with your regular games.
 
Good points, thanks! Today was 18 holes, and tomorrow will be again. However I play quite a lot of 9 hole rounds due to other commitments
 
My biggest recent improvement have been to "steal" my sons TM Burner set SW with a graphite ladies shaft. I play that club so much better than ny normal Callaway 56 wedge. Very good control on approach shots from 40-80m. I have only used it for two rounds so far but I hit it really good
 
Fun Irish greensome today. Surprised that me and my team mate got 3rd place with same points as the 2nd place finisher, since we did not play that well. Missed to many fairways today, but approach game was good.
 
I am taking a "golf free" week now to let the sore back heel. I might get some putting training in though.

I am now going to focus on some certain areas of the game that needs improvements, training starts next week.

1. Putting- I have to many 3 putts for my liking at the moment
2. Chipping- Need to come closer to the pin. I am half decent, but I would like to get me some better 1 putt chances
3. Driving distance- I have quite solid drives if I am not swinging to fast, but that gives me quite short drives. When really going for it, I tend to have a pretty bad slice. So that needs some training.

Another area that I am starting to get better at is course management, but that can always be better.
I am quite confident with my irons and approach shots from 140-110 meters, but have some trouble hitting my current Gap Wedge (50 degree Cobra Big Trusty) with full/almost full swings with confidence. I have ordered a WS D-200 set GW now that I think will be good for these 90-110 m shots.
 
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Ok, so the back have healed, but I have not really gone into "training mode" yet. We have about 1 month left of the season where I live (may be lucky and play a bit longer), so I have decided to more or less just play rounds and not focus that much on training. That will be for the winter months.
I did have one range session where I used my old driver (Cleveland XL 270) and I absolutely ripped it. Even when really going for it, I hit it great. That club is going into the bag again! Next round planned for Friday.
 
Had a nice 9 hole morning round today before work. It was foggy and wet on the course, so conditions were not ideal. But I actually played very well!
My old Cleveland XL 270 driver that I just took out of retirement worked ok. I did not have great hits, but they all was on fairway so I can not complain to much about that. Also iron, and shortgame worked well so all in all I am very satisfied. The last hole (a long par 4 with a very small green and a evil bunker right before the green) was the only hole that I did not play that well. I was short on my approach shot and I needed to play a high SW shot to clear the bunker. I thought like 10 times..do not top the ball!...and then, of course I topped it 10 meters past the green. The next approach shot was not great either so I made a double on that hole.
My result was 5 pars, 3 boogies and 1 double and I managed to lower my hcp from 15,1 to 14,2. Very satisfied with that! Hopefully I will get another morning round in tomorrow, otherwise Sunday will be next round.
 
21.4 in June to a 14.2 in September.
That is fantastic progress!
 
Good luck with your journey. I found some of your handicap rules to be interesting. Just stay positive, and remember nothing comes overnight. If i am playing badly, i still look at that time as being an investment in getting better. Just have fun!
 
robmypro said:
Good luck with your journey. I found some of your handicap rules to be interesting. Just stay positive, and remember nothing comes overnight. If i am playing badly, i still look at that time as being an investment in getting better. Just have fun!
Click to expand...

Yeah, it seems that we have some differences if I understand your hcp revisions correct. In Sweden you can lower or higher your hcp with each registred round.
Having fun is most important for sure, totally agree with that!
 
Time to do a little season summary.
Hopefully I will have a couple of more rounds done before my home course will be closed for the season, but kind of anyday now the first snow can appear..which is not that nice:-(

Most of all on my first full season of golf I have had FUN! I have mainly played my home course but with a few other courses played as well. Hopefully next season I will play some more different courses. I mostly play with pretty much the same crew but I have also played in some work related events and with some co-workers.

From a result perspective I am fully satisfied with the season. I do play best/have most fun when I set reasonable but quite tough targets for myself and for the season I have managed to reach them.
I have settled at hcp 14 now and the target for next season is to reach down to single digit numbers.

This season I have not really trained that much, mostly focusing on playing rounds and to reach to next level I do need to do some "real" training.
Focus areas on training:
-Fitness: I am to heavy at the moment and need to loose weight, also allround fitness training is needed
-Driving distance: My driver is decent when not going for it fully. My problem is a nasty slice when hitting the ball to hard. Totally tecnique related and is one area that I will focus on. I would like to add 20-30 yards to my drives to get a easier 2nd shot for most par 4´s
-Pitching/chipping: This area is kind of on/off for me. At times I pitch/chip pretty well, but when it is off...it is really off. I would like to be able to play more kind of shots with higher percentage of up and downs.

Iron play is my strong area with decent hits, but of course I can improve a lot there as well. Putting is also quite ok but can improve.

I will play every second week on a indoor simulator during the winter mostly just to have fun and keep the swing alive and serious golf training will hopefully start in April.

Equipment:
I will most likely keep the driver(s) that I have. 4FW might be replaced (TM R11 at the moment). I do like my 3 and 4 hybrids and might add a 5 hybrid as well to get rid of my 5 iron that I barely can hit.
The rest of the irons and my wedges I really like and they will not be replaced.

Bring on next season.....
 
So, finally a new season have started in Sweden, and that is really nice.
I unfortunatelly got an injury some time ago, but now I am back quite ok and can start playing.
I have made some complements to my gaming set to eliminate some weak spots. I got a G25 3 wood an old Cleveland Halo hybrid (25 degrees) and a Gap wedge from an older Cobra S9 set.
So far the new clubs have done exactly what I want. The G25 is much easier to hit than my previous TM R11, the Cleveland hybrid perfectly makes me leave my 5 iron at home and the S9 GW is great for full swings (90 m) down to more of half/three quarter swings (50-80 m).

I am focusing lot´s on wedge training at the moment where know that I can save some strokes quite quick.
End of last season I set my next target for the year to get down to single hcp (from 14 hcp). I will stick to that target.

I played my first 9 round yesterday and managed to make a little hcp decrease and now I sit at 13,4 so hopefully the single target can be reached this year, we will see.
But most of all, my main target is to have fun and in that process being a little better player
 
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