Okay, so seeing as I am working on my putting and short game this year, I have to figure out what I am going to do about my long game in the meantime. My game on the weekend, along with some threads on this forum, have given me a strategy.

I played Canadian foursomes on Saturday with a partner who I had not played with before. Most times, we were playing my drive. My partner was about the same handicap as me. She wasn’t particularly long but was very straight and reliable. Time after time she was using the second shot to put us on the fairway in good position to attack the green with the third.

And it meant that we were in the hunt for a good score on every hole. Then of course I realised that there is no reason why I can’t be doing that myself. Even though I am typically trying to lay up, I have been hitting hybrid on the grounds that I have to get used to hitting it for when my handicap comes down further and I have to start making more greens in regulation.

But for this year, being aggressive can get stuffed. If I use my 5 or 6 iron for those shots, then I am more likely to get them in good position on the fairway where I want them to be, rather than in the rough or on the wrong side of the fairway. And plus I am less likely to find myself in that in-between range at about 50 metres where I don’t feel like I have a good approach club.

And if 2014 deege finds herself without spare shots and out of practice with the longer clubs, then that can be a task for 2014.

We have our first medal of the year next Saturday so it will be an interesting test to see how the more conservative plan tee to green works out.

Watch some low markers if you can deegee. Get in groups with them. Often it’s not the fact they’ve got longer shots, usually it’s the fact from 80m in they leave it within 3 foot. You don’t have to hit gir when you’re that accurate.
3 foot putts need to be 100% and everything else needs to stop in a 3 foot circle. Sounds easy but it ain’t.

D (that’s what I’m now calling you as I’m lazy) I figured we can chase each other. I’ve added my golflink so you can follow. Bring it on :)

Thanks AB, I was playing with a 9 marker the other week – I hadn’t played with her for almost 10 months. I took note of the fact that her distance isn’t much more than mine (though she tended to get more out of her hybrids and woods than I did).

We were going for GIR on the same holes and we ended up with similar stableford scores – it’s just my handicap was a good 15 shots higher than hers. That’s a whole extra shot almost per hole which I was wasting on three putts and duffed chips and stuffed bunker shots.

It was certainly an eye-opener to realise that approaching some of my shots more like the elderly short-hitting lady I played with on Saturday actually has the potential to improve my consistency.

I find simplifying it too. Try chipping with a putting stroke for instance as it is easier

http://youtu.be/OTCpkYqF8Ig

This clip, thanks Node, is a big help too.

Well this week the putting was pretty good. I am trying to judge my success or failure of putts on whether or not I go through my routine properly, not on whether or not the putt drops.

So on the weekend, the “old” part of me which still analyses my performance based on whether or not the putts drop still regretted a couple of messy greens where I didn’t do as well as I would have liked, there weren’t any putts where I failed in my process, and therefore it was generally a success.

On the numbers, I think I had 34 putts for the round, which I am pretty happy with, given that I still had a couple of three putts. To balance it up, I managed to have a number of very successful putts – from outside 6-8 feet which ended up in tap in range, meaning I was very close on the read and the weight to holing them.

Plus I had a lovely 20 foot putt for par which did everything I intended it to, including fall in the hole.

I have definitely identified that an area to continue to work on is judging the weight of my putts – I am tending to come up slightly short or even with the hole on longer putts. On several, if I had put another 6 inches of roll on the putt, there is every chance it would have gone in.

I judge distance on feel, and trusting that my eye knows how far it is to hit, and that has been working pretty well – certainly better than deliberately focussing on my distance control – whenever I try to tell myself to put a little more on it, I end up going well past.

So that means that practice is the culprit, and a lot of teaching my eye that the distance I am looking for is a little bit past the hole rather than in it.

Onwards and upwards!

Deege great work. You should read “putting out of your mind” by Bob Rotella. It talks about all the things your focusing on especially distance control. I can lend you my copy at SL when we play in two weeks as I’m in your group. Keep up the good work. A positive mind is the first step.

Ari, thanks for the suggestion – I have a copy of this book and have used a lot of what he has said about routine and all parts of the putting motion. I am trying to get my copy back from another club member – when I do I will look at what he says again about distance control in particular.

This weekend’s round was interesting. Ended up with 34 putts with two wipes. But really it was just a couple of holes that included unnecessary holes, and both of my wipes could have been saved with better putting.

It is frustrating when the good work you do is undone by a couple of sloppy strokes.

I got myself a strip of carpet from Bunnings for practising in front of the TV, and have already had a bit of a run down on what to expect on the greens at SL next week from a member there that I caught up with yesterday.

Watch Gaz putt on the weekend Deege….he goes pretty well at the caper. That, and most other aspects of the game.

Keep the stirring up….loving every bit of it.

Well not an update about putting, but more a reflection on how poorly I played today to my strategy for the rest of my game at OOM today. Such a nice course for driving the ball meant that I was in good position most of the time for my approaches, and in reachable range of the greens – something that I don’t normally experience.

So of course I threw out my strategy of laying up and playing conservatively and tried to reach every green I was in range of, spending far too much time in bunkers that were too penal for my limited bunkers skills. Whenever I chose to play more conservatively, I was more likely to actually get a score.

So, though it was painful, a very good lesson for me today. I will have to be more dedicated in applying my course management decisions so that I can actually take advantage of the shots that I have available and not getting suckered into taking the risk of the risk/reward thing all of the time.

Hey Deege – if there is a spot in that Rosebud round available, count me in if you wouldn’t mind.

We’re both off similar handicaps….I’ll share what I’ve learnt from some of the luminaries here (thinking the likes of CB80, Kiwi and Francie in particular) in regard to course management and how to accumulate points

Ii’s fair to say…I’m way better at it now than I was 12 months ago.

We’re both off similar handicaps….I’ll share what I’ve learnt from some of the luminaries here (thinking the likes of CB80, Kiwi and Francie in particular) in regard to course management and how to accumulate points

Ii’s fair to say…I’m way better at it now than I was 12 months ago.

Smoldy. Like the Grand Canyon….one of the few things in life that when you see it, it doesn’t disappoint.
http://www.golflink.com.au/...

Thanks for including me in those thoughts, Goldy…......on reflection from today’s game (and to a lesser extent playing Latrobe last week) I didn’t use the driver a great deal.

I worked on the distances of the holes and worked out how far I needed to be off the tee to have a mid iron to the green. I think I had 2 or 3 wipes and still finished with 37 points by playing conservative. There’s a lot in shot scoring if you stick to your plan and play to your strengths.

Hey Deege …......., nail on the head in terms of bunkers, it was really you’re only downfall yesterday, and they weren’t the easiest to get out of.

It was a Greg Norman designed course, as well, so you know there’s going to be lots of them about.

With a crusty top on some of them, and soft sand underneath, technique was always going to be tested …..... but you kept your head, and your smile, which was really nice to see.

The rest of your game though was solid ….. and you have a really nice looking golf swing ….. so you have lots going for you.

So, just tidy on your bunker technique , and keep working on your course management, and there is a lot of good things in store for your game. I really enjoyed our round yesterday, so I look forward to teeing it up with you again soon.

deege
go down the local kids play ground
kick the kids out of the sand pit and own it.

i had just the 1 wipe on the 4th after finding pot left after pulling an 8i in, 2 shots to get out of the crust.

i also found the right pot on 1st and was a 30m carry to flag and got it to 1m and sunk putt for par.

in right pot on 18, two to get out,
2nd shot to 1m sunk bogie putt.

so as GPJ said they where a test,
they where also shit and inconsistent

There’s really no excuse for it – my course is about 5 minutes around the corner and has several practice bunkers with nice steep lips on them. So I don’t even need to be mean to little children.

My two options are to learn to play out of them or to avoid them altogether. I would prefer the latter, but suspect that it might be a good idea to go have a quick lesson from the pro and do some practice to aid my situation with the former.

Hey Deege – if there is a spot in that Rosebud round available, count me in if you wouldn’t mind.

We’re both off similar handicaps….I’ll share what I’ve learnt from some of the luminaries here (thinking the likes of CB80, Kiwi and Francie in particular) in regard to course management and how to accumulate points

Ii’s fair to say…I’m way better at it now than I was 12 months ago.

Smoldy. Like the Grand Canyon….one of the few things in life that when you see it, it doesn’t disappoint.
http://www.golflink.com.au/...

Sure, given the interest I will check our syllabus and choose a Saturday in March or so when there shouldn’t be too much demand from the other course and throw it up for whoever wants to come – if people can’t make it, we can try another one later in the year.

Learn to get out of them is the key. Not within a foot(that comes later). At our level they can get very penal if we go for a great shot rather than just getting out of the kitty litter.
I found a way to practice the shot beside the bunker and then walk in and play it. As we all know you can’t practice in the bunker on course so it helps build my confidence before the shot.
When I practiced on our bunker I spent a lot of the session on technique and played at least 10 like I’d have to in comp.
Good luck. It takes time.

Yeah, AB, well that is what comes of not wanting to practice things that you are not very good at. I have learnt enough technique that I can normally get out of the bunkers at my course cause they have pretty good sand and not too much of a lip, but at the lakes I was toast – I found the sand very heavy and difficult to get the bounce of the wedge to slide through the sand like I try to do.

We have wet sand from time to time here in qld, doesn’t get much heavier than that :), and I’ve got a different technique I use. If you can get ‘podcasts’ you can see it as there website doesn’t work well.

Well I watched some of your vodcast AB, some interesting ideas. Tried the LAC while warming up today and worked pretty well, but then completely forgot about it when I got on the course.

Today I took Rob’s ex-putter out for a spin to see whether the MetalX insert would do better for me than the white ice. It wasn’t great without having practised overly much, but I found that the ball jumped off the face a little better, meaning I didn’t have those repeated putts on good line that pulled up a little short.

Found it quite a bit harder to judge on the long putts (particularly from off the green) but that may just be getting used to it. I think I will leave it in the bag for a couple more rounds. If I find that the two consistently have a different natural weight off the face, then that would be ideal.

Today unbelievably enough I had a 5PUTT. My first was about 25 feet and I got a good line but ran it past a bit down the hill, leaving me a tricky 5 footer on the way back. I hit the next one firmly (too firmly) and it took the corner of the hole and spun back out to 4 feet. I did exactly the same with the next one. I cosied the next one up to the hole and tapped in for a 9.

Amazingly enough, the only putt that pissed me off was the second last one. The first three I went through my routine properly, took aim and tried to hole it firmly. Obviously they were both too firm to spin out, but I am working on accepting that the outcome is secondary when I do all the right things, have the right mental process and miss for whatever reason. The only putt I wasn’t trying to hole was when I deliberatey hit it too short so as to cosy it up to the hole, in hopes of finally managing to hole out.

Well it can only get better from here.

Deege the Metalx is definantly hotter of the face than the polymer insert. Sounds nicer as well i reckon

I am good for Rosebud whenever.

Yeah, AB, well that is what comes of not wanting to practice things that you are not very good at. I have learnt enough technique that I can normally get out of the bunkers at my course cause they have pretty good sand and not too much of a lip, but at the lakes I was toast – I found the sand very heavy and difficult to get the bounce of the wedge to slide through the sand like I try to do.

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http://www.golflink.com.au/...

I struggle with rosebud bunkers because the sand is soft and they re so wide….i guess its all about what yr used to! Im keen to try sl, sounds fun. Well done for starting the ladies inclusion deege:-)

I watch a lot of ladies (and guys too) in the sand, and the one thing that stops most people from getting out of bunkers is the absence of a follow-through, and often trying to smash the ball out of the sand of a green-side bunker.

There is no need to get the ball out of a green-side bunker with great power, even from wet sand. What you need to do (if you are connecting with sand first) is complete the swing – that is to finish with your hands high, at least close to shoulder height (if you are worried about your follow through). One smooth accelerating movement to complete the swing

If your hands stay low – so will the ball.

Yeah, AB, well that is what comes of not wanting to practice things that you are not very good at. I have learnt enough technique that I can normally get out of the bunkers at my course cause they have pretty good sand and not too much of a lip, but at the lakes I was toast – I found the sand very heavy and difficult to get the bounce of the wedge to slide through the sand like I try to do.

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http://www.golflink.com.au/...

Well done for starting the ladies inclusion deege:-)

Looking forward to you taking the plunge, Maggie and joining Deege at one of our OOM days.