A Small White Ball and Several Big Sticks: Tue 15 Oct 2013 18 Holes at Paultons

For October the weather was amazing. Warm enough to start with tee shirt and polo shirt only.

With R after work. We had to start at about 2:30 in order to finish before it got dark. We must have been about the last to start as there were a few in front but a few holes and no one behind until we were caught by a lone golfer around the 12/13th. As usual the sun was a bit of a problem for seeing the ball but its a nice problem to have.

I had printed score cards from the new website with planned scores for each of us. R on 14 and me on 26.

I set off well on the first 2 holes, despite a poor tee shot on the 2nd. (No change there!). Sadly I went into the trees on the 3rd and took a couple to get back onto the fairway. The next 3 were fine (although I wasted my Mulligan on the 5th). I tried too hard on the long 7th and started off with a lost ball left and 3 off the tee. My tee shot then got slightly tangled up in the trees to the right and I struggled to get out of the rough. So this was a 9... bad. The 8th was fine but I again lost a ball off the tee on the 9th so another 3 off the tee. By the time I went left and right and went over the green from short I got my first 11 in a long time.

Mentally I was struggling and things took a little while to get back to normal as I started off with a duff from the tee on the 10th (At least it was not lost). Over the next few holes things improved a bit and I realised that I was taking myself too seriously. There is no point getting wound up it only makes things worse. I slightly messed up the 13th with a duff off the tee but after that I was back to my usual sort of game. Lately I have not been able to get over the lake on the 15th so I took a different strategy of a 9i right and then its easy over the lake and saves one stroke and a lost ball.

We let the lone golfer through on the 16th as we were waiting for the sun to drop a bit to make the final holes easier.

It was a great evening and the grass was absolutely full of cobweb but no spider was in sight. Where are they? I attempted to get a picture but not very successful. Anyway I played so badly that R easily won. My score is here.

In the end it was great fun as usual!

Anyway it made me ask a few questions.... I need to be able to hit better (further) off the tee. I need to get on the green instead of being short so often. I decided I need to go for a practice and see if I could make some small change to my position to allow bigger shots from the tee.... Tomorrow I will go for a practice, the first in several months. Can't do any harm, can it?

Oh and don't take myself so seriously!