Today started with a bit of a working bee cutting lawns , then cleaning the BBQ from Saturday’s event, followed by cutting out a dangerous tree near the 4 th hole pathway. The wind here today was gusty and strong ( 35-50 kph) . I got to drive the club’s old truck for the fist time. In essence it is a mobile wheel barrow, with no external mirrors and no brakes. I managed not to crash it or drive into any gutters and drains.

After the work out, I did a 18 holes practice session, concentrating on putting technique. I didn’t hit a lot of fairways, but wasn’t far off the edge for most. I got a bit of practice with my 3 Hybrid getting back into play when I did get blown off the course. Why is it when you aim to allow for the wind, it stops blowing? I managed to hit 7 GIR. Putting was a bit better. I think I have worked out a better method of keeping the putter face square to the start line. Time will tell. The following wind gave me a few long shots with Driver and 4 W. Hitting into the wind was not that bad.

I will be playing in the club competition tomorrow. Hopefully the wind will drop somewhat and I can play to 90 or so. These coastal gales make golf a bit of a lottery on some days.

Tony and I have volunteered to cook the BBQ after today’s game. The game is some sort of hybrid style 4 player team event.
Anyway most of the field elected to start at 12:45 and only three groups at 7:45. This left the course fairly vacant, so Tony and I decided to have practice hit starting at 8;30 and follow behind the field.

Tony isn’t a long hitter, but he is very accurate, especially inside 100 m. His short game is excellent.
We bogeyed hole 1, then I managed to clip the trees on the right side of the fairway. My starting line for my attempted fade was too far right and the wind didn’t have a chance to push the ball back to the centre of the fairway, as I had hoped for. Tony crept up on the hole, down the centre, while I zigzagged playing army golf. My 6 H approach shot was pin high, but left by about 10 m. A simple chip was all that I needed, not the thinned shot that scurried over to the other side of the green. Darn; double bogey on hole 2!
My tee shot on hole three hooked a bit, so I had a PW rescue over to the other side. I hit a 3H shot 188m ( impressive) to be just short of the green on the par 5. I bumped another 3H shot onto the green and two putted for a bogey. I managed another good tee shot on hole 4 getting over the ridge. It was not quite as long as yesterday’s effort. I hit the 9i approach shot fat, but managed to get it on the green with a 50% swing PW. Bogey result. My tee shot on hole 5 was effective, hitting the green with a slighlty faded/ almost straight flight. I sunk a 4.6m putt at last for a birdie. The 6th hole was uneventful par. I hit a 200m fade ( can I call it a power fade?) , then a 50% 9 i and 2 putts. Now on the seventh hole, things got interesting. I am pleased to report that I hit my tee shot 245m into the left side bunkers. I had only reached them once before. Yes, there was a bit of wind assistance there. I hit my 7W shot out of the bunker 176 m and it rolled into the green side bunker. My 60 degree wedge shot was near the pin ( 1.6m), but I missed the birdie putt. I bogeyed the 8th and 9th holes. On the 10th I put my tee shot into the right side trees. I punched out with the 3H 97 m through the trees ( hero shot). I feel confident with the low flat draw shaped shot , so maybe It isn’t a hero shot at all! We played 11 ( bogey) , but caught the field, so we skipped over to the 16th hole. My drive went 201m and the 4W 184m, so the wind had dropped a bit. I bogeyed 16,17 &18.
Overall a workman like outcome. Some holes were not pretty, but I managed to grind out bogeys when the shots were not perfect.

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Can break 80

Another balmy 20 degree afternoon. I had been tied up with Rotary meetings and grand kids all day. It was great to get out for a hit in the sunshine late in the afternoon. The people at the club were all buoyed by the pleasant conditions. The wind ? SW, at about 15 kph maybe.
It was a little busy, so I decided to play the back nine rather than wait 10 minutes.

I hit pars on 10,11, 14,15 and bogeys on 12 ,13,17,18. my only double was on 16: the par 5 into the wind. There was a bloke searching for his ball on the left side of the rough. Mentally I thought to myself, ” do not go left” with the 4W ( which it does). Instead I aimed down the rough side treeline and clipped a branch and got a B grade bounce into the pines. I chipped out with my 9 i being aware that I needed to get on the fairway, so I tried to lob over the rough stuff, but I got another B grade bounce. The ball hit the ground and stopped dead/ no roll out into the fairway at all. From a poor lie I hit the 3H club 156m like a low dart. Gotta love that single length hybrid, it is so versatile! I used it again on 17 when my drive went too far right and I had to bend the ball around a tree and over a bush to get at the green. I not only got out, but the ball ended on the green. I thought to myself that my putting was much better today. That was mistake, because I missed a short putt to score a 5 ( bogey) . On 18, my Driver fade shot over did it and ended up pin high , but right of the green. I used the LW and got it on the green and down for two. I am getting better using the LW when short sided. I have more confidence with the LW than rolling a shot over say 10 m of thicker grass. If it was short mown stuff, I like to roll them on with the SL Hybrid.

Two Steps Forward

1) I know it was not in a game but a 42 OTS is an improvement for me. I hit fairways, I hit greens, I putted better.
2) I hit more GIR using my irons. Inside 127 m ( my 7 iron distance) I am reducing my lateral dispersion. From 130-160 I have several options, depending on whether I need a high or low shot. Possibly the 6H ( 29) and the 5 H ( 23.5) are overlapping a bit, but that is strike dependent.

One Step Backward
Discipline! I have started saying this to myself before every shot to remind me to use my PSR, rather than skipping bits of it and playing too fast. I get annoyed when I make a stupid error by not sticking to my PSR.

The last two days I played like a chump, not a champ!
I put in a really bad round ( 97) yesterday. I could not find the fairway off the tee and I could not judge the speed of my putts. I had 14/14 points, so at least I was consistent. Before today’s game I went out early to the range to work on my tee shots. They got less worse, then slowly I got the feel back and put them into play.

I managed to hit a double bogey on the first hole. My tee shot was good, the 8 iron shot fell 10 short, so I had to chip on. I 3 putted! The first one was short and I just missed the second putt. The recently sanded greens are slow. I thought that I was in for a repeat of yesterday’s performance, but the tee shot on hole #2 went 214m and where I aimed it( left edge of the fairway) . I hit a 6 hybrid shot at the green, but it was way off target and hit a tree. I had a LW shot over the bunker to the green. Rather than fall short into the bunker I landed it pin high and had to chip back on with my single length 3 hybrid. I managed to sink the putt.

I hit a series of bogeys, usually having to recover from wayward second shots. I was wayward with the 4W ( a bit of the hooks) and 6 hybrid ( pushes) .By about the 6th hole my iron shots started to hit the greens, or be near misses. Using the SL hybrid I managed to get close to the pin a few times when chipping close to the greens. I managed to hit several putts just short and missed two sitters by trying to die them into the hole ( mistake)

I scored 85 ( 1 birdie, 6 pars, 9 bogeys, 2 doubles) . Had my putting been any better I possibly could have dropped about 4 strokes.

Now the admission. Today’s game was a Gentsome, where we all teed off and chose the best tee shot. Andy is a longer hitter than I am, so when we used his Driver shots I was approaching from unfamiliar distances on the hole. But the best part was my tee shots stayed in play!

Two steps
1) Putting improved a bit; still room for improvement though
2) Tee shots in play was way better

One Step Backward
4W is still tending to hook and 6 Hybrid shots tended to push / Needs work or maybe just use my 7W until I get those clubs in control.

A powered flying machine.

We played at Mt Compass about 50 km south of Adelaide.
What a course! The undulating course is scenic, with views of the surrounding low hillls. Each hole was protected by numerous sand bunkers and Mirram grass that was very thick. We came across 3 black snakes in 3 holes, so any balls that went wide were considered lost. The golf was average. Some good shots, but too many poor ones.

Unfortunately the course owners wants to subdivided the whole area, but the local Council is resisting his appeals.
Imagine if you bought a house adjacent tot a golf course and then the view is unilaterally altered to be another 600 houses. It appears that the residents are protesting that the infrastructure won’t support a 300% rise in population.

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Weetbix

I played with my mate Geoff at the Executive course at Adelaide’s Westward Ho Club , near the airport.
The par 3 & 4 course suits the beginner golfer. Geoff scored a birdie, so maybe he is more accurately described as a high handicapper now. I was playing with a partial set of Tour Edge hybrid-irons. I found them more draw biased than the Cleveland version of that style I was using the week before. It means that I have to aim 10 m right of target.
it was good fun and we got to check out lots of aircraft taking off and landing.

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Can break 80