After we devised our plan, Anthony and I went out to play four holes that turned into seven, because why not. He wanted to check that my assessment of my own game was correct. On the whole, he said that it was, and over those few holes, he gave me a few tips to try and fix obvious shortcomings. There were three main tips, and what I liked was that they were quite simple to implement. He asked me to:

Lined up ball to optimise chances of making the putt

1. Line up my putts
2. Use my pitching wedge instead of my lob love wedge to get onto the green if I don’t need to get over a hazard
3. Slow down my swing with my driver and fairway clubs

The point of lining up your putts seems obvious. You draw a line on your ball and you make sure the line aims at the hole. However, I never line up my putts because once I’ve done it at ground level, when I stand up over my ball, the line looks all wrong to me and I don’t trust it. Also, the ball moves once you’ve lined it up! as I kept wailing yesterday. But really, it doesn’t if you take the time to do it properly. Anyway, Anthony wants me to pick a line and trust it. He gave me an exercise to practice at home (I didn’t do it).

Using my pitching wedge is more difficult for me. You see, my love wedge is my favourite club. It produces beautiful, lofty shots. It laughs in the face of bunkers, ponds and (small) trees. It loves me and I love it, because when I play it I feel like a proper golfer. So betraying it for its plain, dull cousin is a bit of a wrench. However, I had to admit to Anthony that my love wedge can be fickle and fussy and misbehaves if the lie isn’t perfect. My pitching wedge is far safer if I just need to get the ball to the green without going over an obstacle. Ok then. Sob.

Slowing down my swing is linked to me wanting to hit the ball as far as I possibly can, so I rush my shot because faster swing = longer shot, right? WRONG. It’s all about timing, tempo, etc. In Paul Simon’s immortal words: slow down, you move too fast.

Scorecard 7/1/17

The result of implementing these simple tips? An 84 during my practice round yesterday. I played off 14. Yes Anthony, we’ve reached our summer goal already and, let me check, yep, it’s still midwinter. That was easy. We’re done here. This blog is now closed until Autumn, when I’ll attempt to go down to 12 in one afternoon.

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Ok, we’re off. I had a meeting with Anthony and we have a plan. I thought we were going to go out and do some putting (he’s obsessed with putting) but oh no! He sat me down and asked me questions. We’re not playing golf, I asked? No, we’re not playing golf, he answered.

I had to list the areas of my game, from best to worst. This is what I came up with:

1. Mental
2. Chipping
3. Pitching
4. Short irons
5. Putting
6. Fairway
7. Driving
8. Long irons

Me and the Expert

The problem is that it changes, apart from the mental aspect, which is always strong (I will dedicate a special post to my Mental Superpower, which was a gift from a lady who beat me during a match in my first competitive season. There are many gifts to be collected during matches).

Anyway. I used to be all about the long game. Loved fairway shots, adored driving, started messing up 120 yards from the green. Now it’s the opposite and no doubt it will flip again, because that’s what golf does. In fact, Anthony wants it to flip: our short-term aim is to reverse the order so my long game is the best part of my game while keeping my short game on a level. Then we start flipping again. Clever!

So we have a strategy and we’re going to start with my swing to improve my long game. Numbers-wise, Anthony thinks I need to be more ambitious. He wants me to play off 14 by the summer and to have broken 80 twice. Eventually, my goal is to play off 12 by the end of the year.

Now for the brilliant twist: as an incentive for him, I can have unlimited lessons and guidance FOR FREE. Yes, for free. However, I shall pay him £50 whenever I lose a shot. So we’re both very much invested in this: I lower my handicap and get a nice ego boost, and he gets rich and famous.

My first lesson is on Friday. I’m so very excited.

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The fateful scorecard

Uh oh. The plan has already suffered a setback. I decided to enter the bank holiday 9 hole competition today and had a stinker of a round, which means that my handicap is now 16.5… so the 16 to 14 challenge is now the 17 to 14 challenge. Not the best of starts. Wrong way to go, handicap!

Since I decided I wanted to make a proper, concerted effort to get my handicap down, I’ve done a bit of digging around and found a podcast on Freakonomics radio on how to become really really good at something. It interviews Anders Ericsson, who is at the origin of the idea that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill, and focuses on the concept of deliberate practice. It is based on effective training techniques that have been established over time and allow effective practice.

The main takeaway is that you have to give yourself well-defined, specific goals. Not a vague overall improvement, but targets precise aspects of a particular skill. For this, feedback from an expert is essential to be able to tell what adjustments you need to be making, then clear criteria are set to be able to improve.

Deliberate practice takes place outside one’s comfort zone. The learner must try to achieve things that are outside their current abilities and near maximal effort. Many errors are made in that zone, but with deliberate practice, you’re going to find ways to eliminate those errors and you must always look to improve under the guidance of a teacher.

So let’s see. I have an expert (Anthony, our pro at Brighton and Hove Golf Club) and together, we can set regular goals to reach, with exercises, a timetable, the whole shebang. I will also endeavour to actually get out of my comfort zone, as this seems to be important. For me, it will probably mean focusing on the same exercise for longer than five minutes and NOT running away from the practice area to go out and play on the course.

Can I do this? Of course I can!

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