Interesting start to the season

[IrishGolfer]

And they're off!

Our club's 1st competition of the year on Saturday. Great day, nice testing breeze, first chance in 2006 to test my skills against the course over 18 holes. It was a stableford competition (good job!) and I didn't have the best start to the round, only acquiring 3 points after 4 holes, including a mystery lost ball on the 4th.

Anyway I then went BIRDIE BOGEY BIRDIE DOUBLE BIRDIE PAR BIRDIE. 4 birds in 7 holes!!! I had a 3 jack and an unplayable in that little run or it would have been better. The most frustrating thing was after that, I had 5 straight chances within 12 ft to accumulate more birds, but the putter turned to ice.

I finished with a roller coaster 35 points (finishing with 2 bogies!) but I guess all things considered I'm happy given that I had 14 points in 4 holes!

Some conclusions:

• The Scotty blew hot and cold, but hell, I made some putts today, which was a great feeling! When you strike it right it feels great!
• The Ping G2 is not for me. Although I cracked a few, its just Head Jam stuff. I'll stick with the 983K
• The Mac G 675s were spanking today!
• I hit some cracking wedges today, low and controlled, right up to the stick. I am sticking with my strategy of practising within 100 yards this season. It's gonna be interesting!

Bring on 2006.

[Dave Ireland]

Good shooting ma man !! ... just a tad away from burning the place up eh ?? I think the birdie blitz is a good yardstick as to how well yer playing. I was going to post a thread about the 100 yard and in myself - we played in the 3rd round of an inter-golf society compy last Saturday against a crowd who were a golf society from a pitch and putt club. Man you should've seen those guys from 50 yards in and greenside ... left nothing but kick-in putts from their approach play.

All going well, I've decided I'm gonna devote 1 hour a week solely to p/w, s/w and lob practice - it's that "soft hands" feel that you can only ingrain from practice. We're unfortunate that our practice area doesn't have chipping greens, and there's no chipping practice allowed on the putting greens ... so I'll haveta work around that.

[Andy_79]

Mixed bag there alright, Marko.

Why no-like the G2, dood >?!

Where did you lose the ball at 4 ?

Course is very scuffy, don't you think ?!

Cornation Cup Qualifying this weekend - do you fancy playing early-doors ??

We finished 15-under - 16-under avec handicap - in t'Scramble yesters. Another walk in the park...

[IrishGolfer]

How was Portugal? Good weather?
You came back to some lovely rain.....

Originally Posted by Andy_79

Mixed bag there alright, Marko.

Why no-like the G2, dood >?!
Dunno, I didn't hit it as well as the 1st outing. I still like it but would hate to give up the 983K. Still toying with the idea.

Where did you lose the ball at 4 ?

Off my drive. Over the mound, hit well, it either plugged at the top or carried it into that soft mossey stuff beyond. We all searched for it but no luck. never even crossed my mind to hit a provo, silly as it is a shot hole.

Course is very scuffy, don't you think ?!
I dunno, greens were good. Lots of sand on the fairway. Good job we got all that rain to wash it in. Should get better from here on in.

Cornation Cup Qualifying this weekend - do you fancy playing early-doors ??

Yeah, Dan H might be up for it as well. 7.30am ish?

We finished 15-under - 16-under avec handicap - in t'Scramble yesters. Another walk in the park...
Who did you play with, Paul, Stephen, Mark H?

[IrishGolfer]

Originally Posted by Dave Ireland

All going well, I've decided I'm gonna devote 1 hour a week solely to p/w, s/w and lob practice - it's that "soft hands" feel that you can only ingrain from practice.

That's were it's at. That and the flatstick!

[Dave Ireland]

Was gonna ask ye about the mystery lost ball on #4, but I said I'd let bygones be bygones ... some might call it divine retribution ya know

Other thing I notice with ya IG for some strange reason, yer putting seems to start off hot and cools as the round goes on, you don't seem to have what I would call the normal flatstick problem, where you've a slow start and then when you get a feel for the speed they start to drop .....

[IrishGolfer]

Originally Posted by Dave Ireland

yer putting seems to start off hot and cools as the round goes on, you don't seem to have what I would call the normal flatstick problem, where you've a slow start and then when you get a feel for the speed they start to drop .....

Aye, I kinda know that. I know when I am putting well, technically the stroke and confidence is good. The Scotty is working well, but I have also shortened my backstroke and slightly opened my stance.

However I just need to miss a couple and then I start thinking about it and the old confidence takes a bashing and the stroke becomes a bit edgey. I holed puts of 15ft, 12ft, 12ft and 6ft and then standing over a putt of about 25ft on #11, I just knew I was going to hole it, and so I did. (Great feeling btw). However I missed a several putts after that including a few "makeable" putts, one of 8ft on 15, and 3ft on 16 (albeit it downhill with a bit of break). I then 3 jacked the last from no distance.

After reading Rotella I am working now on the basis that if I miss a few "well struck" putts then I am due one. I need to extend that to include if I make a couple, I can keep on making 'em all day, as my eye is in. It's a tough mental exercise that, but hey, at least I made a few, so I have that to build on.

[Dave Ireland]

I hear ya ... strange thing last year ... my best putting streak last year coincided with what was technically my worst stroke - it basically amounted to a jab at the ball , 6 inch back and 6 inches follow through irrespective of distance. I started this year trying to replicate it and it just manifested itself as the yips. I've worked on a far smoother "push through" in my stroke the last couple of weeks but have yet to reap the benefit .... played Saturday on the proverbial hen run and missed 4 birds inside 15 feet, didn't trouble the hole on 3 of them

[VtDivot]

Thank God for spring - with any luck we'll be playing here soon too!

(Interesting round IG )

[Andy_79]

Do ya wanna play golf on Saturday ? Cornation Cup qualifying, like. Would have to be a 7:15am tee-off, or thereabouts. Blue tees Gonna check t'weather the now.....

[Bravo]

Great shooting IG...the short irons must be working well too....Our club opener is a week from Saturday. We are having a Stableford as well.

They did our core aeration/top dressing to the greens last Monday and they were simply horrid on the weekend...the ball hopping up and down. We played in a 15-20 mph wind to boot...I opened with a 5 wood to four feet for birdie and fell apart from there, carding an 89.

I hope the greens will be ready by the time we play the opener...the President of the Golf Channel is going to give a talk on the company at the ****tail party with some history and current status. The original COO of TGC is a member of our club and he arranged for the guy to come and talk...this guy has been our club champion 5-6 times and is my age. He is a great guy and made a lot of money on the stock in the company since he was there from day one. Retired now. At age 51, he can smoke our course which is almost 6900 yards long with a slope of 136...shot a 67 on it last year.

[IrishGolfer]

Originally Posted by Andy_79

Do ya wanna play golf on Saturday ? Cornation Cup qualifying, like. Would have to be a 7:15am tee-off, or thereabouts. Blue tees Gonna check t'weather the now.....

Yeah, sounds good, can you get cards sorted at that time? I think the forecast is not great, wind and rain!!

Dan H maight be up for playing as well. Who else do you have in mind?

[Andy_79]

Portugal was good, mate, cheers. Last couple of days were beautiful; 21 degrees both days. Lovely

Ansley Stewart said he'd play. He was to ask Mark Dunlop whom he plays with a bit to play, also. I rang Wingle to ask him to play too, though he said if its bad weather he ain't playing.

Hunter should be opening up at 7:30 at thee latest, although I'm sure he'll be his customary late-self

Weather on BBC states it is to be rain int' morn', then to clear a bit, come le apres-midi. 13 degrees & windy, too. 75 or less'll do me.....

[charnockpro]

What course do u guys play at?

I shot 79 with 2 triple's and a double on saturday just gone!!! gutted

[Andy_79]

Here is where we play, man:

http://www.portstewartgc.co.uk/

North coast of Northern Ireland...