18 January 2023|Golfing with gratitude
I've been listening to the excellent podcast series "The Sweet Spot" with Adam Young and John Sherman and the recent ones with Kent Osbourne inspired this post. If you've not checked out the podcast series already I would recommend it. Ken Osbourne's own background is fascinating and really worth a listen. Adam and John's books are on my reading list once I've completed Limitless!
Reflections on 2022
This was a really significant year for me both from a personal life and a golfing life perspective having retired at the end of 2021 and moved my family to St Andrews in February. The personal life stuff is covered in the "Thoughts about" thread and I'll concentrate on golf here.
The big benefit of living locally (and being retired) is that I've been able to take advantage of my links ticket and finally get to know the courses better. Despite having had my ticket for a number of years, with seven courses and only getting here maybe once a week or twice a month, it has been hard to learn each of them (I've still not played the Balgove or Strathtyrum courses!). I've also made better use of the practice facilities too. The excellent short game area and practice greens at the academy and the short game area between the Jubilee and the New.
Best rounds of 2022
I think there are actually two categories here. The rounds with the lowest scores and the rounds I thought were the best. What's the difference? Well, there were a couple of rounds where I started poorly, maybe had a bad front 9, but where I dug in and managed to rescue a decent score. I think I probably learned more about my game and myself in those rounds than in the ones where I shot a low score. There are also many rounds where the scores were poor but the company was great and the score didn't matter.
The lowest scoring rounds were: Jubilee 73, Ladybank 73 (3 times) and Eden 71. Unfortunately, not all of these games were entered into WHS but they are all included in my ShotScope statistics. At one point during the Jubilee round, I was actually 4 under par! I was also under par with a few to play during the Eden round. I let my head get ahead of itself both times, tensed up and didn't recover well after a couple of poor shots. But in hindsight, these rounds prove what's possible and I can take confidence from them. The low rounds at Ladybank were encouraging as they were characterised by good course management, scrambling and putting. There was also a good round on the Castle Course. Even though it was a 75 it still represented a great score on a difficult course.
Best experience of 2022
I think this was the run that my friend Gary and I had in the doubles match play competition on the Castle Course where we got all the way to the final. Unfortunately, Gary got injured and wasn't able to play the final, so I took the other pair on by myself and fell short. But it was a great run to get there with a few games where we really needed to dig deep to get the wins. When I was working I was never able to make time for the matchplay competitions so it was great to play this year. Clutch golf under pressure is a great learning experience.
A reminder of why I love golf.
Playing the Castle Course has reinforced many of the reasons I love golf. Most of my rounds there are social and with good friends, rather than competitive and I like playing up there on my own too. The scenery is spectacular, with unrivalled views back to town and out to sea. It is so different from the town courses. When I die I've actually asked my family to scatter my ashes on the 12th green, the highest vantage point on the course. Many people are critical of the course but I simply love it. It's challenging, but great fun to play. I never go there expecting to shoot a low score either, so it's always a bonus when I do. I go there for the fun of playing golf and enjoying the company and banter that comes when playing with good friends. First and foremost, golf surely has to be about enjoying yourself.
Areas of improvement in 2022
Putting: I worked hard on my putting in 2022. I went back over the lessons I did with Ross McLeod a few years ago and also the online stuff I did with Bruce Rearick. I did a free online course with Phil Kenyon too. But it all came together during a couple of in-person lessons with Mike Rae on the practice green at Scotscraig. Mike really helped me with my green reading technique and confidence with aim. Bruce helped quell the club junkie in me and get in the right style of putter for my stroke. I need to confess though, while I started and finished the season using the same putter, there were experiments with three others during the year! Ross and Phil helped with practice drills for start line and pace. I still need to work harder on short putting but this year overall, I've been much happier on the greens.
Short game: Like many, I have struggled with wedge play and know it has cost me strokes. Early in the season, I went to SGGT for a wedge fitting to take equipment out of the mix. During lessons with Mike at Drumoig we spent two sessions focussed on chipping and he really helped me understand how to use bounce and to have more confidence around the green. I've spent a good bit of time at the short game area, but the biggest improvement came late in the season after Sandy at Ladybank increased the strength of my grip. I've seen a marked improvement in chipping over the last two months.
Full swing: still a work in progress but I'm seeing good improvement.
Attitude: also a work in progress. I think this is linked to my goals for 2023, as I'll try to expand on below.
Goals for 2023
I want to reframe my "Quest for scratch" but not quite sure how yet. I was recently reminded of what's important in life when my friend and regular golfing partner unexpectedly passed away. We were golfing together one Sunday morning and he was gone the next day. As always, we'd been chatting about all sorts that morning, golf, life and everything in between. His death has caused me to pause and reflect. From a golf perspective, I've actually been thinking about reframing my goals since listening to one of the Kent Osbourne podcasts where he talked about thinking about every round as the last one you might play. An odd coincidence.
Top priority: Just enjoy the game! Life is too short to get upset about a poor round of golf. I love golf, I really do, but I don't need to take it so seriously. I'm concerned that having a handicap goal could take away from that. I've got nothing on the line here, it's not my career and it’s not the only thing in my life. I play the game because I love the challenge, being outside, being with friends (old and new), being with people I've never met before, talking about golf, life, and the universe. I've met some amazing and interesting people while golfing and have also made some of my best friendships too. While I also like the challenge of competition, it's less important than the other bits. For me, golf is a bit like a journey with no final destination but lots of great stop-off places along the way.
Reframe the scratch goal. I tried to talk about this in a previous post but have continued to think about what I was trying to get at. I would like to set a slightly different goal of playing the Old, New, Jubilee, Castle and Ladybank in scratch or better. I think that better frames what my quest for scratch is about. It is less about the bragging rights of my handicap index and more about the challenge of matching or bettering the course that I'm playing. More than wanting to have a scratch handicap, I've always wanted to shoot level par or lower. Handicap index is a secondary goal.
Next steps: Continue with my lessons and practice. Enjoy the process of improvement, the opportunities to play this great game and the time spent with friends and strangers while playing it. Treat myself with a bit more kindness and quieten the criticisms made by the devil on my shoulder. Enjoy the view. Stop buying putters!
The 8th tee on the Jubilee looking up the Eden estuary - one of my friend's favourite spots
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