its all gone Pete Tong & a Rant

ITS ALL GONE PETE TONG.........decided to have a game today with a fello golfing friend, had a lesson from a friend with 8 handicap week or so a go to boost confidence and get a bit of a point in the right direction, which did do me a massive favour and even allowed me to actually tee off with and iron with confidence on the driving range, putting it into practice today was a different matter ! finished on a 69per with a score of 137...137 !!!! WTF my worst game ever, confidence knocked sideways and have lost all faith in myself, was i trying to leather the drives, maybe the odd one, was i frightened of my irons, a little i suppose, but when i did hit them i felt good about myself, even did a bit of self praising once in a while (especially as i hit my 5 200yrds on 1 shot!), am i really doing something drastically wrong here or was i just expecting too much of myself after a few good driving range sessions !!??

RANT....whilst i try my utmost to not slow anyone's game up when on a course, more than happy to let people pass if i am on the slow side, today i had a pair & a 4 ball in front of my friend and i and a pair & 4 ball behind us which were like speedy gonzalez & his buddies on their golf buggies, got a bit held up on a few holes and with the way i was playing today we let the pair over take us, this left approx hole and a bit behind us for speedy and his friends to play with, we carried on for a couple of holes but again got a bit of a que in front, payed the drive off no9 not a bad little hit to approx 180yrds, friend hit the same, speedy & his mates behind us by this time, pair just finishing on the green, we waited for a bit for the flag to go in, meantime speedy and his mates decide because they can hit further than us, wallop, ball comes sailing over head, no calls, donk lands about 10ft in front of me, now am i right in thinking 1) Fore should not only have been called & 2) they should have waited for us to make our approach to the green befor playing their shots, or should we have allowed them to play on ??? PS yes i was tempted to show him where to put his driver and no it wasnt back in his golf bag !!

First thing. We all have bad rounds. It happens. Just as we have the day where everything seems to click and we get a great score we also have days where nothing is working. This is golf. Mark it off as 'one of those days' and forget about it

Second thing. If you are up with play there is no need or benefit to let anyone play through, even if they are quicker than you. The people you describe are idiots. They should not play a shot if they think you are in range; it's dangerous if nothing else. This has happened to me and the offending player found his ball heading back towards him from the face of my 3 wood (hit it really well too!). When he came running down the fairway to challenge me I waited patiently (iron in hand, just in case, it was a muni) for him to get to me and "informed" him of the etiquette of golf and showed him exactly why he was waiting for us to play. Also told him if he tried it again his ball would receive the same treatment. I also informed him that the rule was he had to play his ball from where it now lay and if he tried to do otherwise he was also a cheat. They kept their distance after that

In your situation I would have challenged them and reported their behaviour to the pro when I finished the round

It is my understanding that you should wait until the players in front have played their second shot before teeing off, but more often than not, i use a bit of common sense. As Chris said, they are idiots for playing over you, i get annoyed when a ball comes rolling past my feet, never mind balls sailing over my head. I would have stamped on it into the ground, or kicked it into the trees or something. Unfortunately its the risk of playing on pay and play courses. Im sure we wouldnt have to deal with such prats if playing on a members only course.

It is times like that, I relish playing in the week, on an evening, when its quiet and everything is relaxed. I do try and avoid it on a weekend. Although i have noticed that a saturday afternoon seems steady on some of the courses i have played.

Tim, regarding your round - you look like you're at the same stage as me - most of my rounds are between 110 and 120, and I can see parts of my game starting to come together. Last week I went out at a really nice course (Lingfield) on a corporate with the boss of my biggest customer and had a stinker (scored 7 points - would have got more singing for Luxembourg) every bit as bad as yours sounds - hopefully I will learn from that. I went out yesterday and scored 22, with 14 of them on the back 9.

As for the knob-heads - fortunately they are few and far between, even on my local pay and play - I tend to stand and stare at them for a couple of minutes - it normally get's the message accross.

Anyway keep at it -maybe we'll both break 100 before the end of the summer?

Chris it so blinking frustrating that fact it all went right on the driving range just just went to pot on the day, confidence knocked a bit, but hoping to pick the game back up on tuesday on a four ball stapleford @ Nizels, playing with a 9,12 & 18 hcp so better step the game up or guv'nor will be ripping the you know what all afternoon.

as for the midless few, know what you mean, if i was a violent sort of person it could have proved very upsetting for them, oh well roll on tuesday, cheers for the comments lads

Your post highights a common problem with players with high handicaps. Your friend giving you advice might seem a good idea but it could also leave you on the tee thinking about the advice and being too technical. I played against an 11 year old in the last medal and he was off 21. His longest drive was less than 200 yards but he parred a few holes on the course by simply keeping the ball in play. Similar to seniors, both male and female, juniors tend to keep the ball on the fairway as they don't tend to hit it too hard. Have you considered hitting irons only until you are happy that you have that working before getting the woods out? You'll get a lot of confidence by having the ball in the middle of the fairway and score better if your tempo is better. Don't beat yourself up about a bad score, I have had a bad year but the occasional good round keeps me interested

I agree with Chris that the people behind were idiots. The best way to deal with them is to inform them that you will call the police if they carry on or if they hit you as I'll bet they don't have insurance

mbachi, i think it is time for the driver to be put away for a while, the problem was i had spent over 3 separate occasions on the driving range since friend had given me pointers on my swing and to be honest considering the furthest i had hit a 7 was 80-100 yrds and a 5 140 yrds, after the swing lesson i hit a consistent 7 140-150yrds and a 5 190-200yrds with ease, so the lesson helped & boosted the confidence, just didnt seem to go right on the day, going for a booster practice before game tomorrow to rid the demons (hopefully!)