Worst Round For Five Months

For the last three weeks I've been playing really well.

Played in a pairs matchplay competition and I was really pleased with my game.

Won the midweek medal with a gross 79, net 66!

Then last Saturday I played in one or our major golf competitions. It was a stableford competition and I had eighteen points after eight holes. Again really steady golf, everything was a par or a bogey.

Then I blobbed the ninth. After that my game disintegrated!!! Got twelve points on the back nine.

The worst bit was hitting my best drive of the day, 262 yards right in the middle of the fairway. Looked at my SkyCaddie and it said 268 yards to the middle of the green.

There was a slight breeze from behind so I decided to take my seven iron, this would have gone about 165 - 170 yards with the wind and a good bounce or two!

I then hit a pull/hook which left my ball on a path right behind a bunch of trees!

Took a free drop from the path and chipped my ball back onto the fairway.

So I'm on the fairway roughly 70 yards from the flag having taken three shots.

Took my lob wedge and proceeded to shank my shot!

Then fluffed a short pitch, took another pitch shot onto the green and two putted.

Total for the hole, eight shots!!!  And that is from the middle of the fairway.

Then we played today in the Medal.  A total disaster from my points of view.

I shot 102, my worst score since playing Alto Golf in Portugal at the beginning of February!

Pulled a couple of tee shots out of bounds.  Shanked three shots and generally had a nightmare.

Went onto the practice area after the round, but to be honest it was a waste of time.  Basically I was practicing my bad shots!

Hopefully it was a one off, and with a bit of practice I'll get back to playing well.

Russ

Forget it Russ, it is now history, I am quite sure you will bounce back to your regular standard.

John, I intend to go upto the golf club this afternoon and have a couple of hours on the practice ground.  The sun is shining so I'm taking Samantha with me.  Promised her a picnic whilst we are up there.

David, I am pretty certain that I know who you are talking about! 

Russ

I had similar. Played on saturday morning, and shot my lowest ever score around my course (91) and picked up 40 points in our little swindle.

Played yesterday afternoon and started well...then all of a sudden lost the ability to strike a golf ball. So frustrating! Club championships this weekend though, so need it fixed asap!!

I played Fiddlers Ferry Cheshire on Sunday played the worst round for a long time, played again today and hit 94 for me that was my 2nd best score so far so i think just stick with it and ride the highs and lows!!

I did go upto the golf club the day after my appalling round of golf.

Took Samantha with me and we were up there a good couple of hours.

We had Samantha's golf clubs with us and took a picnic for the both of us, she really enjoyed it.

Some of the golfers passing by on the 17th fairway had to do a double take when they saw us with all the stuff set out.

Only problem was I spent two hours practicing a shank!!!!!

I'd spoken with the club pro before I went onto the practice ground and he gave me a few things to try. None of them worked!

At one stage I was using my eight iron and every third shot would be a shank.

After that I went back to the pro shop and arranged a lesson with the pro.  I had one lesson left from a block booking that I had about nine months ago.

Had my lesson this evening, started off still shanking every fourth or fifth shot.  I was even doing it with my lob wedge.

After a few shots the pro said I was swinging the club back and around my body, coupled to this leading with my hands through the ball just meant that I was catching the ball with the hosel rather than the clubface.

Felt strange getting back on a correct takeaway and setting the club on the proper plane.

As usual, I stayed on after the lesson to practice what had been explained to me.

For the next twenty shot I was still shanking, and getting really worried that this wasn't going to go away!

Then it happened, caught a few shots right out of the middle of the clubface and bingo, away I went.

I carried on hitting the remaining balls from my shagbag (about sixty balls) and didn't hit one shank.

Went down the practice ground and pitch/chipped my balls together.  Took another twenty or so balls and did the same thing.  So in total I'd probably hit about ninety balls and didn't shank once.  In fact, some of the shots were prefect, felt so good of the face of my blade and straight as a die!

Hopefully I'll be able to get upto the golf club tomorrow and carry on with this ready for my pairs match on Sunday.

The weird thing is that this is the third time I've been to the pro with a problem and he tells me that it's because I'm swinging the club around my body!  All this time I was thinking I was doing the correct method!  A video camera will be coming out the next time I have a problem.

Russ