Should golfers REALLY be entering competitions at this time of year?

Are we now through the worst of the bad weather?

It certainly felt like it this morning, as I celebrated my 40th birthday (yes, those that know me will be shocked to learn that I am, in fact, that old now) with my first round this year at my home course, Stowmarket. 

It's still fairly wet out there, but it warmed up to a barmy 14 degrees today and it was also the first time this year I have managed to play golf in just two layers - which sets the tone as a trip to Spain looms next week. 

Golf was good, the new Cobra OPTM driver and 5-wood were obviously a talking point, especially the way I hit them today, but unfortunately the irons and wedge game weren’t up to scratch, but good enough for a couple of birdies - with one up the last a nice way to finish. 

I may have mentioned it before and I’m sure I am not the only one that may struggle this time of year taking the range game to the course, with lots of heavy contact after hitting off those mats at the range over and over again, something I will look to address during my lesson this week. 

I'm also hoping to try and get out once or twice during the course of the week ahead. 1. For a bit of Spain preparation and 2. Because the weather looks half decent this week and we have to make hay when the sun shines. 

Should You Skip Competitive Golf at This Time of Year?

A bit of a talking point this week - competitive golf at this time of year. A friend of mine text me this afternoon asking why I hadn’t entered the competition today. I have my opinion on this and he has his (which is wrong by the way).

I have a number of reasons why I didn’t enter today. I hadn’t seen the course since December, so didn’t know what the lies/conditions would be like. The comp was over 16 holes as two had temp greens. But the main one was that I am trying to enjoy golf more at this time of year, this year. 

Last year, I would have entered without a second's consideration. I spent most of January, February and March last year battling in comps, battling with the bad lies, mud balls when a yard - or less - off the fairways and more often than not, walking off the course being frustrated with the outcome. Some would say, getting in my own way. Bottom line was, I ended up not enjoying my golf and then a different battle of trying to get my index back down for the warmer months began. 

Now, my friend has a point - and I do get where he is coming from. The course is the same for everyone, right? Of course it is. But my counter argument is that when push comes to shove, I am not in competition with everyone else when I play competitive golf - something which I really enjoy, by the way. Especially in club competitions. I am competing against myself and the course. I don’t care if he shoots 40pts or 14pts. I can only control what I can control. There will be competitions where I shoot one or two under my handicap and lose by five or six. There are days where I have won comps with 34pts. That’s just golf, but that’s also out of my control. 

The main overriding feeling today for me was pure enjoyment. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a round of golf this time of year as much as I did today. I had a couple of bad lies in the rough (luckily, I didn’t end up in too much of it today) and I lifted, cleaned and placed my ball. One bunker I visited, I encountered a rather deep unraked footprint which I just moved my ball from, and a couple of wetter lies on fairways were simply improved. What could have been an 84 ended up as a 74 and I feel all the better for it. 

There is plenty of competitive golf coming up for me this year, I definitely didn’t need it to start today and right now, I stand by that decision as it was the right one for me. 

The most important thing, enjoy it right now, the frustration of competition scoring will come soon enough.