In other news 
Had my first playing lesson today, didn't get through much of the course with lots of talking etc, but was quite interesting. He gave me a few things to work on going forward.
One was the pre-shot routine, biggest thing I think was that I didn't do any practice swings or anything, and he didn't advocate practice swings but did want me to 'swish' the club a bit, just like half way back and bring it through brushing the grass, basically just getting a feel for the length/weight of the club before hitting the shot. This did feel pretty good actually, but also did forget it a few times as I kept playined after the lesson was over.
But biggest thing he wanted was basically for me to absolutely not get to the green in regulation
Expanding on that he said I should be an 18 handicapper with my swing etc, and basically he wants me to play to that. E.g. get to the green in GIR+1 and then ideally 1-putt for par but have that 2-putt for (gross!) bogey nailed on. Rather than trying to get to the green by taking more risks. Although he did also say on the 7th for that course there's no nice layup so just go for the green as it's the safest option, but almost every other course there's a safe easy layup.
It felt kinda wrong at times, like a 140 yard par 3 which I know I can get on with say an 8 Iron but instead hitting a PW and chipping on. But also on the other hand the last hole (in fact both first and last) are awkward par 5s, and I've thought for a long time "I'm happy with getting on in 4" but that's not the same as 'trying' to only get on in 4, instead I'd try for 3 and fail and be happy if the fail wasn't too big and I chipped on. So for the last hole I hit my hybrid off the tee, the safe option for that hole, but then instead of trying to say push an 8 iron and a hybrid to get there I hit two solid if unexceptional 9 irons and chipped on. The chip wasn't even that got but it was on and almost sank the putt for par. At no time was that at any risk of going wrong.
So yeah, we'll see The Friday game has moved to Wednesday this week, so I'll be trying that out there and see how it goes...
Had my first playing lesson today, didn't get through much of the course with lots of talking etc, but was quite interesting. He gave me a few things to work on going forward.
One was the pre-shot routine, biggest thing I think was that I didn't do any practice swings or anything, and he didn't advocate practice swings but did want me to 'swish' the club a bit, just like half way back and bring it through brushing the grass, basically just getting a feel for the length/weight of the club before hitting the shot. This did feel pretty good actually, but also did forget it a few times as I kept playined after the lesson was over.
But biggest thing he wanted was basically for me to absolutely not get to the green in regulation
Expanding on that he said I should be an 18 handicapper with my swing etc, and basically he wants me to play to that. E.g. get to the green in GIR+1 and then ideally 1-putt for par but have that 2-putt for (gross!) bogey nailed on. Rather than trying to get to the green by taking more risks. Although he did also say on the 7th for that course there's no nice layup so just go for the green as it's the safest option, but almost every other course there's a safe easy layup.It felt kinda wrong at times, like a 140 yard par 3 which I know I can get on with say an 8 Iron but instead hitting a PW and chipping on. But also on the other hand the last hole (in fact both first and last) are awkward par 5s, and I've thought for a long time "I'm happy with getting on in 4" but that's not the same as 'trying' to only get on in 4, instead I'd try for 3 and fail and be happy if the fail wasn't too big and I chipped on. So for the last hole I hit my hybrid off the tee, the safe option for that hole, but then instead of trying to say push an 8 iron and a hybrid to get there I hit two solid if unexceptional 9 irons and chipped on. The chip wasn't even that got but it was on and almost sank the putt for par. At no time was that at any risk of going wrong.
So yeah, we'll see
The Friday game has moved to Wednesday this week, so I'll be trying that out there and see how it goes...
came off my road bike a couple of weeks ago - physio tells me that I have a frozen shoulder, so need to rehab that before I can swing a club again - foolishly tried at the weekend, no dice 
