One week to go

Much like a cartoon prisoner scrawls a tally on the wall, I am eagerly anticipating my first round of golf for 38 days next Saturday.

I haven't yet chosen the venue for this round with Noel, but it will be somewhere within a deft lob wedge of my home.

My last round, as part of a golf society at Manor of Groves near Sawbridgeworth, saw me tee it up for the first time for nearly three weeks, so I was typically reticent about my chances of being in the mix at the end.

The fact that I managed to put together a half decent round (gross 81 - 34 Stableford points) sums up my frustration about being a P-TG. Taking on board the result of my previous round, at Honiton with Noel, Greg and David (Greg's father and member at the club), where I had produced an error-strewn, little-positive-to-take-away and, frankly ugly round (gross 87 - 29 Stableford points), this came as a pleasant surprise.

It also served to restore some of my battered faith in my ability to play this game, my confidence in which had reached new heights only three days prior to the Honiton Humbling. Playing with the same fourball at Oake Manor, Greg's club, I had produced an extremely enjoyable, 3 bogey-3 birdie, gross level par round of 70. This, in itself, was surprising to me given my clubs had been shed-bound since the middle of June.

Maybe the answer, if one exists, is the level of expectation. I went into the Oake Manor game with the grand total of zero. That extraordinary result (my second best ever) buoyed my confidence to levels my ability and temperament couldn't deal with and, coupled with a tricky little sod of a course in Honiton, the game bit me on the arse.

So, whilst this summer has been sporadic in terms of the golf played, there has been some that has been immensely pleasing. There has also been a lot which has been hugely annoying and I am aware that I have a tendency to get carried away with the golf that has gone before, as opposed to concentrating on what's in front of me.

This, and other failings/weaknesses, will be publicly dissected in due course, although it is worth mentioning that, despite what I have written above, I do have a belief that I will break 70.

Ha - there's that misplaced confidence again.....

I am the Part-Time Golfer