Sunday's round at Worplesdon Golf Club, the scene of a heart-wrenching final-hole defeat by Moggers and Nick, took me to a personal milestone of 100 UK golf courses played.
Looking back through the list of places I have played - some internationally reknowned, others universally hated - I began to wonder how many of those rounds I hadn't enjoyed as much as I perhaps should have, had I approached them with more humour and less intensity.
I had written previously in this blog, having hacked and chopped my way round Millbrook GC, of my desire to play with more of a smile on my face and to stop getting frustrated by the inevitable bad shots, so it satisfying to be able to largely achieve that goal, regardless of the end result of the match.
The situation was certainly helped by a number of factors. The unseasonally pleasant weather, for starters. I never expected to be using sunglasses in mid-November, let alone sunscreen. Additionally, nailing your opening tee shot down the centre of the fairway, whilst the next two groups of players are watching, is always going to put you in a good mood.
There were a number of instances when I would normally have got a bit fractious - a few tee shots went awry, approaches or two were hit thin/fat/short/wide and the odd putt was dribbly in stature but, in the face of all this, I kept relatively calm and happy.
The zenith of my cheeriness came on the par-3 10th, playing some 150 yards from the whites, over a pond to a back-right pin placement. Taking a 9 iron (not really enough club, he noted with 20-20 hindsight) I thinned the ball with plenty of beans, looking up to see it skip once on the glassy surface, bounce on dry land and roll up the green, finishing a pleasant 7-8 feet away from the hole. My reaction was as if I had sunk a putt to win the Open, whilst my playing partners looked on with a mixture of disbelief and disgust.
The key for me was the laughter and acceptance of the farcical nature of the shot, rather than analysing the not-insignificant technical flaw(s) that had led to said result.
All in all it was a great day out - would have been even more so if i had putted better....
I am The Part-Time Golfer
Looking back through the list of places I have played - some internationally reknowned, others universally hated - I began to wonder how many of those rounds I hadn't enjoyed as much as I perhaps should have, had I approached them with more humour and less intensity.
I had written previously in this blog, having hacked and chopped my way round Millbrook GC, of my desire to play with more of a smile on my face and to stop getting frustrated by the inevitable bad shots, so it satisfying to be able to largely achieve that goal, regardless of the end result of the match.
The situation was certainly helped by a number of factors. The unseasonally pleasant weather, for starters. I never expected to be using sunglasses in mid-November, let alone sunscreen. Additionally, nailing your opening tee shot down the centre of the fairway, whilst the next two groups of players are watching, is always going to put you in a good mood.
There were a number of instances when I would normally have got a bit fractious - a few tee shots went awry, approaches or two were hit thin/fat/short/wide and the odd putt was dribbly in stature but, in the face of all this, I kept relatively calm and happy.
The zenith of my cheeriness came on the par-3 10th, playing some 150 yards from the whites, over a pond to a back-right pin placement. Taking a 9 iron (not really enough club, he noted with 20-20 hindsight) I thinned the ball with plenty of beans, looking up to see it skip once on the glassy surface, bounce on dry land and roll up the green, finishing a pleasant 7-8 feet away from the hole. My reaction was as if I had sunk a putt to win the Open, whilst my playing partners looked on with a mixture of disbelief and disgust.
The key for me was the laughter and acceptance of the farcical nature of the shot, rather than analysing the not-insignificant technical flaw(s) that had led to said result.
All in all it was a great day out - would have been even more so if i had putted better....
I am The Part-Time Golfer
No comments:
Post a Comment