'The Challenge' has gripped me.....

The last week has been a real case of 'two halves'. What progress I had made seemed short lived after a terrible performance over 10 holes against my friend, Simmo, who I play against regularly who plays to a similar standard. I should add, to make things worse, that this friend was recently out of an ankle ligament operation and was still in an ankle support boot. Not only that, but for the last month he has had to listen to me talking about some great progress made on the range and in lessons and on the course. I guess this sums up the mental side of the game as I really didn't play well, and virtually every tee shot went right, with some OK irons, nice pitching, and average putting. To add insult to injury, my friend probably played better than I had seen him play for a while, which lives up to the popular belief that people play better after a few weeks / months out. 

The first few holes were double bogeys, then a few par saves steadied the ship, then a few bogies, and then I can't even remember after that. To be honest, all I was thinking was that this challenge may be too much and that I had taken on too much. I also remembered the wise words of a lot of Golf Monthly forum guys who said that the challenge can add too much pressure, just play to reasonable expectations and take the weight off my shoulders....and I have to admit that it was a tough point in the challenge, a mental low.

I then had a weekend interlude of a 'business networking event' which took place on a P&O cruise liner in the channel islands from Wednesday to Saturday. This involved 50 back to back meetings over the course of 3 days, from breakfast through to dinner, then into the casino until 2am, then back up at 7am to do the same again. I was conscious that I was not able to swing a club for the three days, which was made even worse given the fact that the ship had a golf centre with practise nets and a golf simulator but I just hadn't got a spare slot to go up there. I was also given some time to reflect on the challenge in between meetings and in my cabin last thing at night / first thing in the morning at the start of the trip, and the last round I played was still haunting me. Why was I pushing it out right? How could I score so badly given the time I had put in? What happened to the first two 9 holes performance I hit which I was happy with? Had they been a fluke? As I looked out into the ocean I kind of thought how bleak it looked, would I ever reach my challenge's goal.....

During the rest of the trip I decided that the only way to keep on track was to stay positive. I remembered a few of the chapters in the John Richardson book, Dream On, where he had faced similar doubts and had forced himself to believe and not accept defeat before it happened. I also remembered some of the doubters on Golf Monthly forums who had rubbished the idea and said loads of people try this and fail, and I was determined to prove them wrong - not for the sake of proving someone wrong but to prove that I could do this. Armed with some positivity I decided to mention my challenge to a few clients over dinner on the Thursday and Friday night. I should add that I work in financial services, which is still largely made up predominantly of (middle aged - I am 33 so am a bit younger than most) blokes, and most of those play golf. I had a positive reaction and some good conversations with a few guys who were playing between 5-10 handicap, some of whom had spent a lot of time when they were younger and got down to low single figures. One guy said he thought that I seemed determined and passionate when I talked about it, and this gave me a much needed kick up the backside to get on and forget the doubts.

So, back on dry land, I had my first lesson with the pro with who I played the last 9 holes the previous week. Whilst he had mentioned that I was playing around an 18 handicap, he really hadn't said much more. So, given my weak round against Simmo that week, I was hoping that he would say that the fundamentals were OK but that we had a couple of exercises to tweak things. But no, he didn't, he said that the grip was strong, I stood open to the ball across both feet and shoulders. Also my feet were too narrow and I was blocking the ball as I wasn't releasing my hands, leaving the club head open at address, hence pushing everything out right. So for half an hour we went through some exercises to correct the grip, it felt horrible, and the line up at address, which now felt like I was standing totally closed to the ball......the doubts started to come back again. During the 30 minutes I hit out 50 balls and started to hit them straighter half way through, and for the rest of the lesson started to achieve some nice shots with a ball flight and distance I hadn't ever achieved before. My pro started to make some positive comments and sent me a congratulatory text in the evening to say I had done well. Was he just being nice, or was I making progress. The saying ' you have to go backwards to move forwards as you improve' really was sticking in my mind. 

That evening I swang a 4 iron in the garden with the new stance and grip and really started to feel at ease with the grip. I also read the Five Lessons by Ben Hogan which had a huge section on the grip. It started to make sense, and I actually started to feel more comfortable every time I picked up the club. I started to feel optimistic again and couldn't wait to try it on the range the next day. So, last night I hit the range and hit 250 balls. the first 100 were not consistent but it started to feel better. What was encouraging was a reliable direction on the ball, and that 30-40% started to penetrate the air with a nice ball flight. After another 100 I was feeling more comfortable and the last 50 felt controlled, long, and straight. I was hitting out a 7 iron between 160 - 190 yards, most of the time around the target line. I appreciate the distance variable is quite large there and will take work, but this new grip and stance were now 'my swing' and the follow through, timing, rhythm and balance I had been reading so much about started to also come together. In all, it was an excellent two days and restored optimism. Once this swing translates to my driver and woods, and with some improvement on the short game and putting, it will start to come together to a point where I can start to consistently break 90 and then work at getting the handicap down in focused areas. 

The second part of this challenge has been to raise money for charity and the first event is now in the diary. Playing 100 holes in a day, which is around 50km of walking, for a charity to raise money for Guatamalan children's education. The sponsorship only started yesterday but it is a promising start and I will put some pictures on the website from the day and an update of how much was raised. I am not holding out great expectations for the standard of golf over that length of time, but it will be a life experience I am sure.

Thanks for anyone who read to the end, I have my first medal competition this weekend and will put a few words together after that......

Progress - Number 1

Progress (Number 1)

I only joined this forum yesterday, where I posted that I was a genuine 25 HC up until 3-4 weeks ago and have taken on a challenge to get down to scratch as soon as possible, hopefully within 18 months. I appreciate it is a crazy target, and many have tried before, but I am serious about the challenge and am highly dedicated. I have a low boredom threshold and need to keep focused on very high targets, or I seem to lose motivation, hence this challenge I have set myself. To give a little background, I did my A Levels in 3 months as opposed to 2 years, I won a job in banking through a game of poker, and then I started a business with no capital which I still run today. This is not bragging or bravado, and I mean that, it is more to illustrate that I tend to do well when I put my mind to things and I prefer to do things differently to others. The only reason I wanted to make this point was to put some background for all the doubters out there who might just sniff at this challenge; I actually will take those who think it is not reachable as a fair point, and I am sure it is those comments which will make me even more motivated when things get tough.

I wanted to thank everyone who commented on my post yesterday, the positive and negative comments were read and taken notice of in equal measure and I genuinely do appreciate it. There were a number of people who mentioned that I should make a note of my progress as they would be interested, and there were a number of people who said that this can become tedious as people list range ball after range ball as if that is interesting to others. For this reason I will keep updates at key points, but I will avoid being too tedious in doing so.

OK - the challenge started at the end of April, when I was hitting rounds from mid-90's to just over 100. At this stage I always felt that I had a competent and natural swing, but that I hadn't put time into learning the fundamentals and how to play the variety of shots which are required to get to a low handicap. I mentioned to someone that I felt I could get down to scratch with time and some lessons, and was laughed at, hence I took this on.

I have had 4 lessons since the end of April, one on general swing technique and spent with irons, two with the driver on rhythm and timing with focus on loosening grip and not trying to grip too hard to control the club, three on the short game and putting, four on further iron work and bunkers.

Over the course of the last three weeks I have hit around 6-7,000 range balls (and I won't go into the huge list I have of how each one flew), have spent around 4-6 hours on the chipping and pitching area, played around 5-6 rounds of 18 holes, and read around 3-4 golf tuition books as well as watching the Pete Cowen Pyramid tutorial DVD.

I should stress that I have genuinely maintained my job through this period, cut down my sleep from 8 to 6 hours per night to buy more time, cut out TV at home, and have maintained a busy social life! I promise that the majority of the rounds above have featured a hangover at the weekend, and practise area work has been spent at lunch times in between meetings.

The majority of focus has been on the swing dynamics and reducing the tendency I had for sideways movement, and a lack of pressure build up in the coil due to a lack of shoulder turn. I have also spent a lot of time with my wedges and now have a much better tempo which creates a more reliable stroke with a predictable distance and a judged flight path. From reading more I have also learnt shots I didn't used to have, such as basic punch shots with the ball at the back of the stance etc.

I realise that I am starting to get into the tedious phase of going into too much detail so I will try and cut it to being more brief now. The other thing I have really focused on after reading psychology book 'Silent Golf Mind', was to create a pre-shot routine. This has REALLY helped with my driver in terms of line up, routine, and also releasing some of the tension before striking the ball.

So - today, the first 9 holes with the pro and has all of this worked? The answer is that a lot of it has worked and I felt like I had made a season's worth of progress in 3 weeks.

I shot : Par - Bogey - Par - Bogey - Four over (long drive went too long and out of bounds, three off the tee) - Bogey - Par - Par (missed a fairly routine putt for birdie) - Par. This was a 7 over par through 9 holes.

The main differences for me were that the swing feels more 'grooved in' now and is really giving more confidence over the ball. The pre-shot routine is really helping with confidence before driving and I am hitting the shot which I visualise more often, which then helps me care more about visualising it in the first place. Putting has a lot of work to be done but only one three putt was acceptable for someone who usually can't judge distance. Irons were consistent and there were more GIR (or just off the edge of the green) than I have ever hit before. Short game has REALLY improved and two of the holes where I hit par were comfortable up and downs.

I realise that a lot more can go wrong over 18 holes but I feel like a different player after today, and it didn't feel like a lucky day but more a result of the hard work. It has filled me with a lot more optimism for the challenge, although I do know that the early progress is easier than the progress you make as you come down into single figures. I asked the pro what HC he felt I was playing at now and he said that I look like a possible 16, but a very definite and safe 18. This is huge progress and I am pleased to have taken a theoretical 7 strokes of the HC in such a short space of time. It has been hard work but I am more dedicated (and possibly obsessed) than ever after today. I appreciate there will be some harder days to come than this, and some nightmare rounds that will probably try and ruin my belief, but I will try and remember how today felt and keep moving forward.

Apologies to anyone I have bored, but I am sure you probably stopped reading at the beginning if so.....and to anyone else who does find it interesting, many thanks for your support.
 

The Beginning

This is the first post on my blog site, Scratch Challenge. Over the next weeks I will update the site with further background on the challenge, which is principally to get from a 25 handicap to scratch in as fast time as possible. The reason this blog exists was due to several forum readers on Golf Monthly suggesting it may be a good idea, providing it doesn't become too tedious!

For this reason I decided to put the first progress report up which I first posted on Golf Monthly a week ago. There were mixed reactions, which is great, and I aim to post my progress regularly herein so that others can see which areas may work for them and which work for me. It is going to be a long journey and one which I am extremely excited about. Looking forward to knowing more of you and maybe meeting more game improvers along the way!