31 December 2022|Golfing with gratitude
I've been a keen golfer for most of my life. I started playing at Leslie when I was around 9 years old and moved to Balbirnie Park in Markinch when it first opened (and I was around 12). I was pretty reasonable as a junior and got down to a 9 handicap, but then adult life got in the way, I went off to university, moved on to my first job, bought my first house etc. Money and time were tight, so golf became a lower priority.
But life moves on and now I find myself with three daughters, retired and living in St Andrews. I've managed to play more golf in recent years and with time to practice this year, I've got to a handicap index of 4.8 (end Nov 22, from 7 at the end of ‘21). It has begged the question "How good can I get?" and, if I really put the effort in, then "Can I get to scratch"? The latter has always been an ambition and is a massive milestone. I'm both a local "links ticket" holder and a member of Ladybank Golf Club. So how can I get there?
Commit to practice and spend less on kit:
Like many golfers, I've been a bit addicted to new kit over the years, thinking the latest and greatest clubs can buy me a game! However, this year I decided to concentrate more on lessons and practice. There have been a few second-hand purchases thrown in along the way and the kids think I've become the Arthur Daley of golf, but I'm getting better! I took some lessons with Michael Rae at Drumoig through the summer, focused mainly on my short game and putting. These are areas where I've not been particularly confident. Michael really helped with my green reading skills and getting the ball started on the intended line. He helped me understand eye dominance and the importance of pace. The same really applied to my short game around the green too, where he helped me with the pace of stroke and understanding of bounce. We also worked on the full swing too but had less time for that. Improved scrambling has definitely helped get me down from 7 to 4.8.
But I'm convinced there is more to go for, so when I saw Sandy Smith at Ladybank advertising a winter lesson package I went to see him for a chat. We talked about my game and where I saw my strengths and weaknesses. I bought a Shotscope watch this summer, so we had some stats to look at from that too. This formed the basis of a 5-month lesson plan to take me through the winter. Sandy also suggested I subscribe to Golfdatalab in order to record some additional information about my game from this point forward, which I've done.
Bring on the lessons!
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