Practise limitations.....

My club has a short driving range, around 220 yards.

This prevents any practise with  a driver - fair enough.  However, golfers are not allowed to hit shots of the grass, even with short irons.  This limits practise to the mats.  Mats, in my humble opinion, are unhelpful; often giving a false sense of security - shots still appearing to be OK.

I was consistently taking very large divots, robbing me of distance and accuracy.  On the range, because of the club bouncing of the mat, my shots appeared OK.  After a lesson at a rival range that allows practise of the grass, due to a much longer range, it was clear what my problem was.

I now go to this range to practise of the grass.  This prevents me from damaging my course's fairways because of being unable to work on and eradicate my problem on the range.   Surely, it would be better, even on a short range, to allow golfers to strike short irons, allowing for realistic practise reflecting shot conditions on the course and, protecting the course at the same time.

Golf pirate - avast!...

So, I have a lesson.  Been playing a lot of fat shots with huge divots - very ugly!

The pro identifies lifting and dropping during the swing.  Cure - keep my chin up and allow my shoulders to turn.  Dead easy when you say it quickly!  Play a medal and put it into practise.  Not too bad - more practise needed.

Following week I play my club singles first round - handicap difference 10, in my favour. I put my lesson into practise.  An awesome round (or part round) follows.

My opponent is 2 down after 2.  3rd hole (par 3) sees me against the face in the bunker, opponent on the green.  He should get one back here - no problem. Bunkers are not my strong suit.  I play out to 2 inches from the hole - my opponent 3 putts.  He is visibly shocked.

8 up after 8.  He manages to half the 9th.  I buy him a pastie - he's looking pale. 10th hole - on in 2, a par for me.  Game over, 9 and 8 - a massacre.

I feel a little embarrassed.  However, it shows a good lesson can have immediate results.

Dressing the part.......

Most golf clubs require a certain standard of clothing, often slavishly enforced.  My club is no different, although with a fairly lax approach to enforcing the standards of dress prevails.

In a recent game I played with a couple of ladies, one 40ish the other, somewhere in her 50s. The latter's dress left somewhat to be desired. Now, I'm all for a pretty girl dressing in a way to show herself in the best light.  My 50s lady was dressed a little like the picture, perma-tanned and bleached blonde, not wearing well!

Her skirt barely covered the important 'bit's. Needless to say, she bent over, as in the picture, at every opportunity, showing her knickers each time.  A thoroughly unpleasant sight I have to say.  Particularly on the putting green, I found myself looking studiously the other way.

So, without being considered a prude, could I ask all you 'mature' ladies out there - please, please dress your age, and spare us!

Timber shifting...

This is a saying from my Royal Navy days.  It refers to the art of cheating when playing crib; essentially your opponent would move his crib board marker a few more points than he had actually scored!

Obviously, golf is a game, supposedly, based on trust.  However, there is always the opportunity to cheat via various means with some players.

Last weekend and this weekend I played in two competitions - one a 4BB and one a medal.  Both demonstrated cheating by my fellow players.

Last weekend was the monthly medal, I played with a couple of lady golfers.  Both of these ladies were 'flexible' in their scoring.  When taking drops on a few separate occasions, they both seemed to lose a shot here and there - so instead of a 7 it was a 6, for instance.  Once can be viewed as a mistake; 2 or 3 times is, I'm afraid cheating.  Both ladies were, of course adamant that the were correctly counting their scores.  Mind you,  one of the ladies came a cropper twice in a couple of bunkers, scoring over 15 on each occasion.  Karma?

This weekend, saw an incident that annoyed me more than the above.  I was playing in a 4BB.  Our opponents had a single handicap player, obviously not playing as well as he thought he should.  Having taking on a difficult long shot over water, we saw his ball hit the trees near the water.  Lost ball, assumed to have disappeared into the water hazard.

Now, the rules state that you can take a drop behind the point of entry into the water, keeping that point between you and the green.  It was obvious where the ball probably entered the hazard, taking a line from this point would have left a difficult shot with trees blocking the way to the green.  So, the single figure handicapper, chose to have us believe that the ball was drawing strongly, thus the point of entry just happened to fall in the only spot were he would have a clear shot to the green, therefore saving him at least one shot.  Shameful.

It is a pity that players feel they need to behave in this manner.  After all, the only people they are really cheating, are themselves.