Lets start with fitness. I naively thought that a bit more caddying, few less drinks and eating a bit better would work. Wrong. I would be the first to correct a golfer if that was their loose approach to developing their golf, so first lesson learnt. Officially finished work at BAES so days are now my own and they now have a structured fitness programme. Those that know me, know this will be a test.
With regards to my own game. The month started with a video nasty which showed fixing a flying right elbow, a significant over swing and a posture akin to a French bell ringer was a priority. The plan for the rest of the month was to collect the necessary statistics so I could focus my practice on areas that would give me a good return. One area that was obvious to one of the pros I played with in the month was the defensive choice of shot from about 90 yards and in. Always the safe play not giving myself good scoring opportunities. Taking this approach was really limiting what I could score. That’s been the first area to work on and stats are starting to show an improvement in the wedges and an increase in the birdie count. Another area that is blatantly obvious is the lack of fairways in regulation. My yardage watch has no idea what hole I am on half the time. I have the three way miss as I have got the short one in my locker as well. Not ideal. When I compare my fairway stats with averages I am well down and with the rain we have had and the rough now shooting up you cannot play the game from the long stuff. So mission for July is a couple of lessons to clear my head of the many contradictory thoughts. Get a clear view of ‘my way’ not ‘the way’ and work hard to find consistency by setting myself some goals and developing some interesting and challenging practice scenarios.
Coaching has gone well with a couple of clients making really good progress. All the sessions have been enjoyable and we have put in place objectives and goals with a structured practice plan to put clients in the best place to achieve them. There is still the misconception out there that there is only any point working on the mind if there is a specific issue to address but for me its just as important as technical work and even if things are going well you can still build on it and keep progressing. My first magazine article is about to be published in ONPAR and a podcast interview is on the horizon.
A highlight of the month has been caddying in the Open pre qual at West Lancs. We had a good plan and after a deluxe night in Bootle (strangely there was last minute availability) and an early start we got the wrong end of a few breaks and some unnecessary marshal timing pressure. Still a cracking couple of days and roll on next year. Coming up in July I am on the bag for Dylan Keating in the Open final qual tomorrow. He is a young Irish star who is seriously testing my distance ball spotting. Oh, and he has a famous uncle!. Plus some more bag work at the Seniors Open at Royal Lytham. Looking forward to both.
Summary: a bit like my school report - could do better (but I will).