Beautiful Bogeys

My passion prior to cycling was golf. I got OK at it mainly through dint of lots of practice rather than natural skill. Still my performance was very variable, most especially I tended to crack under pressure, getting very up tight about every shot.

With time due on my hands I plan on taking up the glorious game again, and it will be interesting to see how my svelte new figure has an effect on my swing.

This in mind I will be getting some custom clubs made. This is not really an extravagance. As a legacy from my father I am a right hander who plays golf left handed (He was a natural left hander so when he taught me cricket he showed me left handed and this has stuck since on all ball and stick games). As a left hander you get hobsons choice when it comes to clubs. I've only ever bought 2 sets in my life and on both occasions I had a choice of precisely 1 set.

So, when the company said they would buy me something on leaving, the obvious choice seemed to be a set of clubs that would fit me properly. Got an appointment for a fitting next month. Did not want to do too much practice in advance as one thing I am hoping is that the long lay off will let me shed old bad habits and I can start from scratch.

Still I was advised to at least make sure I can swing a club so yesterday I had a practice round at the local racecourse course. Slightly gob smacking result. I didnt practice, just paid money and made to first tee. I decided to use "triple" approach, so take it easy and dont worry about being embarassed. Plan was just to hit 7 iron and putter for the round. Slightly amazed that first shot went high, straight and long and that form pretty much continued.

Despite conditions (windy, cold later joined by drizzle) I played the most consistent golf of my life. I only played 13 holes as the weather got more and more horrible, but of these I made 11 bogies, one double bogie (410yd par 4 SI 1 straight into the wind) and one par. Not sure but think this would close to a record in terms of consecutive holes scoring stableford points. (Cant remember a round where I did not blob at least one hole). Also kept same ball (only played course one time before and remember running out of balls that time!)

Icing on the cake was that after a few holes I started using other clubs. One problem when I used to play regularly was that I always had one or two clubs that I did not trust e.g. driver and/or fairway woods. But hit all great.

Put all of the above down, not so much to being thinner/fitter, but being a lot calmer. I was very slow on the backswing and relaxed for the whole time playing. Great result and will bode well for my return to the green stuff.