Scary

Down to my lowest hcp ever. Puts on extra pressure to play seriously, but satisfying nonetheless.

Hitting the ball fairly consistently, with the odd snaffoo, but that's golf.

Had 33 putts yesterday, which is probably about as well as I can do at the moment. My plan of allowing myself two short putt misses per round without getting upset is working fine so far. Missed only one yesterday and compensated with a couple of good ten footers.

Still not happy with my chipping - need to work something out there. Also, the odd tendency to hit a fat pitch or two. This could relate to my return to a ten finger grip, which I'm sticking with since I seem to be releasing the club perfectly well with it - none of the right hand taking over that the textbooks trumpet about (sorry Harry V).

Anyway, it's a bit scary because I can no longer be satisfied with bogey golf. I have to make my share of pars with the odd birdie or I'm not in the race. As I said - scary for a once hacker.

And the beat goes on

Nothing dramatic from the last round, except perhaps from some near apoplexy from several missed short putts, offset slightly by a few good ones, including two birdies. Total putts were around 35 - not really good enough.

I've decided, however, to try to take some pressure off my short putts by allowing myself two missed short putts per round. This is in the spirit of Walter Hagen, who never got upset by a bad shot, saying that he always hit seven bad shots per round, so that when it hit one it was 'just one of the seven'.

Sticking with the ten finger grip that I've gone back to for full shots. It makes little difference to length or accuracy, but takes a bit of strain off my left hand, which has been a slight problem in the past. I'm using a simple ten finger grip for putting also and finding it works as well as any other grip - probably better with longer putts.

One thing I've decided is to concentrate on accelerating on all shots. As soon as I try to ease up on a shot (so as not to go to far with a touch shot of 50 or 60 yards for example) the results are terrible - usually fat shots and sometime thin shots. Deceleration is a killer in golf. The other thing with chips and short approaches is to stay down - 'having a look' is fatal.

That's it; the beat goes on.

Putting 101 update and ten-finger Joe

I've decided to stick with ten finger putting, otherwise conventional hand low. Despite what pros (Ken Brown included) say about unified hands, I find having two hands on the wheel feels comfortable and comfort in this case breeds confidence, and confidence brings results.

At least that's my current view. I had 33 putts last weekend, which was Ok without being great. But the fact is I cannot get comfortable with any grip other than my old backyard ten-finger grip. What I will be doing, however, is following the excellent advice I've had from a very good putter known to me, and that is to take a short backswing and 'pop' the short putts. This gives less opportunity for the putter-face to get off-line. It works pretty well. All I have to do now is read the greens better.

Speaking of ten fingers (and apologies to Harry Vardon) I have returned to a ten-finger grip for all shots. I find again it is re-assuring to have greater control over the club head, which is what I FEEL with all ten fingers on the grip. I know nearly all the great players use overlap or interlock, but they play more golf, have more ability, don't have my hand injuries, etc., so good luck to them, I will go to and stick with the old, mis-named, baseball grip.

I haven't yet quite worked out whether the ten-finger grip makes much difference in terms of power or length, or touch for that matter - I did thin a couple of chips. There are different views on this. The main danger with this grip for full shots is the overpowering of the left hand by the right hand (right-handers). But this is a problem for top players with good timing and swing dynamics, and who release properly. It's no such an issue for the weaker, less able player. Besides, I am also using a slightly strong grip and a one-plane swing (thanks Jim Hardy) so I don't think it's such a problem for me.

Anyway, tomorrow is another golf day; we can call it ten-finger day - with apologies to Harry.

Definite schmeffinate

So much for the left hand low putting grip. I just can't get any feel with this grip and I have trouble lining up putts of more than three feet with this grip. Maybe it's OK for the two footers, but I can make 95 percent of those anyway.

I stuck with the left hand low for about 14 holes the other day, then I got fed up with the effort of using it and reverted to my old backyard ten finger putting grip. It felt absolutely fine and I made a couple of short putts in the last few holes without any trouble.

I'm inclined to think, as I've thought before, that the grip one is more comfortable with has to be the one to use - even if it introduces the possibility of yipping under pressure. What needs to be worked on is actually quietening the mind and smoothing out the stroke in these situations. Not an easy task, but one that I think I need to pursue, rather than experiment with grips.

I also need to make a decision about which club to use when chipping, or whether to use different clubs for different shots. The trouble with different clubs for different shots (chips in this case) is the need to practice with each club because of the different rolls and spins involved. I'm inclined to go to my gap wedge for chipping, because of its versatility, moving the ball position to achieve different spins and trajectories.

One thing I've discovered is that my fairly old hybrid, with which I can only draw the ball about ten yards, is probably heel weighted to promote a draw. I might need a new one.

So, nothing is set in stone. Nothing except perhaps my one-plane swing, which is working fine. That's definite.

Short game shame

My last round continued the saga of short game shame - quite poor execution of chip-shots at times and generally fairly scrappy short irons. This is not to mention my putting, which continues to be a bit of a problem.

I plan to do more chipping and pitching practice over the coming months, but in the shorter term I am definitely going to try to stick to a left hand low putting grip (right hander) for the shorter putts. For longer putts I will use a conventional right hand low grip so that I can maximise my distance feel. I have found left hand low difficult to use when trying to lag the longer putts.

Left hand low for the inside ten footers does seem to work. It levels the shoulder, keeps the wrists a little more passive and makes sure there is no unnecessary loft on the putter. I can't be sure it makes a huge difference, but even if I can go from 35 putts per round to say 33, that's a win.

If I get more comfortable with left hand low for shorter putts, I might even try something that I discovered the other day for longer putts, that is, closing my putting stance. Closing the stance, that is taking the right foot back up to six inches, does make it easier to make a longer and free-er backswing, which is what's needed for the fifteen to forty footers. If my distance judgement is no good, I won't persist with that however.

I need to take advantage of the extra distance and control I've acquired with the longer clubs by adopting a one-plane swing and stop throwing away so many shots around and on the green. As a weekender I may not be putting for dough, but I am putting for a decent score. No shame in being ambitious about that.

Progress and non-progress

Another quite reasonable round recorded (plenty of pars), but this time with 35 putts, not counting a couple of putts from just off the green. The fact is I'm hitting more greens than ever before, partly because of my new (now clearly identifiable) one-plane / connected swing and partly in all probability because of the improving weather.

However, I'm now at a handicap level where I can't afford to make many major mistakes. The odd poor drive or mishit second, some average pitches and a few missed make-able putts are manageable, but double and triple bogeys are too costly. This is how I screwed up what could easily have been another win in my last round (two doubles on holes where I don't get a shot). Club selection was an issue a couple of times; this is really crucial. A hybrid club that seems to want to hook everything doesn't help, but I'm not yet sure what to do about that - I doubt a new club will help.

My new swing is still not settled either. I'm having the occasional moment when I can't start the downswing as smoothly as I would like. I know what to do, but I still panic when faced with shots that I'm not really confident about. I suppose this is still not fully trusting the swing; I hope it will get better and easier in the near future because the results are generally very good - longer and straighter shots.

Putting is still an issue. I know you can't make them all, but I fully expect to make a couple of ten footers each round to compensate for the one or two missed four footers that seem to be a regular thing (probably not just for me). There's no doubt that confidence plays a big part, and I have accepted that grip changes work only temporarily at best. I'm going to persist with my quasi-conventional grip for now and see what happens.

Progress is very much two steps forward and one step back, but at least it's not the other way around.

Putting it into perspective

I putted reasonably well last round with only one 3-putt and several 1-putts for a total of 30. This is a big improvement and encouraging because I actually missed several more chances because of undue caution.

The putting was, however, not the main highlight of the day, it was a couple of approach shots that set me up for birdies that complemented some decent pars and no wipe-outs; even the 3-putt only resulted in a bogey.

I'm still not hitting the ball as consistently as I would like, but I'm getting away with some of the loose shots and generally hitting the ball a bit longer, probably partly due to the dryer and warmer conditions. However, I am convinced that my 'connected' swing is on the right track. It is certainly something that I would recommend to the player that is concerned about their level of consistency.

All in all, I'm fairly satisfied with my game, with room for improvement in a couple of areas, particularly chipping and pitching. I will need to address that in the coming weeks.

I should mention in relation to putting that I have reverted to a fairly conventional putting grip, although it is with two hands (ten fingers) on the grip and with a weak slightly rotated position for the top (left) hand. I am concentrating on trying to stroke the putts smoothly and regulate the distance through the length of the backswing - i.e. very short backswing for very short putts.