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.