Excerpt (Please click blog post totle to read post in full): "Ben, I think has suddenly now graduated from par 3 golf, onto proper par 4 golf (of course he plays from the red tees). I'm pretty chuffed that he scored well (it would have been more like 60 or 63 or so if he'd have got out of those bunkers in one or two shots rather than 8 or 9)."
The range
Another round round-up. A REAL disappointment.
Excerpt (Please click blog post title to read post in full): "I chose to game my really old CG1 Tour blades, which I'd been getting lovely on the range - and my tee shot on the notoriously-intimidating, long (for this course) at 150 yards first, without warming up was a thing of beauty and my SOTD. Bullet straight and perhaps, just perhaps, my best-ever shot on the hole (which I must have played dozens of times in my life, mainly in my twenties of course)."
My (and Ben’s) game(s). A few drills we’re working on. And they SEEM to work!
Excerpt (Please click blog post title to read post in full): "The key for me though right now with the full iron swing is those high hands, quiet body and aiming at speed at 1 or 2 o'clock. It does (touch wood) at least for now... seem to work and I'm itching to get back to a course (or the range) to see if it is a long-lasting fix."
ANOTHER ROUND ROUND-UP. A RETURN TO MY WILD TWENTIES. BUT WITH A SON THIS TIME!
Excerpt (Please click blog post title to read post in full) : "It feels a bit weird to me to return to a place which I used to wander round with a four pack of beers and twenty regal on the go - and NO thoughts of fatherhood."
ANOTHER ROUND ROUND-UP. EAGLE PITCH-IN!
Excerpt (Please click blog post title to read post in full): "...A lazy, soft, deliberate swing followed. The ball lobbed up into the blue sky on a perfect line and landed oh... I'd say 10 feet from the pin. And rolled on a line towards the pin. And rolled a little more. I thought "this might be close" as I watched. Then I heard a clack of it hitting the pin softly and half the ball disappeared. EAGLE!!!!"
Our first (par 3) round is booked for today. IN THE SNOW?!
Excerpt (Please click blog post title to read post in full): "at least I can use my red balls today without any fear of embarrassment."
My (our!) 2021 season starts
Excerpt (Please click blog post title to read post in full): "Pretty darned good I'd say. Hitting balls of the mat for the first time without a tee and with his irons. MUCH better than expected. Do watch THIS video and I think you'll be relatively impressed. He has a lovely constant spine angle, a great DJ bowed left wrist at the top of his backswing (you can't teach that! In fact his swing is VERY DJ'ish!) and is picking off the balls from the mat as sweet as a nut in the main. Potential issues are a little too much swaying in the swing (rather than turning) and the odd tendency to strike the ground well before the ball if he loses concentration and commences the downswing with his arms (like all weekend warriors do) rather than with his body. I also gave him his first bunker session (he's got a great teacher in me - I've always found bunker shots straightforward after practicing in them constantly as a teenage golfer). Ben passed that first bunker session with FLYING colours..."
A week to go…
Excerpt (Please click blog post title to read post in full): "...I hope to keep upright and healthy and just enjoy my golf this year, unlike last year, however the season goes. The bag is set (for the first time in years). Ben is chomping at the bit - I'd LOVE to see him beat 51. And I'm excited too. Just to get swinging again..."
A quick pre-2021-season SITREP
Excerpt (Please click blog post title to read post in full): "I did play a few shots in the garden yesterday afternoon, with my eldest boy - using plastic air balls - and I'd completely forgotten what a JOY it was just to swing my clubs again. I'd also forgotten that I'd got my bag pretty well settled at the end of the 2020 season with a lovely Cleveland wood and some Cleveland irons that are specced for me just lovely. In short I can't WAIT to get back on a course."
Another season round-up. 2020. The COVID season.
Excerpt (Please click blog post title to read post in full): "as I teed off in May, I had already lost over 3 stone since January, in a concerted effort to lose 5 stone by my 50th birthday. I was to lose ALL those 5 stones by August as it happens - and that made playing golf FAR easier and FAR less tiring. A real bonus as 18 holes had got pretty knackering on my feet and hips (and in my head therefore) over the past few years..."
The Black Rabbit Golf Blog 