Thursday, May 26, 2005

My birthday blog

I officially became an old fart today, well 22 but thats quite old.

I treated myself for to a ticket to the BMW Championship at (yes you guessed it) WENTWORTH. It was an absolutely fantastic day. I got to follow the group which contained Colin Montgomerie (my favourite player), Nick Faldo (the greatest English player of all time - stilly pretty darn good too!!!!) and Luke Donald (the best up and coming talent not only for Europe but in the world definitely). I was amazed watching Donald. This guy has got to be the most consistent ball striker I've ever seen, an unbelievably talented golfer and I can say the speculation is true about his future. I loved witnessing it for myself and I have definitely joined the clan of people who say Luke Donald is the best player to come out of England and most certainly our best chance of a major winner.
Faldo was just a class act - he's been there and done pretty much everything but to see the determination he seemed to have today was awesome. He certainly outclassed everyone on the driving range while I was watching him and I can only be scared about the fact that he used to be even better!!!
Then theres Monty, I finally got to watch my fave player for a whole round and it certainly lived up to my expectations. I would say Montgomerie is perhaps the most naturally talented player ever. I couldnt believe how relentlessly straight he was off the tee (although I knew this already) but he would certainly be a good foursomes partner.

Other players I noted were Charl Schwartzel, a young South African with no doubt a great career ahead. If anyone wants to see how a golf ball is supposed to be hit, come watch this guy.
Ernie Els was great too altho he didnt have his best day, but he just makes the game look so damn easy its irritating.

I was inspired by watching all this good golf to go and work hard on my game which is strugglig to say the least.

However, I can now say that my goal is to get myself into this championship within the next 5 years and damn it , i'm gonna do it too!!!!

Monday, May 23, 2005

Phase one confirmed - here we go!!!!!

Well thankfully i finally have something to report on golf wise and the PGA thing. But before that I must comment on the amazing weekend R took me on in London for my birthday. I had the time of my life and it was definitely another experience that brought us two even closer together. Wow i must say ive been mega spoilt this weekend for sure!

She booked a hotel room for us both in the Marriott (5 star none the less!) hotel in West India Quay - about 20 metres from that huge Canary Wharf (with the triangular roof you can see from miles away) building. We went for lunch at TGI's (always a bonus) and then we went to see the Queen musical (www.wewillrockyou.com) show. Ive seen this 3 times now and recommmend it so highly! Its amazing and i'm not intentinally plugging but 2 outstanding actresses - Hannah Jane Fox (Scaramouche) and Mazz Murray (the new killer Queen) were quite literally outstanding. Mazz Murray has got to be the most talented live singer i've ever heard. I would recommended this show highly to anyone. Ben Elton has created a masterpiece that anyone would enjoy. R, I love ya thanks for such a great time - you wait for what I have in store for your birthday! Anyways, onto the golf....

I have finally received some correspondence from the PGA - my PGA 'pack' as its known. This is a large file which contains stuff such as the history of the PGA, details of PGA and trainee membership, the 2 day admissions review programme and the playing ability test. I have booked in for my playing ability now at last. It looks like my judgement day will fall on 13th June at a golf course called Bishop's Stortford golf club (somewhere up the M11 apparently). I have already launched myself headlong into my preparations. Practise has gone up from 2 to 4 buckets of balls daily (minimum!) and i am working hard also on my chipping and putting. N my boss has given some good advice with my technique and results are coming gradually but i feel i have a long way to go to get in to the kind of form I know I am capable of. Its time to find out how much is achievable in 3 weeks!!! I have also downloaded the course planner for this golf course and have analysing each hole in great detail. With any luck I should be playing a practise round within the next few days.

I must say I'm so exited that step one towards my dream is only weeks away and I am even getting butterflies now. I warn the world - I will be severely drunk the evening of the 13th if things should go my way because it will be the most important day so far in my career - after all, nothing in the future is possible without passing this test and I reckon thats a damn good reason to celebrate!! Watch this space.......

Sunday, May 15, 2005

The final davies and tate match.........

Yesterday we lost 8-4 in the first round of the Davies and Tate plate. I realised that in all probability it would be the last time I ever compete in a Davies and Tate match which was a sad thought but am content to moving on to bigger and better in the realms of professional golf. I consider the match to be a milestone in my improvement because it was the first time i recognised any symptoms of the things ive been working on in my swing beginning to work.

I halved in my foursomes match in what can only be described as the scrappiest match ive ever played in. Neither of the 4 of us played to a particularly high standard but it was fun because we were competing head to head in such an ugly match that a half seemed the only logical result.
We were dormie 2 down tho after I had holed a 20 foot putt to keep the match going and then proceded to play the greatest recovery shot under pressure I have ever played. It was a 190 yard shot out of woods, through about a yard gap that had to be kept about 4 foot off the floor to prevent it from hitting more trees. The shot came off perfect and ended about 12 foot from the flag which allowed us to win the last hole and halve the match.

In the afternoon I lost one down to a very good player whose first shot of the day gave him a 10 foot eagle putt, so I knew I was 'up against it'. I take a lot of pride in that match because although I hit a lot of quality golf shots, I hit some very poor ones too but it was great to feel in control of my swing for the first time in a long time. I holed quite a few clutch putts to keep myself going and am proud of my reputation as a battler because I certainly was on this day. I could have won this match but unfortunatley couldnt quite close the deal but as said, was pleased to put in a good performance (71 would have probably been good enough to see off anyone else on their team). It was a small stepping stone towards hopefully a resurgence in form for me.

Fingers crossed.....

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

The beginning of the inevitable swing overhaul....

Well havent written in a while cos so far its been a lot of 12 hour working days and bed and not a lot else. Its all been exiting tho. Have been given plenty of responsibility with the shop which I have enjoyed and in 3 weeks I feel I have already learned so much and am really enjoying it.

Am still awaiting more notification from the PGA but am assured by my bro S that it should be along shortly. To be honest, the longer my playing ability is postponed, the better for me because right now and for quite a few weeks now my golfing performance has not been as I have wanted.

But, things are going from bad to worse at the moment because after a recent lesson with videocamera etc I with N my boss, severe flaws in my golf swing have been highlighted and it is not good when a technique u have trusted for over a year and performed well with suddenly becomes a problem which in order to improve in the long run will be to the detriment in the short term of my form. I am more than prepared to go through this pain barrier because I have the faith that with precise hard work, I will finally emerge a lot closer to being the kind of player that might be able to make a few quid at playing this silly game - which I do not believe at the moment that I am really capable of. The best part of making these changes is that I now have regualr access to a very highly reputable coach and also some of the best teaching technology going, all very reassuring to me.

In other areas tho, the prospect of teaching and giving lessons on the game i love has for some reason become a very exiting prospect for me. I thrive on the eventual opportunities i will have to take a beginner golfer, teach them as best I can and then sit back and take reward in watching them improve. What a great feeling that must be for any teacher of any subject. I have done so much reading on so many different things, everything from biomechanics, nutrition, psychology (an area i myself hugely need to improve on), golf swing theory and many other things too so am hoping that I will eventually have a good grounding for teaching others because in some ways now this seems to be appealing to me more than trying to make a career solely from playing golf.

Also, with my college I have had a huge advantage of being able to pick the brains of two very experienced professional golfers who have always told it 'as it is!'- and this is generally that it is a bloody hard game to get into that takes lots of money tireless hours and also a multitude of painful setbacks. I can take all of these - but in real terms it makes so much more sense in the short term to realise that teaching will majorly supplement my income for certainly the forseeable future...........