Tuesday Practice log

I sometimes moan at the lack of practice facilities at my home golf course. We have only one putting green where no chipping is allowed. A couple of areas for practice on quite steep slopes and neither is long enough to hit anything more than a gap wedge, although one of the areas does have a practice bunker. Then one net and that's pretty much it.

So even though committee notices prohibit practice on the course, many of us do some. This takes the form of dropping the odd second ball while out on the course. Taking a few chips around one of the green's that's out of the way. While that works after a fashion, it's not great and often like last night it's not even possible. When I got to the club at 5pm it was busy with roll ups, match play pairs etc etc.

In the end I settled for putting practice only, which may be a blessing in disguise in terms of quality practice, but is not as satisfying as getting out and doing it while playing 12 holes.

I concentrated 90% on putts inside 5 feet, most of them were 3-4 feet in my estimation, I found that I was missing something like 2 every 10 balls.

Basically I put 5 balls around the hole in a rough circle and tried putting them in, I sometimes got around the circle with all 5 in the hole, but never twice in a row.

When funds and time allow a putting lesson is going to be arranged, because I can both push and pull putts. I have a two ball Odyssey putter and when concentrating on the stroke going straight back and straight through the ball often does go dead straight, but because I'm concentrating on the stroke I often forget to hit the ball with a good rhythm. Then when I concentrate only on the line and speed, I get great rhythm and a good feeling stroke, but that's when pushes and pulls can appear.

By the end of the two hours I was mostly trying to get a routine and ball position that is consistent for every putt, which is not as easy as it seams.

Anyway despite my back hurting by the end, I got a lot out of it and I'm determined to make more putting time, not just tag it on after 12 holes if I feel like it.

I will become a good putter!