The ups and downs of learning how to play golf.
Have I really not written one of these since … April??
I think part of the reason I haven’t written one of these since the “Early and often” start to the golf season I had is while I’ve been having a ton of fun playing, the frequency with which I’ve been getting out, and the scores I’ve been putting up, have been admittedly a bit disappointing.
To reiterate: the purpose of this golf journey, and this column chronicling it, is to develop the basic skills and life-long passion to set me up to enjoy the game for the rest of my life. However, while I try to keep that as the only overarching goal, there have been score targets I’ve been keeping in mind to keep me on a positive trajectory.
Last year I broke 100 for the first time and broke 40 at the Rec 9. Those were my two goals for the year and it felt great accomplishing them. Getting a hole in one was not a goal, but that also felt really, really good.
This year, my goal is to break 90, and I say “is” because I haven’t done it yet. In my last column I wrote about shooting a new P.B. of 91 and said that shooting in the 80s felt “well within reach.” It is now August 11 and I am still yet to crack 90.
I suppose that’s part of the reason it’s been so long since I’ve written one of these columns: there hasn’t been much to report and lately, my golf has felt downright bad and I haven’t felt like writing about it.
Since that round of 91, I’ve shot that number again, shot a 92, and several other rounds in the 90s, but this past four to six weeks or so I’ve been struggling to break 100.
It’s been a real case of the ups and downs: I’ll have a great practice on the range one evening, and then play so bad the next day I stop keeping score. I went and played Wildstone for the first time and got absolutely humbled, shooting a 111, and instead of throwing my clubs in the nearest body of water, I booked nine holes at Purcell the next day and shot a new best score of 40 that featured a chip-in birdie on the last hole.
I also shot a new PB of 38 on the Rec 9 and got my first ever birdie on the Par-5 fourth hole, while playing with my wife for the first time this year. She did her first lesson this season and has started going to Ladies Nights when her schedule allows, and has been enjoying the game a lot more, which I love to see.
This last six weeks has also been exceedingly rainy, the sixth wettest July on record, or so I’m told. They’ve also been exceedingly busy with work, hosting, trips to Calgary, etc. So while I’ve still been playing a fair bit, my focus on practicing has been a bit diminished and my rounds have been less frequent and more focused on just having fun. It’s also important to note that all this rain has made the whole area and all the golf courses as green and beautiful as I’ve experienced in my eight years living here.
I realize all my rounds are for fun, but how I’ve played lately has admittedly hindered my enjoyment. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned since getting into golf is to manage expectations and temper frustrations. It’s an insanely challenging game and when I was first starting out and could barely hit the ball, I would get really frustrated and my fun levels would plummet. Not great for my playing partners either, I imagine.
Recently though, if I can tell I don’t have my best game by around the ninth hole, I just get a couple extra drinks at the turn and laugh it off and just focus on hitting a few good shots here and there, and I always do.
This past weekend was a bit of an exception. My friend who really helped get me into the game a few years ago was visiting from Calgary and we played three rounds. I had practiced three days in a row in advance and really hoped I would play well, but unfortunately it was more of the same. It’s like I have the putting yips, but for pretty much my entire golf game — especially my driver.
While I know I need to manage expectations as a novice golfer, I feel like I should be able to expect better from myself than how I played, and my frustration bubbled over at times.
Rather than wallow in despair, I have booked my long-overdue first lesson of the season and the plan is to play some good, focused rounds and hit the range frequently so that I keep the dream of breaking 90 alive while there’s still plenty of season left to go.
I’ll be back here soon to report on how it’s all going.
