TG Blog: 10 weeks to go

Friday 8th July

Back in March, six months after my first ever round of golf, I submitted cards from three consecutive rounds in order to gain an official handicap. At the time my target was to achieve a handicap of lower than 15., but my three rounds were only good enough for an 18 handicap.

Nearly four months have passed and I have practised or played most days since March. With the help of my coach I have worked on improvements to my swing, short game, putting, course management and fitness. Plus, I’ve recently started work with some coaches specifically to deal with the mental side of my game and my challenge.

My handicap is still 18 and my progress has stalled. I can feel every part of my game getting better but I can’t show the improvements in my scoring.

I have only 10 weeks left to reach my target and have been thinking about how I can fairly test the standard of my golf when the year is up.

I will play three rounds of golf on three predetermined days on and around the anniversary of my first round of golf. Each round will be on a different golf course; my home course at Mount Pleasant Golf Club will be one, Trent Park Golf Course will be another. The third has yet to be confirmed and offers are very welcome.

The cards from these three rounds will be used to calculate a handicap in the same way that my first three cards were. This should give an absolute and unarguable benchmark of the standard of my golf for these rounds.

To be ‘scratch standard’ I want to shoot aggregate level par for the three rounds. But let’s be realistic, anything less than two over par will do!

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