I was fortunate enough this past weekend to play the beautiful Burford Golf Club. For the 1st November in the UK the weather was fantastic too with sunny skies, warm temperatures, and barely a breath of wind. Despite this I was not feeling well when I arrived at the course and only made about 5 full swings in my warm up. Ultimately I think this helped me because I was not worried about playing well and I forgot about swing mechanics.
With not a care in the world I played the first two holes perfectly and was stood on the tee of the long par four third at 2 under. After pushing 2 shots I found myself in the greenside bunker. I immediately liked the look of the shot. I looked at the target, made the swing, and watched as the ball disappeared into the hole.
At 3 under I badly hooked my tee shot on the 4th but worked hard to save my par. I lipped out for birdie of the 5th and despite pulling my drive on the par 5 6th and being forced to lay up, made another birdie. I got away with a bad tee shot on the 7th and hit another iron close to go 5 under. I just missed my birdie put at the par 3 8th and was able to find the green in 2 on the par 5 9th despite driving under a tree. I left my putt short but tapped in for a 6 under front 9 30! This is by far the best I have ever played, particularly as I was not on a course I know well. I was not worried about protecting my score at this point, I wanted to keep going and see how low I could shoot.
Good up and downs at 10 and 11 meant I stayed at 6 under headed to the par 5 12th. A simple birdie there after a good drive and reaching in 2 took me to 7 under and the lowest I have ever been. I decided to hit driver on the short par 4 13th because I wanted to stay aggressive. The drive I hit would not have been a disaster in the summer but with the autumn leaves it resulted in a lost ball and a double bogey. A few poor drives and near misses with the putter meant I only managed to finish at 2 under but I was still pleased with a 69 at an unfamiliar course.
Dropping 5 shots in the last 6 holes looks like a bad collapse so I feel like I need to analyse why that happened. I do not feel like it was a mental issue in this case. I did not think about mechanics at all during the round and I do not think I changed my attitude or my strategy from when it was going well to when I started dropping shots.
I think it is more a case of I stopped getting away with my mistakes and I misjudged a few putts. On the front 9 I only hit 3 out of 7 fairways but got away with those mistakes, whereas on the back 9 I was punished for a similar number of misses. From this I know I need to work on my accuracy off the tee. As this was not a long course having a shot I could have gone to with a shorter club would have really helped so that is something I will work on during my next trip to the range as well as practicing my driving.
While most people would probably be disappointed with my finish to this round I am thankful for it. As strange as that sounds I am pleased that this happened in a round with nothing on the line instead of during a competition. I feel a reason a lot of people get frustrated at finishing a round the way I did is because they fear they may never be in such a good position again. I have a lot of confidence in my approach to the game so I am sure that I can improve and be in the same position or a better one at some point in the future.
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