Trying to break 90 again: my return to golf after a long layoff

16/08/2024 15:00

There's an assumption – and a very fair one – that as I write about golf I must play a lot of it too.

But here's a thing: I've played one round of golf since 2019. That was in 2021 I think although it's so long ago I can't remember.

In a wider context, this absence from the game is new so let's rewind the clock a little.

From playing pitch-and-putt at the Alfred Rose in Aylesbury as a kid on holidays at my grandparents, I've done my fair share of club swinging.

I even joined a club once – Cookridge near Leeds in 2001 – and shot my low round: an 81.

There was an element of Bob Beamon about that. My previous best had been an 89 and yet, without the benefit of altitude that helped BB smash his (and the world’s) long jump best in the 1968 Mexico Olympics, I managed a significant leap of my own. Eight shots off my previous low and Cookridge is only 650 feet above sea level.

But with golf, you should never presume 81 soon turns to something in the 70s and, due to a weird refusal to ever have a lesson, plus the cherished arrival of kids, my golf game plateaued.

Which is a kind way of saying it got a lot worse. I did manage to shoot a few rounds in the high 80s but from around 2008 onwards I decided that I was off a handicap of 22.

There was nothing bandit-like about that. Loads of bogeys and the odd shocker balanced out by a few pars and I'd land at around 94 or so.

Through my work, I was lucky to play some great courses. St Andrews, Le Golf National, Hoylake, Birkdale, Lytham, Muirfield, Gullane, Wentworth, The Belfry and a couple in Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

These were great experiences and there were highlights: a birdie on Birkdale's tough opening par 4, a 90 at Hoylake and four pars in a row – remember I'm a hacker and that is good – at St Andrews including the 18th and the 1st having played the Old Course in a shotgun format the day after the Ricoh Women’s British Open.

Those days walking in the footsteps of greats were absolute treats, bucket-list jobs in a few cases, although there was a niggling feeling that I would have enjoyed them that much more had I been half-decent.

Perhaps six to eight rounds a year – maybe half of those at elite courses – was a nice way of enjoying my golf.

Bizarrely, I even had an annual game going with K.K. Downing from heavy metal legends Judas Priest, my friend and colleague Matt Cooper joining me in a Mods v Rockers showdown against K.K. and local musician Pat Bristow. That's a story for another time.

So how did it all ground to a halt?

Covid certainly played a part in my clubs gathering dust. Not because I became scared of going out but due to turning inwardly and back to simpler, safe times by playing snooker – my childhood passion – on a 6×3 table at home.

When lockdown was lifted I hit the snooker hall rather than the golf course and realised an ambition by making a century break.

I was always much better at snooker than golf – Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours and all that – so it was nice to feel fairly good at something as I increased my best break to 135.

What would the equivalent of that be in golf? I'm never quite sure but it would mean I would be pretty handy. The reality, of course, is that when I swap a snooker cue for a golf club, I revert to being pretty poor.

But here we are again, back at Golf365 where I was once editor, and suddenly the golf clubs are winking at me again.

Perhaps you, or someone you know, is in the same position and hopefully following my journey (sounds pompous but I’ll go with it) could just give you the nudge to get golfing again. I hope so.

Seeking the positives, a break from the game may have done me the world of good.

And having taken up yoga in 2022, perhaps I'm much more flexible than I was and this will translate to my golf swing.

I'm at the stage where anything seems possible again. The scar tissue has vanished. I'm looking forward to standing over a four-foot putt or getting out of a bunker or hitting over water. I'm brimming with golfing wanderlust.

Forget my age (55 if you're asking), if I can set a PB in snooker in my 50s, maybe I'll be a late bloomer in golf too.

An 81 seems far-fetched but how about this target: breaking 90. I don’t think I’ve managed that in over a decade.

First step back: the driving range tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

P.S. That picture of me above was taken in 2019 and it’s the last time I was caught on camera on a golf course. I think it’s Moortown in Leeds, an Alister MacKenzie design that hosted the second edition of the Ryder Cup.

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