The weekend's golf

One of the frustrating, or possibly reassuring things about golf is that no matter what you do on a particular hole, your score for the round stays about the same. Have you noticed this? You can lose a ball on a hole and then stuff the second one into the weeds, but that is almost always balanced by an unexpected birdie later on in the round.

Saturday, I had a bit of a nightmare, or it felt like it. Birdied the first, which was great, then balanced that up with a six at the long par four second. OK, not so bad. Had a seven at the fifth (I hate downhill holes), but chipped in for a two on the eighth (brilliantly, actually, I was over the back of the green behind a bush!).

Ended up with a 91, which is level par for my 20 handicap. 43 on the front, 48 on the back. Then went out for a few holes with the good lady later on in the day and shot 43 on the front again, but with a completely different pattern of good and bad holes. Maybe this is what they mean by consistency?

Sunday, played the back nine in 42, a new record for me (our back 9 is far harder than the front). I should have played the front too, but the course was packed.

I think the issue is that when things are not going well, a rank amateur like me stops trusting his swing - you start making a smaller swing, or you keep your head 'elaborately' still, which just makes me pull left, and either way your distances are out of the window and the score goes up. That said, a poor front 9 makes me more careful on the back, and you can save a couple. Conversely, if you have a good front 9, confidence is high and you play better golf. And then again, if you have a blinding start, you go for shots that truthfully you aren't good enough to play, and that brings you back down to Earth. In any case, the 18-hole score rarely varies by more than half a dozen shots.

Still, can't complain - managed to play 40 holes over the weekend.

Even better, my daughter texted me while on the 7th to tell me she had managed to land her 2.1 in Law, from Cambridge! I was so happy I birdied the 8th!