Stornoway Golf Club

September 8th 2007

ANN GALBRAITH TRIUMPHS IN LADIES QUALIFIER

This is the headline I have been waiting for all summer. Having bemoaned her lack of luck this season I am delighted to report that Ann Galbraith won again last week, to shed her recent mantle of the unluckiest golfer in the club. Being runner up on several occasions latterly ,due only to her poorer scores over the last nine holes, must have sapped her confidence, but last Tuesday saw her top the ladies leader-board for the first time since June, and surely lay some demons to rest.

Wednesday saw Chris”Savage”Graham win the Centenary Medal with an excellent round in a keenly contested final. As one of the many offshore workers who play as regularly as time off allows, it is always difficult not only to find form but to capitalise on it. Well done to him on his first win of the season, and on having reduced his handicap by 4 shots since April.

The magnificent Glennie Trophy ( a cross between the World Cup, a second year woodwork class dabbling with formica, and the Angel of the North) was won on Saturday by the irrepressible Bryan Geddes. Bryan has had a great season, and this win will at least put something “concrete” on his mantelpiece to somewhat make up for finishing runner up in the two Island “majors” to date.

Bryan is one of the most consistent players in the club, and plays with the confidence his ability affords him. He prepares well, is methodical in his rhythm and striking of the ball, and seems to relax as he steps onto the first tee. Watching him get ready to hit his first shot reminded me of all the things many of us “hackers” tend to forget.

He had a smile on his face, was looking forward to his round, and most of all, he looked confident. When you are as good as Bryan , and playing well, it does look much easier.

There is far too much stuff to be taken care of between the ears, if you are playing badly, to bring to the first tee and your first shot of the day. When the first tee is the beginning of the most difficult of all of the eighteen holes on the course, then the focus required to hit “the gap” (a small target area some 170yds in the distance and out of sight, over the brow of a hill) can cause many of us to panic.

These days, and I get the feeling I am not alone here; if my panic at the first doesn’t undo my hopes of a decent round, then the subsequent panic at haemorrhaging most of my handicap before the “turn”, the ninth hole, surely will.

Sometimes when our game is going badly we try to focus on all the advice we have been given over the years, “Try to swing the club, not hit the ball”, “Swing down, then around”, “Clear the hips and swing using your legs”, “Have a one piece take-away” and “Keep it wide on the back-swing” being just a few of many. As the game falls to pieces, the head fills with all the bland “mantras” we have been force fed since we first attempted to play the game, and to be honest, the brain begins to throb. I know one of the best player in the club, who has been struggling of late, looked to one of his peers (a golfer of similar abundant ability) to help him analyse what had gone “wrong” with his game. After several holes of scrutinising his swing, watching his address position and assessing the “situation”, he asked if there was anything that could be pinpointed which might solve his recent dip in form. Having watched as his friend postulated and pontificated about what might be causing his current “woes”, he offered an honest and startlingly forthright analysis and opinion “Why don’t you stop thinking about it and just (expletive deleted) hit it”.

Now this is not an original thought, but many of us have forgotten how to simply go out and play the game, without over-complicating it with theories, science and, to be frank, a healthy dose of what made the grass grow green in Texas.

I may be wrong here, but I’ll hazard a guess here and suggest that many of us club golfers prepare to play too poorly, if at all , ( and come a cropper early in the round), try too hard and forget to relax and enjoy ourselves, and give up too easily when things begin to go badly ( then relax, play better golf, and curse the couple of poor shots/holes which cost them a decent card when they analyse their score walking off the 18th tee ).

Many of us turn up at the club, head to the bar, then the locker room, then the first tee ( hitting a few practise putts on the way) then shrug our shoulders, wonder how long before we implode, and trudge forward into the trees to look for our first ( or second) tee shot .

The golfers who can dispel negative thoughts before they arrive on the tee, look forward to their round, and believe they will play well, are generally those who do. The rest of us tend to do so by accident.

We avoid any disasters on the holes which usually catch us out, manage to keep it reasonably “steady” till the closing stretch, and have enough shots left of our handicaps to see us through the treacherous closing holes. If we are lucky.

Too many of us have had no such “accidents” this year, and have seen our handicaps steadily rise as a result. We are in the group at the bottom of the rankings where we are counting the remaining weeks and praying we can squeeze in just one decent round before the summer season is behind us. Unless of course we are mercenary bandits, and looking to advantage ourselves (and our playing partners) for the Winter League. That would never happen would it? ….people protecting their handicaps for the Winter League…surely not!

You may have recognised this as my usual end of season rant about how poorly I have played, and may be thinking it would be nice to have a golf correspondent who could actually play the game. But where would the fun be in that? How else could I talk from some authority on what it is like to be amongst the poorest performers in the club, bring a genuinely miserable perspective to the gloominess of the long-distance shanker, and have no knowledge of what a “buffer zone” is, far less a round of par golf?

I am still trying to talk myself into one decent round.

Just one.

Please.

Ladies Medal Qualifier

( Tuesday 4st September )

Anne Galbraith Winner

Liz Carmichael Runner-Up

Mens Centenary Medal Final

(Wednesday 5th September)

Chris Graham 37 pts Winner

Men’s Glennie Trophy

( Saturday 8th September )