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I’ve mentioned Seaton Carew GC before in a blog post but it wasn’t until recently that I’d actually played the course and I’ve got to say
WHAT A MAGNIFICENT GOLF COURSE!!!

At that time I referred to it in a context of urban golf due to the industrial skyline but I can honestly say that doesn’t detract from the golfing experience one bit.

So let me explain the deal and then I’ll wax lyrical about the course:

Monday – Friday October 27th – March 27th between 09:30 and 10:30. £20.00 for coffee and bacon butties and 18 holes on the 10th oldest golf course in England, a genuine championship links that will test your golf, stamina and character.

The course itself has 22 holes that are configured into the “Old Course” 1-18 holes and then a possible 4 other layouts. As you would imagine of a traditional links the wind is a massive factor out on the links and as the Old Course is a straight out and back layout you are fighting the wind for at least half of your round. It is true to say that you never quite get back any luck playing with the wind that you lost playing into!
Add into the mix sand dunes, heavy rough, gorse, slick undulating greens and deep links bunkers and you get a stern examination of your game.

Here is an extract from the club’s website to give you a flavour of what to expect:

Don’t be put off by the industrial surroundings of chimneys and chemical works; this excellent golf course is one of the best in the East of England, a real MacKenzie treat. There are a few ridges of sand dunes and the fairways undulate gently, but otherwise this is a relatively flat links course, always at the mercy of the wind.

The 17th hole, called “Snag”, is one of the Club’s many great holes. The late Derek Hornby, a historian and author of the History of Seaton Carew, poetically described the 17th. “The seventeenth’s dangers are countless, beginning with whin, gorse and dune, the rough and gathering bunkers, and the green’s undulating tune. To veer even slightly is fatal, the cost distressingly high, many the cards that’s been torn up, just here with home, oh so nigh”.

So that’s the course but a mention ought to go to the welcome you will get at Seaton Carew. This is a most friendly golf club with members always willing to have a drink and chat. Whilst I was there last a gentleman told me a fascinating story of how the club had relaid the seventeenth green because generations of golfers playing out of the greenside bunker had gradually built up a ridge on the green with countless layers of sand. Obviously, that wasn’t in the original design and careful renovation using traditional methods was needed to restore the green to it’s original state.

I do urge you to look up Seaton Carew it’s a memorable experience.

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As you know I have written a number of posts related to different aspects of the mental game of golf. This is an area of golf that is of particular interest to me so I have started a new blog dedicated to mental golf.

Imaginatively entitled the Mental Golf Blog it gives news, views and reviews of this growing aspect of golf.

I hope you will visit. Many thanks.

Recently a couple of things happened to that really encapsulates to me the game of golf.
I played in an unofficial competition organised by a group of golfers from an online forum at which guys had travelled up to 300 miles to play golf with complete strangers. What other sport or game can you think of in which that would happen?
But that’s golf isn’t it? A game in which people from all walks of life can meet up and enjoy their pursuit, I didn’t ask what these guys did for a living, their politics etc and they didn’t ask mine it just wasn’t relevant. All that mattered was that we played fairly to the rules of golf and enjoyed our game and company together.
During the round we had a that’s golf moment on the Nearest the Pin hole. One of our group duffed his tee shot into a water hazard and elected to play 3 from the tee. Inevitably, this time he hit a great shot six feet from the hole. “That’s Golf” we agreed it’s a universal law, all golfers know that a provisional ball always, always goes on the green or straight down the fairway.
Sir Winston Churchill had this to say about our game, “Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into a even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose.” Yup! That’s golf.

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I’m undertaking an experiment to try to boost the readers to this blog.
Chuck Westbrook a respected and well read blogger came up with an idea to increase traffic to “under appreciated” blogs by gathering together a group of people to help each other out. A “Self Help Group” for bloggers if you wish.
Not that I’m feeling particularly under appreciated by my regular visitors ‘d just like more of you
You can read more here.

A few weeks ago I was alerted to an incredible new innovation in golf practice from Jay Flemma’s blog A Walk In The Park in which he describes Tempo in Motion (T.i.M).

From the T.i.M press release:
“Tempo in Motion (T.i.M.) enables golfers to refine their swing tempo using rock/pop music tracks containing rhythmic patterns attuned to their proper tempo. The tracks can be loaded onto an MP3 player and used on the driving range to help find, maintain and ingrain proper swing tempo in muscle memory.

“A consistent and smooth tempo is the foundation of every great golf swing,” said T.i.M. founder and president Mike Boyko, a former professional rock drummer, who also sports a 2-handicap on the golf course. “With Tempo in Motion, swinging at the right tempo will become second nature. Not only will it make you a better golfer, but it will make practice fun and add some energy to your game.”

Each T.i.M. track has a series of beats called click patterns, which serve as cues for when users should start the backswing, start their downswing and contact the ball. The click patterns are paired with original, high-energy music to help users stay in rhythm.”

I had to have a bash at this and headed off to the website www.tempoinmotion.com. I’ve got to say this is where I got a little confused. The instructions are to follow a graphic of a little golfer swinging. This can be speeded up or down and the idea is to match your swing with the rhythm of the graphic. The problem I had was that the graphic looks like a hacker swing and to me just wasn’t a smooth swing I wanted to emulate.

However I persisted, found my tempo, headed off to the download page, chose my music, paid my $4.99 and downloaded the track.
The music was something of an eyeopener too and whilst the press release alludes to “high-energy musc” I wasn’t prepared for how upbeat it actually was. I often play classical music in my car heading for the course trying to get in a relaxed mood and this seemed so contradictory to that idea

Still, the proof of the pudding is in the eating as they say and I headed off to the range with iPod in hand.
Again I was a little confused. I didn’t understand whether I was supposed to start my swing in tune with the “click pattern”  and to try to synchronise my downswing with it. As I warmed up I played the 2 minute track over and over attempting without success to fit in with the clicks so in the end I just decided to stop trying too hard and simply hit golf balls.

The results were fantastic, I hit the ball great, flushing ball after ball! and only missing one shot which was a 3 iron from a v.dry bare lie ( I was getting cocky by this time!), the rest I was very happy with. Presumably, the body “tunes” into the tempo and synchronises subconciously but it doesn’t really matter to me how it works just that it does and I’ll definitely be continuing with it.

Another added bonus to using T.i.M was that it drowned out the mad-axeman hacker in the next bay giving his mate a “lesson”.

Seriously, I do recommend having a look at Tempo in Motion.

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After my previous post of Pre-Shot Routine - A Blinding Realisation I worked on a new pre-shot routine and tested out at the range this week. I didn’t hit a shot without going through the routine first and was confident it would work.

Today was the first time it was unveiled on the course and I hit it super, particularly from the tee hitting 12/14 fairways. Unfortunately, my short game wasn’t as good and I came to the eighteenth needing a birdie to play to my handicap.The hole requires a draw from the tee in order to get into position to best attack the flag.

Part of the pre-shot routine requires a visualisation of the shot and I was able to “see” the ball drawing into the ideal spot but as I stood up to the ball and was going through the routine I didn’t feel comfortable at address as the clubhead kept twisting closed.

So did I back away and go through my pre-shot routine again?

NO! Like an idiot I carried on with the shot, blocked it straight into trees, was very lucky to find it and ended up making a good up and down for bogey.

AAARRRGGGHHH!!! When will I ever learn?

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As a confident European before the Ryder Cup I was foolhardy enough to strike a wager with some American fans online. In particular @bignellie on Twitter and clgman001 on Stracka.
The bet was that if Europe won they should buy a Union Jack cap and wear it to the golf club and should the USA win I was to buy a Stars & Stripes hat and wear it at my next golf game.
Well you know the result so the photographic evidence is below.
Not the most flattering of photos I know but what the hell a bet is a bet. I will continue to wear the hat on my golfing travels and post the results.

I didn’t post immediately after the Ryder Cup because every golfer and blogger on the planet had a say so and I didn’t think I could contribute anything particularly new.
Suffice to say I thought the tournament was a great exhibition of golf with the US team playing some superb stuff.
My overriding feelings were that the US team just seemed to be having the most fun, they were laughing and joking and were definitely the most relaxed team on and off the golf course. Just as the Europeans have been in the past in fact.
Perhaps that’s the winning formula.

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You know I must be very slow on the uptake, stop nodding there at the back :-), but following my post Golf Is Not A Game Of Indecision I made a startling (to me) discovery.

I had some great feedback from the post at Stracka.com and got thinking about why certain things have distracted me on the golf course over the years and came to the conclusion that I was often reluctant to back away from a shot because I was concerned about holding other players up. Consequently, I was unprepared for the shot, rushed it and invariably got a poor result.

It’s ridiculous I know but I’m sure we’ve all been there.

This got me thinking, therefore, about a pre-shot routine. I don’t follow one. To be honest I’ve often thought they were a bit show-offy. Sometimes I’ll have a practice swing sometimes I won’t, I try to visualise the shot but not always, so you can see I have a pretty haphazard approach to my golf shots.

I think this is because I’ve played golf long enough I’ve convinced myself I have a decent enough swing and know the kind of shot of want to play in each situation.

But, here’s the blinding realisation. It’s not a physical pre-shot routine
IT’S A MENTAL PRE-SHOT ROUTINE. By following a set routine it tells my mind I am prepared & ready to hit my shot.

Through some trial and error I have come up with a routine that takes about 20 seconds by following it I hope to be better mentally prepared for each shot and more able to regroup after a distraction.

After all 20 seconds isn’t going to hold anybodys game up.

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Apologies to Bob Rotella and for the double negative. No, I’m not sure if it makes sense either but never mind.
Following on from my previous post about knowing when you’re about to hit a good shot, this is the opposite.
It’s amazing, isn’t it how easily it is to be distracted from hitting your shot? And then by not giving it full attention you hit a poor one.
In the last couple of games I’ve;

• Missed a 2′ foot putt because a beetle crawled on my line!
• Sliced a drive because the wind was blowing my cap.
• Driven OOB ‘cos a greenkeeper was waiting to cut the tee.
• Topped a drive because wasn’t sure of the line and, therefore, the club to hit.
• Missed a fairway because the sun was in my eyes.
• Hooked OOB because I was irritated by slow play!

The common theme in all these is an indecision or distraction that has prevented me committing to the shot.

When will I ever learn?????????

Ok! ok! I know a blog is a kind of diary or journal but the kind I’m talking about is a diary of your golf game.
Some time ago I started to keep one (with the idea that it could become a blog but that would have been more self obsessed than this one :-)) and amongst the entries was a record of good shots played during the round, Drives, Approach Shots, Chip/Pitches & Putts.
The diary now has about 50 entries and reading it back the other day I realised I could remember every shot described vividly even though some of them were played well over a year ago.
The interesting thing is that I can also remember how I felt at address with these shots and I tell you I knew I was going to hit a good shot, absolutely knew! Something just felt right, I was confident, felt relaxed, made a good smooth swing etc
Why?? I don’t know that. If I did I’d be a pro but we’ve all experienced “seeing” the line of a putt before hitting it and watched the ball track that line and drop in the hole. So why can’t we do it more often?
Answers on a postcard to Golf Anorak, West Yorkshire, England.

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