Played Windermere on Thursday with my mate and coach Chris Holt (twitter.com/golfpro999) and couldn’t believe how good the course was, and how tricky the greens where.
The idea behind playing at Windermere was that I needed to see the course a number of times before I play an Open there in June and hopefully get some idea about clubs to take off each tee and where pin positions may be for a big comp. Plus I wanted to get a feel for the greens and the slopes and potential pace of them, and I’m glad I did!
The course itself is not a long one, but is tricky and the greens are unbelievable, they are quick and sloped and if you get in the wrong spot you are definitely in 3 putt territory, and I found those spots a number of times in my first practice round. For instance the green on the 5th hole slopes from back to front, and if you find the back of the green and the pin is on the front you are struggling to get the first putt close.
The first 6 holes can be played without a driver and it is probably best to tackle it that way to get position to attack the greens. The 7th needs a driver to get round the corner to take on the green, but that’s a rarity for the course to be honest as you could play most of it without getting driver out of the bag. I would say it’s probably one of my favourite courses already and can’t believe I’ve not played it before given that it took around 40 minutes to get there from home.
I played well from tee to green and apart from a couple of dodgy shots late on, I seemed to have got on the way to sorting out issues I had off the tee at Lancaster. But the greens, they had me completely. I couldnt get the pace and reading them proved very tricky. Overall I hit 13 greens in regulation but had too many putts.
I firmly believe I can put a good score in there in June, but I need to visit a couple more times just to see if I can get a feel for the greens. Maybe next time I need to spend a lot of time on the putting surface checking out the contours of the green and thinking about the best place to aim for ‘safe’ two putts if needed.
On the equipment side of things the 4 hybrid has stayed in the bag and will be in for the foreseeable future now as it fills a yardage gap I had around 180 yards. With regards to the driver situation, the r9 is in the bag, but I would like to get on a flightscope to put it up against the Tour Burner to check on launch angle, spin rates, and yardage totals before I make a decision. That said, I really like the r9 and would be happy with it in play all season. Penta TP ball is in play, and will stay in play, although I do have some Callaway Tour i(s) balls to try at some point.
Been practicing hard all week and hope it will show at the first Scratch Team practice on Sunday night, and in next weekends medal.
Booked myself into 2 more opens today, at Morecambe in May and Preston in August, so my golf schedule is starting to fill up now.
Been enjoying the European Tour golf on Sky this week too. As the coverage is starting at 6am it is perfect for me to watch when my little girl gets up. Also trying to watch a bit of the PGA Tour coverage from Hilton Head but not seen much so far, hopefully will do though over the weekend as there is a decent field.
Plan for the weekend is maybe sneak a bit of practice in either late Saturday or early Sunday and then Scratch team get together on Sunday for first practice and discussions pre season.
10 to plus, is it possible?? 