Day 1 Sport 1: Golf

GOLF 

For the first sport in my "Playing 5 Sports" blog, I’ve chosen golf. Today, I headed to Kirkintilloch Golf Club, where I work, and it’s also convenient since it's local. My goal for the day was to focus on improving my low scores and work on my alignment, both in my long and short game. 

I’m a decent golfer with a current SGU handicap of +0.7,

 I believe setting goals for each practice session is crucial as gives me something to concentrate on, I enjoy doing this as at the end of the session, I can definitively say whether I’ve achieved my objectives or not.

I started my session with putting, which I recommend as it helps establish a smooth, steady rhythm. On the chipping and putting greens, I placed a tee about 20 feet away and hit around 10-15 putts towards it, trying to stop the ball as close to the tee as possible. This drill is effective as it shifts focus away from the hole and more on speed control. Once I felt dialled in, I switched to putting to an actual hole, placing tees 2, 4, 6, and 8 feet from the hole. After successfully holing all four putts, I moved to a different spot and repeated the drill 2-3 times until I could hole each putt consistently.

Next, I did a pace and line drill by picking a distant hole and playing every hole as a par 2, meaning if I didn’t sink the ball in two shots, I’d count it as a bogey. I did this for nine holes and tallied up my score at the end.

For the next part of my warmup, I headed inside to use the GC3 simulator in the pro shop, hitting about 20-25 balls on the virtual range, progressing through my full set of clubs for a complete warmup. With each shot, I went through a full pre-shot routine and made sure to use alignment sticks to keep my setup and alignment on point. This warmup took about 40 minutes.

                                              

                                                      

Once warmed up, I moved on to the course. 

As I mentioned earlier, my focus today was on shooting a low score, so I decided to play from a forward tee, which shortened each hole. I also aimed to stay aggressive off the tee, hitting driver whenever I had the chance. As a result, I finished 18 holes with a score of 66 (-4). Overall, I was happy with my performance, although there’s still room for improvement in my short game from 50 yards and in. To work on this, I plan to head back to the practice area with around 100 balls and sharpen up this part of my game.

All in all, it was an enjoyable and tiring day, and that wraps up day 1 and sport 1 of The Sideline Scoop!