44 POINTS! dew dew!

I had a great day at golf yesterday for the Stableford comp. I have hit the ball better in previous rounds, but I found that I was able to get the ball to the greens very well on the whole. The thing that helped me shoot my best ever round (81) was my putting (3 birdies and 5 pars in the same round wasn't a hindrance either!).

I managed to drain two long range putts for birdies on the 3rd and 4th holes after hitting the greens in regulation and the putting feeling stayed with me through the rest of the round with most of my putts going close or in. I don't think I missed from inside 6 feet. I use an app on my phone for storing stats and giving me distances called FreeCaddie and it helpfully let me know that I hit 7 greens in regulation and my previous best was 4. This actually bumped up my amount of putts to 35, but they were good putts with only two 3-putts.
I was really excited to have tried to put pressure on myself to do well and pulled it off. I found myself in a matchplay scenario on the back 9 defending a 3 point lead over Owen and also keeping track of my progress with the aim of shooting 45 points. I managed to par the last three holes to get 44 points and extended my 3 point lead to 6 for the finish. I'm not sure that the same mental attitude can apply next week, but this week I knew I 'could' shoot 45 points and I was going to give it a good go. Next week my handicap is likely to be a bit less so the same aim could be a bit unrealistic, and we have a medal, so no points (I think). But I'd like to think I can shoot 81 or better ............ we'll see how I feel.

Max has caught the League to Dubai bug and entered the singles. He also convinced me that we should enter the pairs comp together, so we did. We have created a two-man Welsh team with an Aussie and a South African!!  The pairs competition is a betterball Stableford comp off 3/4 handicap with the top 6 teams after groups and 3 regional finals going to Dubai for 6 nights for a 3-day final competition over three courses.
I also noticed that the singles comp is off 3/4 handicap, which will make the singles a bit trickier. My thoughts on the 3/4 hcp issue are that if you can play to 4hcp, 3hcp isn't too different, although if you can play to 20hcp, 15hcp is a massive difference.
The better I can play, the better my chances are (obviously!! Haha). SO, practise, practise, practise! I've heard that some people like to protect a higher handicap, I personally (not a dig at ANYONE!!) don't think there is any point protecting a higher handicap, especially as I think it is a destructive mindset for improvement. Maybe time for another lesson soon too.