Building on the themes of edition one, about how often we golfers tend to stick with what we know, in terms of technique, equipment, etc., and edition two, which touched on the marvels of foursomes, half-sets, hickories and persimmon, this (at this stage hopefully final) chapter will touch on a few more golfing paths that are less well travelled.
For each of these following diversions from the more traditional, routine forms of golf offers the chance to refresh the jaded golfer, bring back a bit of the spark of the game - that simple joy that for many of us existed before the scoring, before the handicaps. The engrossing act of just knocking a ball around.
Play a few holes with one club
It’s fairly well known that Seve attributed much of his creative artistry to his apprenticeship with only an old three iron, but picking a single club to play a few holes is such a refreshing way to find your rhythm. I grew up on a pitch & putt and would routinely head out with a single club - normally a lofted club of some sort but not always the same one.
I learned - and subsequently forgot, of course - to play shots high and low with those tools; to pitch, chip and putt with each, and for a while, until I started to play on “proper” golf courses and then less frequently altogether, the sand irons and lob wedges that now sit gathering dust in the loft were like extensions of my arms; those endless summer days building a great confidence and flexibility in the all important short game. Goodness knows, my errant long game required this, and still does.
If you have at your disposal a short game area, try taking just one club out there, or better still head out on the normal holes with something different each time. Playing with only a rescue or a seven iron, or anything you like, really, will just move you away from thinking about scoring and into a mindset where you are just looking to swing well and flush the ball. You also see some different parts of the golf course, and it is a wonderfully simple way to play a few in the late afternoon. Unless you are Seve, though, I don’t recommend a bladed three iron with a shiny old grip.
Try SpeedGolf
There’s a bit of a movement around that can only be seen in the early mornings of the golfing season, really. In amongst the dew-sweeping greenkeepers at a handful of clubs you might spot a SpeedGolfer. Everyone knows we ought to do a bit more cardiovascular exercise, and SpeedGolf - playing with a very few clubs, minimal other kit, and running in between shots - is such a great way to start the day. The normal early golfer, who you will often encounter lacing up their shoes ready for play shortly after you finish SpeedGolfing, will smile in a way that tells you he believes you have a screw loose, and he may be right - time will tell - but I’ve had a few goes at this, and I never, ever finish the round wishing I’d taken longer to play or regretting the outing.
But here’s the weirdest part. When you jog up to the ball, take a single moment to catch your breath and look at the shot ahead, and then hit, the most wonderful fluidity can appear in your swing. It’s as if by being in a hurry, you don’t give your mind the chance to over-complicate things, and it feels to me like all those shots I’ve hit over the years are finally trusted to manifest under these conditions - muscle memory left to its own devices while my logical mind takes a back seat. When SpeedGolfing, I hardly ever chunk one, but instead swing with a strange freedom that often carries over to the next time out with a full set (ok, a half set) to play at a standard sort of pace.
The other beautiful thing about running around, apart from the obvious time efficiency of combining two activities in less time than the central one would normally take, is that it keeps you warm. I said you might see the odd running golfer out early in the summer, but I’ve played a bit of winter SpeedGolf of late, and starting in the cold air as the light emerges, only to finish warm and exercised inside an hour later is a fabulous way to get some practice in. If I could, I’d begin each day this way, and the forgiving nature of the turf is easy on the legs. Not for everyone, SpeedGolf, but so, so much fun.
Leave behind your DMD’s
I grew up playing before sports watches and scopes became popular in golf, and while I have tried both, there is something integral about the game to me that relies on judgment, and I feel we sometimes lose that in focusing on the yardages too much. I still look for the 150’s, or glance at sprinkler head plates on the way past, but on the occasions when I remember not to - and it is a powerful habit, this data checking, akin to the perpetual checking of phone messages - I find an extra level of freedom and fun in trying to work out how far a shot is, or what sort of club and stroke will be required.
It also appeals to the same themes of simplicity and fluidity that many of these other options do, and, as someone who is starting to feel distinctly middle-aged around technology, it saves the hassle of downloading the courses and updating the firmware, etc. For example, I played in Surrey yesterday, and the reading my Garmin gave me on the first fairway was of the first hole at Dundonald, over a month ago. Hopeless. My watch now simply tells me what the time is, and, if SpeedGolfing, how much saved time I have harvested that can now be spent planning more golf…
Leave your driver behind
As mentioned in the earlier chunk about persimmon woods, the modern driver is a very forgiving weapon, whose huge clubhead has made what was once a terrifying aspect of golf far more agreeable to the club golfer. But many of the courses we play have significant history behind them, and if you are attempting to play a layout from the Golden Age of design in the early 20th century, your modern drive will flatter you, and possibly land you in more trouble than it is worth risking for a few extra yards.
In the same way as altitude training will strengthen the athlete’s strength and endurance under normal conditions, where oxygen is more readily available, by leaving behind your driver for a change, you will face your familiar challenges from different, often longer positions, and perhaps at the same time learn that the driver is not always the best option. I remember Nicklaus saying somewhere that he practiced for a specific US Open course by hitting five irons off the tee at his home club in Ohio, in order to force him to hit long irons and fairway woods into the greens, thereby preparing for the longer test ahead, and it has to be good all-round training for your game to leave the driver behind. I bet you will lose fewer balls, too…
Play away…
The last suggestion is, I realise, likely to have more of an appeal that some of the other options. We all have our favourite spots in golf - the courses and holes we come to know and love (or perhaps hate, but in a fairly addictive way) - but in varying the type of golf you play, you are not only strengthening your game but refreshing that relationship to your home ground.
If you play parkland golf, get out on the heath and learn to run the ball a little more. Or try desert golf - a variation that seems to be more akin to darts than golf at times, but which encapsulated the absurdity of the sport, with its ancient cactus trees; “lost” balls peering out from the spikily protected soft green flesh.
If you’ve never played links golf, you must. It is the true game, and the best links courses are so open that the elements will ruin many a “townie” golfer’s rhythm, but beware - the locals will never acknowledge a wind weaker than gale force as a potential factor. But it is the original game, and you often return from the links with a gentler cadence to your swing, one that can survive the blustery sea winds.
Plus, the links courses are on sandy soil and therefore not only playable in the winter months but often at their best then. If you are a links player normally, there is also benefit from heading inland for a change. You will return to the coast with a feeling of great spaciousness and freedom on your return to the coast, under the endless skies and joyous soundtrack of the ascending lark’s song.
So…a blog post that ran to three, and has anyone learned anything, or even read this far? I doubt it, but I have (I learned I need to plan these things better, and that some of my golfing peccadilloes appear even stranger written down than I thought). But if a single person decides to make that trip to the seaside to play in and over the sand dunes, or to take a wedge and a couple of balls to the pitch & putt, and in doing so finds something to freshen up their enthusiasm to the game, it will have been worthwhile.
Or perhaps one pair will decide to dig out their old blades and have just one round where the current trend for marking scores is for a change forgotten, in favour of a head to head match the old way, with the old equipment; equally wonderful.
In the meantime I will just continue trying different things, searching for that simple joy in knocking a ball about that consumed my childhood, and the long-lost ability to hit a pitch shot with shaking like a leaf in a wind tunnel.
Go and play some golf, and try a different lane for a change!
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