8th times a charm........

Its 2 days now till my next test, and god willing final test. My approach to this one has finally been very relaxed and non-stressful, compared to the 'got to practise' 'got to practise' theory I've had. I have been a lot less intense with my preparations and consequently have really enjoyed the golf I have been playing. After hitting absloute rock-bottom on the greens one day I have reverted to my cack-handed grip and the first game after doing so saw me make 5 birdies in 15 holes! I have worked on my pitching quite a bit and now at least have some rough ideas on how I can hit it certain distances.

I have had other things on my mind. My nephews mother was taken ill recently but thankfully she is out of hospital now and doing much better.
Also, I was given the responsibility of organising the Junior Open a couple of months back and in the last few weeks my energy has mainly gone in to this. Thankfully the day was a complete success and thoroughly rewarding to have everything go so smoothly and without complaint from any parents.

All these things havent really given me much time or energy to work on my golf which isnt a bad thing. There's nothing I'm gonna learn before my test and I want to go into totally fresh and not 'over-golfed' like I have done in the past. I have spent more time on the course focusing on scoring and making the right decisions during the round.
Again, many friends and colleagues have given me their well-wishes and expressed their belief in me which has been nice. All of that stuff - 'believe in yourself', 'trust your ability', 'work hard' etc whilst being useful, I feel are irrelevant to be honest at this stage. Its far simpler than that - 'GO PLAY GOLF!' It needn't be analysed beyond that and this has screwed me over in the past.
I have made 4 simple promises to myself, all I want to do is enjoy the day with my dad and whatever happens will happen:
1/ I will not get angry under any circumstances. If I feel myself getting hot - I will breathe, deal with it rationally and move on to the next shot.

2/ I will stick to my pre-shot routine for every shot I play and play one shot at a time with 110% care and thought.

3/ I will trust my ability to swing a golf club - I have been playing the game 12 years to a high standard and shots hundreds of scores that would comfortably blitz this thing. I will hit bad shots inevitably during the day but will not seek to change my swing. This is perhaps one of the most destructive things you can do on a golf course.

4/ I will make it a priority to hit the fairways. I have discovered through my stats that from the fairway I tend to hit 2 out of every 3 greens when i'm on the fairway - a stat that I like very much. I will very much be working on playing percentage golf, which dad will be good at helping me with.


I guess you could say that the above 3 points summarize everything that i've learned during this examination experience so hopefully, you could say, i'm more prepared than i've ever been.

Will write in a few days with the outcome, altho to be honest it has no real importance. Life goes on and so do tests.......