Let’s call it a wrap for 2007

Well, you can’t call it a tradition yet, but as in the last year, I played my last round of the season on December, 30th. This year I chose the closest course to my home, the GC Pankow to be the venue. As it has been four weeks since I last swung the club on a course, my swing was a little bit rusty.

It was a little after 09:00 this morning and 4° Celsius and surprisingly, already a few other golfers were out in the course. Turned out that an even bigger surprise were the frozen greens, hard as concrete. The club hadn’t set up winter greens, so we played on the regular greens. I had left my second shot on the opening par four some 20 meters short, so I needed a little wedge onto the green. On a normal summer green the ball would be tucked to the pin, but on these ones the ball bounced as if it had hit a rock and could be found some 5 meters behind the green. Another chip, two-putt, double-bogey. Dayum!

On the following holes, I tried to leave my shot into the green short, so it has its first bounce in front of the green and then rolls onto it, avoiding the “concrete bounce”. It helped sometimes, but not always.

But what am I complaining, I was out playing golf, everything from pars to triple-bogeys, single- to three-putts, rough to the left, rough to the right, hit eight fairways, produced some really nice shots and fucked up a couple real bad. My game today was kind of like a resume of this season: some highlights, but also the insight that there is plenty of stuff to work on – more than I would admit myself.

This season was the first season I wasn’t able to improve my handicap, it got worse. Still hangin’ in the mid-twenties instead of the low twenties. Maybe the biggest handicap is in my head, I need to work on some mental issues. Currently, I’m reading Oliver Heulers “Jenseits der Scores”, a book that approaches all the mental issues and being halfway through it, there are so many things in the book that I recognize myself in. But I’ll write on that some other time.

To you – my dear readers – all the best wishes for 2008!

“Play for the pars, the double-bogeys will come!”