85,79,92

Before you think this is about some statistics, hold on. I am talking about something completely different.

The sabbatical is over!

I can play Golf again :-)

As some of you might remember, I had given up on the game a few months ago after a few fairly disasterous rounds. The biggest reason to do so was that I was not being able to give enough time to the game and as a direct result, the game was suffering. Well, that is no longer the case as I am in the middle of familiar company and back with my old golf buddies (all of whom have gotten a lot better since I left).

So to inaugurate the game again, my buddies and I went to the Bangalore Golf Club (BGC), my favorite course in Bangalore, for my first round in three and a half months. And the tee shot set it all up. All that practice on the driving range years ago paid off. The ball soared off the 5 iron and drew slightly (as it usually does for me) and landed squarely in the center of the fairway. A nice approach and I was on the green in regulation. And just like that, I had my par.

All in all, the round was about discovering which parts of my game worked and which I needed to work on. And so I was not entirely disappointed with the 85 I carded that day.

The very next round was a revelation. All parts of the game came together and I was hitting the ball as sweetly as I could imagine. Wherever I missed the green on my approach, I either made an up and down or put it in the hole. The whole round was almost blemish free save for two holes where, both times, I got really bad breaks. Once my ball came to rest right next to a tree and I missed two strokes trying to get it out. The other time, my tee shot found a fairway bunker and the ball was lying on the upp slope of the bunker, right next to the lip. A desperate 9 iron out of the bunker and then a excessively drawn 5 iron later, I found myself on the downslope of a greenside bunker. Needless to say, had these two holes not been that bad (the only double and triple bogeys of the round), I would have played lower than my current lowest score.

So there is still hope.

Or so I thought. Until I played on the last weekend. The highlight of the round was that I kept toeing the ball almost all through the round. Just could not figure it out. I rarely miss sweet spot on my clubs, one of the biggest reasons to buy the completely unforgiving Mizuno MP-32 set of irons that I am playing right now. This entire round was an education in how to play unforgiving irons when one is not hitting the sweet spot.

All in all, I have had a yo yo of a few rounds. But there are glimpses of the game that can be. So as a true golfer, and therefore an optimist, I look forward to the next round this weekend.

Until then...