Last weekend I played my first and only tournament of the 2020 season. This year truly is remarkable I have to say.
It feels weird. Usually I play around 10 to 15 tournaments a year. Actually almost every round I play is a tournament. And as I’m playing a comp series that is not connected to a certain club, I tend to get around pretty much in a radius of a 90 minutes ride by car.
This year is different. I had no season prep at all, played and practiced very irregularly only and as a consequence didn’t play much at all. As a matter of fact the comp I played last Saturday was the first one this year, and I’m pretty sure it will remain my only one of 2020.
What crazy months this have been…!
Anyway, I wanted to at least get in one official score in 2020 which is why I enrolled for a tournament at Golfclub Rheinhessen Hofgut Wissberg St. Johann, pretty mouthful indeed.
I knew the course from two years ago and while I can’t say I remembered the holes, there were passages which indeed came back to mind. Not to puzzle with local knowledge but it was good to at least have a feeling of “I played here before, I know the course, there are no surprises”.
It is a very good course indeed. The turf quality was not very good however, point taken, a result from a very dry summer and a swift change to a pretty cold autumn.
Speaking of cold, boy was that chilly in the morning! I was dressing up in multi-layers but I was cold nonetheless. I warmed up a little on the range, was pretty confident with all shots I practiced and was really positive when I started the round.
After bogey-par-par I was sure this is going to be a cold but good day. Well, what can I say, I shot a 94 in the end and left in frustration. Mid-round I decided to leave my woods in the bag and went for my trusty 2-iron off the tee. That of course wasn’t really playing out to increase my GIR rate. The opposite to be honest.
Long story short, I thoroughly enjoyed the round, just being outdoors, playing my beloved sport, being able to spend some time with people chatting while fighting for a trophy (played with Oliver and Norbert, two chaps which made the round very pleasant indeed). I would have liked to break 90 or even play low but under these circumstances I was fine with the outcome.
One remark on the handicap: With the World Handicap System around the corner, I was curious to understand what all this would have an effect on my personal endeavour to get to single digits. Contrary to what I said here, that I would just sit it out and wait, I couldn’t resist and built myself a neat little Excel spreadsheet with my last 20 tournaments.
Here some scores, there some data, then some calculating, out came the handicap which I will likely be given by 1 Jan 2021: 14.5… Yes, that’s 2.5 higher than I am currently. Quite shocking! I‘m not saying I‘d be worth single digits aready but 14.5… jeez, that‘s definitely the wrong direction this is taking me.
Fingers crossed for you out there to get a better outcome, there is still the chance that this will be the case. I have a feeling that many players will complain in the end though… We’ll see.
Pictures in diashow © gc-rheinhessen.de