The scorecard said 27 Stableford points. But the round itself told a much more interesting story. At 48 years old, balancing a full-on career, family life, and leadership responsibilities — the margins matter.
This week brought together two important pieces of groundwork. Earlier in the week I spent two hours on TrackMan running proper performance testing — approach play, tee shots, pressure situations, simulator golf. The conclusion was clear: my game is not miles away. The difference between decent scoring and poor scoring comes from volatility, not lack of ability.
Then I attended a brilliant session with Jamie Edwards from Trained Brain. One of the things Jamie talked about was rhythm, commitment, and trusting movement rather than forcing outcomes. It resonated massively — because it directly reflected what I'd been seeing in my own game.
This weekend's round became the perfect example of both.
// Today's round
Stableford score
27
What the card says
Driving
Strong ↑
Smooth. Full swing. Not a hit.
Damage source
Escalation
Not bad swings — bad recovery decisions
The Driver Was the Surprise
The first thing I realised walking off the course: I actually drove the ball really well. Over and over I found myself saying the same things.
// Driving feel all day
⚠ When I tried to hit it
Tension appeared. Ball flight suffered. Rhythm disappeared.
✓ When I trusted the motion
Full swing. Smooth. The golf looked good. Every time.
In business, leadership, and life — forcing outcomes often creates more problems than it solves. Rhythm, trust, and commitment usually outperform tension and over-control.
Where the Damage Actually Came From
The most revealing part wasn't the driving. It was the scoring. The round contained moments most golfers will recognise.
// The damage this round
- A shank from 65 yards
- A bunker hole that turned into a triple bogey
- A couple of awkward recovery situations
- Some poor lies compounding bad decisions
- A handful of costly short-game moments
But here's the important part: most of the damage did not come from terrible golf swings. It came from escalation.
One poor situation becoming two poor shots. One mistake creating tension. Trying to recover everything immediately. That is something every golfer recognises — but it is also something every leader experiences.
Interestingly, the back nine felt completely different. I became calmer. More accepting. More committed to simpler decisions. And the golf improved.
The Chipping Breakthrough
One of the biggest moments of the day came with chipping. The feel that worked was simple — and immediately repeatable.
// The feel that worked
"Chest back,
chest through."
The good chips all came when I stopped manipulating the club with my hands and simply allowed the body to control the motion. Move the chest. Rotate through the strike. Finish facing the target.
When we overcomplicate things, performance deteriorates. When we become too mechanical, too tense, too outcome obsessed — quality suffers. Simple often scales.
Bad Score ≠ Bad Golf
What TrackMan showed earlier in the week, and what today's round reinforced, is that my game is actually closer than the scorecard sometimes suggests. Performance analysis changes your perspective. It helps you separate two very different things.
Bad score
27 pts
What the card shows. Often a result of escalation, not execution.
Bad golf
Rarely
Driving was strong. Feel was good. Patterns were there.
The difference between 27 points and mid-30s was not a complete rebuild. It was targeted and trainable.
// What would have changed the score
At times this year I've probably judged my golf too emotionally based on score alone. But the work earlier this week gave me a framework to separate the signal from the noise.
// Final thought
The pars felt repeatable.
The doubles mostly felt avoidable.
And that might be the most important lesson of all.