good news guys! second tournament this year and finally a sense of achievement, partially at least. real good news is that i won the idstein season opening tournament in my handicap class at idstein golf club. i shot a 86 (+14) and gained not less than 45 stableford points (44 with CSA). in my case that’s leading to a new handicap of -16.6.

that’s put me on the top of the leaderboard in my handicap class and 10th in the overall (male) ranking. i think that’s not too shabby and i’m quite proud of myself to make such good improvements such early this year. my self-defined “project18” (reaching a handicap below 18 in the course of 2011) is hereby fully concluded. which is great but i now have to find another challenging one. “break80” (scoring a 72par course with less than 80 strokes) seems be the next logical one. i had that target in mind already, but only for next year. so we’ll see what’s possible.

the reason why i’m so positive is because i didn’t touch a wood or hybrid at all in the mentioned tournament yesterday!! i just played with my irons and used my 4-iron as a driving club. still, i was able shoot the ball a bit further than my group mates with their drivers! so when i’ll begin to constantly hit the ball straight and far with my driver, woods and hybrids, i think the score could drop some bit more. nevertheless it was quite a good day and i shot some real nice tee shots. the greens however were in terrible condition and i think i lost 3 or 4 stokes through this.

anyway, i’m proud to have my handicap lowered a bit and i’m pretty confident that this year could be my year! the weather was brilliant (up to 28°C), my group mates were fun and all the people in the club, including guests, seemed to be really nice people. i like the course, the training facilities, the sun terrace, the people out there… i really should consider a membership! :)

i think i well deserved the BBQ afterwards with some friends in frankfurt! great day!!