This year is is very unusual for me – golf-wise. I’m in golf mood all the time, follow the action on the professional tours and would love to play more often but since I moved to London 9 months ago I was barely playing.

That’s a pity, I know. The only two occasions I got on the course were business-related and tournaments with or for customers. Yes we’ve been to quite posh places and yes it was fun but 2 rounds in 9 months… that’s ridiculous.

Yesterday was the third time I was playing a complete round for the mentioned timeframe. I’ve been to Frankfurt from Thursday to Monday and managed to book a spot for a local tournament. Feeling not very trained (which I wasn’t) and not very sure about the weather (at least in London it was horrendous the last weeks) I made my way to the (newly renamed) Idstein Golf & Country Club.

I played here several times before and know the course quite well, so what could go wrong? It didn’t really go wrong. It wasn’t the best round I played, by far, but for playing only the third round this year, no other training at all, I was kind of satisfied. I had nice drives, nice approaches, very few three-putts and we were playing under blue sky with sun all over the place.

The outcome was a second place in my handicap class and a sunburn. Both wasn’t expected because I have to admit I had some lousy shots in between as well. But in the end I managed to earn 39 stableford points and a new handicap of 16.2. It isn’t the world, but hey, you’ll never know what happens later on this year.

Having the bad shots and penalty shots in mind, I’m sure I can reduce my score by at least 6 further strokes when I’m concentrated and at least a bit trained.

What was really on the upside is the bunker play. I can remember at least 5 situations being in the bunker and scrambling the ball back into play – dead at the pin, one putt, hooray. That’s what makes you feel really good and gives you a lot of confidence. It’s not the short putts, nor the drives, it’s good scrambling outcome and beautiful iron shots into the green that create a smile on my face.

Bottom line: new handicap, new confidence, better situation for the future… imagine I had new clubs! What would have been possible! :)