It is five weeks since my major cancer operation and my long road back to playing golf has begun. All this is due to a miracle called the NHS and, in particular, to the Upper Gastro-intestinal team at the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and the brilliance of senior consultant surgeon Mr Geoff Clark and his accompanying angels led by Clinical Nurse Specialist Tracy Parsons.
Sorry if this sounds over-effusive but when you’ve been through such accomplished healing hands you can’t pitch praise too high.
It is matter of extra satisfaction that Mr Clark is a golfer. One hesitates to call a surgeon a hacker but he plays off 20 and is happy to be counted among us.
This reinforces a long-held opinion that however poorly hackers perform on the golf course many of them display their excellence in other, and more important, areas of life. I am not saying that good golfers tend to be thick but there’s plenty of evidence to support that view.
Anyhow, Mr Clark has advised me that one legacy of the long and intricate surgery he performed is that I am unlikely to swing a golf club with my usual wild abandon for several months but that I can practice my putting.
This offers me an opportunity not given to many hackers who are naturally reluctant to spend time honing their game.
I now have ample time to take a slow and deliberate path back to full golfing fitness and on the way I can devote some close attention to areas of the game I may have neglected hitherto.
And what better implement to begin with than the putter. It so happens that putting is the least problematical part of my game — I’ve scored so many before I reach most greens, putting doesn’t matter — but it would be foolhardy not to spend the many hours I have at my disposal working on this important part of the game.
Furthermore, there’s so much happening in the world of putting these days it is worth re-assessing one’s approach to the art. I have a conventional grip and although my Odyssey putter with two white circles behind the blade was a bit racy ten years ago it is now fairly commonplace.
There doesn’t seem to be a conventional grip any longer. It has become subject to a bewildering range of hand arrangements. A study of the top players in the current big tournaments will reveal several new ways of holding the thing.
At the moment , I am fascinated by the placing of the left hand lower down the shaft than the right hand. It seems to give you more control. I shall soon find out.
As for the putters themselves, all sorts of weird shapes now poke out of golf bags and the increasing number of long putters now in use among professionals and amateurs is causing the authorities to look closely at whether they infringe the rules if not the spirit.
Mike, one of my regular partners, has been using a long putter to good effect over the past few months. I’ve asked him if I can borrow it for a few days. He says it may be a bit heavy for me in my present state but I suspect he’s worried I might break it.
But I am determined to try it. If it works I shall throw my weight behind the campaign to keep them. If it doesn’t, they can ban the buggers as far as I’m concerned.
Through the medium of this website, I shall keep you informed of my progress. I am determined that when I do start playing again I will be better prepared, mentally and physically, to resume my crusade to break 100 in a medal. Who knows, my operation could well be the making of me.
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