After 15 frustrating minutes the answer was that it is extremely hard. I soon discovered that I couldn’t read greens; I have a touch as subtle as the Yorkshire Ripper and seemingly the inability to learn from mistakes, three qualities that are no doubt the envy of every player out there!
As on the field earlier, Terry showed me how it was done before watching me and correcting the problems. With his first putt he stepped up and put the ball a couple of inches from the hole seemingly without trying so I was confident I wouldn’t be too far behind him. I was wrong, very wrong.
It took me a quarter of an hour to even get the ball within chipping distance of the cup. To make matters worse, there were players at the club putting in a bit of practice before teeing off also making it look ridiculously easy. Now this was really winding me up but I stuck to the task and tried to put Terry’s advice into action.Eventually I got into the swing of things and started getting my shots close; close enough to change my average from three putts to two. Then Terry threw a spanner in the works by making me practice on longer finishes that had me back at square one for a short time untilI found my range again.
Before leaving I had a little practice of chipping onto the green from about 20 feet away from the pin. I found that getting it onto the green is quite easy but getting it close is a whole different story. Again Terry gave me instruction and again I got better with each shot until I got tired and couldn’t hit the ball cleanly anymore.
Overall it was a great afternoon of tuition and practice. I had learned so much in four and a half hours and regained my appetite to play. Terry kept repeating that I need to practice to improve, something that I genuinely intend to do.
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