The first day of being unemployed could not have been better. Dropped Krti at school and headed off to the golf course for the first of my three consecutive tournament days.

It was a lovely cold and foggy day with the temperatures hovering around 7C. Gingerly stepping around the office-bound traffic with a chuckle, I hit NH8 heading towards Manesar and my home club. Once I turned off the highway the fog got denser all the way till I made it to the course. The temperature reading outside was a chill 6.5C when I reached Golden Greens Golf Course.

I headed straight to the driving range to hit a bucket of balls in an attempt at getting circulation going and getting warmed up. The first few swings were a huge disappointment. I could not see beyond 40 yards – but I still was only managing to hack the ball within visible range. Uh oh, I thought, this was not the best way to start the rest of my life. A few set-up corrections later and hugely helped by the thought that there would be no calls to distrub me during the day, I started timing the ball sweetly.  The sweet sound of the club making contact with the ball was the only evidence that I had to go by as the visibility was 40-50 yards at best.

Tee-off was at 11:30, so there was time to grab a warm cuppa and some biscuits and then off we went. I played a very relaxed round of golf, brilliant at times and very satisfying. Finished the round at 8-over 80, just under my handicap. The highlights of the round were a monster 360 yard drive on the 500 yard par-5 5th hole and just leaving the eagle putt one roll-short for a birdie.  And a great approach from 110 yards on the 547 yard par-5 9th hole and a nice 13 foot putt for a birdie. There were some forgettable moments too. Like missing a birdie putt on the short 493 yard par-5 11th and ending that with a bogey. And the 2 forgettable double-bogeys that I managed to pick up – just some momentary lapse of reason, I guess.

So, some stuff to go back and work on tomorrow. Keeping more drives on the fairway and getting better contact with the 56 wedge.