Next, we moved to the sand bunker and had a competition to see who was the first to hole a bunker shot. There was no prize this time, and we set a time limit of fifteen minutes until we stopped and moved to a new game. This is a good game because it puts the players in the positive frame of mind associated with trying to hole the shot, rather than maybe being satisfied with just getting the ball on the green and somewhere near the hole. The great Gary Player was quoted as saying that he used to practice bunker shots and wouldn’t finish until he had holed ten of them. That’s dedication! We played for the full fifteen minutes without a shot being holed, but there were several near misses. The quality of the shots improved quite a lot during the game also. Dan was enjoying himself and it wasn’t long before he asked “what other games can we play?”

I decided to move onto pitching for the next game. In my teaching cart I keep 6 traffic cones and a spray can of line paint like what is used to paint lines on sports grounds. After laying the flag on the green with the base touching the end of the cup I marked a few dots around the cup using the flag as a measure. Then I joined the dots with a continuous line to form a rough circle around the hole. The diameter of the circle was two flag lengths, which is approximately 12 feet – a fair sized circle to try to hit pitch shots inside of. Next, I took the six traffic cones and walked back to the flag in the middle of the green. Walking away from the flag and off the green I counted the paces and, starting at twenty yards from the green, placed one cone every ten paces which for me is very close to an exact yard. I also staggered the direction a little to make things interesting.

Played on your own, this game can have many variations; 6-12 balls from each distance, from closest to farthest and vice versa, or random distances. The object is to try to hit each ball inside the circle. My personal choice is to hit 12 balls from each distance so that I don’t have to collect the balls so often! I alternate between mixing the distances one day and starting at the shortest – working back to the furthest the next. Of course, in all these games the pre-shot routine should be used so the player is sticking as close to ‘on-course’ conditions as possible.

Because Dan had improved his pitching so much since he was shown how to do it, I knew he would be very competitive in this contest. I didn’t volunteer any head start points this time! “Do you want a few points head start?” he laughed as we took our positions to begin this competition. Dan’s over-confidence was almost annoying!

“Actually, it will give me great satisfaction to see my star pupil beat me – it will mean I have succeeded in my job!” I replied dryly. We both had a good laugh, but secretly I could tell that ‘the game was on’.

We began with the shortest distance as a warm-up and each played the best of 6 balls inside the circle. After round one the score was 2 shots closer for me. This meant that after 12 hits (6 each) I had 2 balls closer to the hole than Dan’s best effort. Incidentally, there were 9 balls inside the circle, but of course we were at the easiest distance. Each round progressed to the next furthest traffic cone, until we reached the farthest cone at 70 yards. Naturally, at this farthest distance the accuracy dropped off a lot, but both Dan and I still managed to get a few shots inside the circle. I was able to keep my professional image intact, but only just. Dan was only one shot behind at the end of the game! “Well done, Dan; If you improve much more I will become obsolete! I think that’s enough practice for one day. Let’s have lunch.”

We packed up all the gear and headed to the clubhouse, and as we walked Dan said “I really had a good time today. That was one of the most enjoyable sessions I’ve had in ages. I actually can’t wait to get out and do this again. Do you have any games for the full swing and putting?”

“Sure; how many do you want? Your homework for the next lesson is to invent one game for both the putting and the full swing.”