Ian Wood: Avoiding shame the carefree way

LAST week was all too familiar from a golfing point of view – a flicker of form in the middle, with utter rubbish fore and aft. What was acceptable on the Wednesday had become laughable by the Friday. The spring which had been present in the step when the week swung into action vanished as suddenly as it had appeared and progress was a leaden trudge by the weekend. Arnold Palmer once said: "I don't play golf to avoid shame; I play to win championships."

In my own case, championships never having been a factor, I play to avoid shame and frequently wonder why I bother at all.

Taking stock of the week's events, such as they were, I've come to the conclusion that it's time to brush up my positive th...