MOST high-handicap golfers have a problem with their swing which they are used to having to work around.

Mine is a slice. For reasons I cannot explain (I'd fix the problem if I knew what it was!) I normally hit the ball slightly, and often dramatically, from left to right.

It's something I've come to accept, but while playing last week, I struck pretty much every shot left of where I was aiming, giving me a problem.

The natural response to this would have been to aim slightly right of where I wanted the ball to go, but the fear of my slice returning with just as little warning made me reticent to such a course of action.

Even when faced with the ball below my feet, normally the cue for a massive slice, I was hitting it left. It wasn't moving in the air, just staying on the incorrect course.

If any professionals can try to explain what the devil was going on, feel free to let me know, though I fully expect to have a totally different problem the next time I dust off the clubs.

Fortunately for me, most of the danger on the course I was playing is down the right, which is probably why I have always struggled there.

I held on through the front nine, though a trip to the water resulted in a nine on the par-five sixth, while it took me three shots to get out of a greenside trap at the eighth.

At the halfway stage, I was pretty happy to have only taken 49 blows, putting me four shots adrift of my brother-in-law, Steve.

The back nine began with a solid par and while I hacked my way to a double-bogey at the 11th, nothing worse than a bogey troubled my card for the remainder of the round as I grew accustomed to my new ball flight.

Steve's lead was down to two heading to the last, a tough long par-three over water. I was forced to take driver and chose that exact moment to hit my first slice of the day, sending the ball into a forest.

I had some good luck, the ball bouncing out of the woods, but I could only make a four and Steve won by two, his 88 beating my 90.

I was pleased with my score, particularly a back nine of 41, but Steve's win gives him a 5-4 lead in our annual battle.

I was 4-0 up at one stage. Bad times.