CONSISTENCY is the thing that sets good and bad golfers apart – and it’s something that I’ve probably never had in my armoury.

Once or twice during a round, most players will hit a shot that a professional would be happy with.

However, few can go an entire round of 18 holes without making a serious mistake and for the vast majority, these card-wrecking errors greatly outnumber impressive shots.

I’ve got a terrible habit of throwing away what should be very good rounds. Several times I have played well on the front nine, only to throw all of my hard work away.

A recent round I played with Gazette news editor Chris Gregory at Test Valley is a case in point.

I got off to a fairly solid start before hitting a brief purple patch. A booming drive left me with a short iron into the sixth green and I hit my approach within 10ft before draining the putt for a birdie.

Another fine drive set up a tap-in par at the seventh, but Chris didn’t have so much fun, slicing his second shot into a bush. We found it, but it was suspended among the branches.

After seven holes, I had taken just 33 blows, but it couldn’t last. I found a bunker at the eighth and looking to take on the green, I found a pond.

The result was an eight, but I made a par at the short ninth to reach the turn in 44, on target for a sub-90 round.

Things continued to go well in the early stages of the back nine, but a three-hole long run of shocking golf put paid to my chances.

I was in a good position after three shots down the par-five 12th, but a shank into the bushes resulted in a nine, while it took me two shots to escape from a bunker at the next, a par-three.

A six there was followed by a horribly erratic eight at the 14th, another par five.

My drive went miles left and while I recovered well, another shank had me back in trouble, with my recovery leaving me badly hampered by a tree.

I managed to recover my composure to finish fairly well, but a back nine of 53 left me nine shots worse off than my first nine.