Well my journey to greatness hit a little bump in the road yesterday. I had my first poor round in a couple weeks…shot 86 (gave myself a bogey on the last hole because we didn’t finish too dark). Thing is I really did not hit the ball bad but the biggest disappointment was that I allowed myself to mentally get totally taken out of my game. I started out rough on the front nine and with 2 dubs and a trip and quickly found myself 7 over after four holes. I managed not to let that get to me and played the next 5 holes at 1 under to make the turn with a 42, not great but proud of turning it around.
This is where it got ugly. I parred 10 & 11 and then we hit it…a 3 group backup on #12 which is a long 442 par 4. So we joined the twosome that was in front of us and this is where the wheels feel off. I am not going to get into making a bunch of excuses here b/c there are no excuses in my book but I allowed the situation we found ourselves in to totally pull me out of the game mentally. I was walking up to the ball not using my routine and not caring or thinking about shots. I had fallen into the “I rather be anywhere but here” mentality and as such proceeded to go bogey, trip, trip, bogey before I finally smacked myself in the face and woke up. Once I pulled my head out of my butt I went birdie, par, and then picked up on 18 b/c it was dark, cold, and the idiots in front of us where taking there sweet ole time.
I took a couple of penalties on the day but my biggest disappointment was how I let the elements that I could not control pull me out of my game and affect the only element that I can control and that is my mental game. It was a great learning lesson that I learned today and I think just as important as any swing lesson I will ever have…and not one I will soon forget.
The elements you couldn’t control were only part of it. Look at your stats for the day, your short game (and mine) was pretty poor. Your being harder on your mental self than you should, get harder on yourself in regards to your short game by actually practicing it
I hit 12 fairways and 13 greens shooting 85 giving myself a bogey on the last like you. Yeah, there’s definitely mental work to be done on both our parts but atleast 1/2 dozen shots or more given away by poor execution of the short game, especially putting. All that is, is practise. Niether one of us took one practise chip or putt before we teed off. There’s the real lesson.
Most definitely agree 100% and preparation will not be overlooked again either. But as I said in my post I overcame that on the front b/c I was able to focus…I over came the horrible short game at the start and played 1 under for a 7 hole stretch(5-11)and had that under control (remember the up and down sandy on 11. out of a bunker with a downslope green that was running about 11 on the stemp and no green to work with). I feel that I was not able to set aside the distractions on the back and there is no excuse for that. I feel I need to be tougher mentally.
That aside those greens were SILLY yesterday. I love them fast but I have NEVER seen them run like that!!
Do you have any idea just how low of a score I could shoot if I actually hit 13 greens???
You’d owe me $$$ until after New Year’s or something.
Mike, I’ll hold you to the pre round prep but you’ll have to see Doc Cohn for the other stuff
Greg,
Yeah I do, about the same as me if I ever had less than 29 putts per round