1/3 and another tourney down.
6,665 hours remain in The Dan Plan. I officially crossed the 1/3 mark while playing in the Forest Hills amateur tournament today. It has taken two years, five months and eight days of hard work to get here and I am proud of how far along I have come, as well as very aware of the mountain remaining to be climbed over the next 5 years.
It’s a big milestone and I’m not sure exactly what to talk about in a 1/3 blog post, but to start, here is a very quick summation of what has happened to date:
First five months: Began putting from 1 foot away from the hole and slowly worked further from the hole, but only practiced with a putter throughout this entire section of the project. The idea was to learn how to score starting at one foot and continue learning how to score all the way back to the tee box.
Months five through 12: Began chipping on the fringe and moved steadily away with a pitching wedge and loft wedge until I was about 100 yards from the green a year after making my first putt.
Months 12 to 18: Received my first full-swing lesson and then continued progressing away from the hole until I was playing golf with a 3-hybrid from the red tees and ready for a driver lesson.
Months 18 to 24: Swung the driver for the first time mid-November 2011 then got my first full set of clubs and began to play full rounds of golf.
Months 24 to today: Started learning course management and entered my first four tournaments.
That brings us to today’s tournament. This two-day tournament was the fourth one I have entered and was at Forest Hills Golf Course, which is a short track that has interestingly sloped greens as its biggest protection.
The good news? As my Saturday playing partner would have said, rolling in a birdie putt on the 36th hole was “whip cream on dog shit.” It was my only birdie for the entire event that was marred with mis-ques and dropped chances.
Going into the tournament, my mindset was to approach it just like any other round and I was telling myself that “just because it’s a tournament doesn’t mean that it’s different.” This is how I have approached each tourney to date, as I thought that not making a big deal out of it would help my mind establish a pattern of not making it a big deal… I am coming to terms, though, with the fact that tournament golf is not the same as regular golf and know that I need to work on both my approach and learn some on-course cues to guide my mental game through these rounds. The first step to conquering a problem is to admit that there is a problem and I can now appreciate what it means to play in a tournament and work on improving in these types of situations.
About the tourney:
I was paired on Saturday with three people who I have played with on a regular basis, including Eric (AKA Country Club) who I tee it up with at least twice a week. It was a fortunate pairing and I thought it would play to my advantage as far as nerves went. However, on the front nine Saturday morning, for some reason I was the most nervous I have ever felt on a golf course. It was very similar to the first times I ever teed it up in front of people. I stood there above my golf ball with driver in hand and wondered, “how do I hit this thing?” It was a classic case of nerves. My skill-set digressed about three generations and all of a sudden I couldn’t remember what my hands were suppose to feel like in the takeaway. For all those non-golfers out there, this is a death sentence for good play. The goal is to hit the ball naturally, to try and not think about all the different angles and lines of your golf swing when you are actually playing. You don’t want swing thoughts, especially ones as simple as “how far apart do I stand” and “when do I turn my wrists.” It had bad new bears written all over it, but there was nothing I could do, my tee time had been called and it was time to face the music and play with what I brought.
I wasn’t shaking and didn’t have an upset stomach or anything physically nervous going on, I just really wanted to play well and it caused me to play terribly. They are my peers and I respect them as friends and golfers and all three of them are scratch to 2 handicaps and I wanted to keep up for the round. My expectations going in were not overly set (I hoped to shoot around 80), but I wanted more than anything to play well, especially coming off of last week’s CECC tournament where I shot 91-86. I know I’m a better golfer than that and I shoot better scores all the time with these same guys, so for me it seemed like the makings of a great round.
I made my first par on the 12th hole. That’s how bad it was. My front 9 on Saturday was a 49. It started with 3 different ways of bogeying a hole: first hole I pulled it right and it ended up behind a net where I could only punch out then hit the green and two-putted for a bogey. Second hole I landed left of the green and my chip rolled out then two-putted for a bogey. Third hole I sent the iron shot just five yards right of the flag, but because of the slope of the green I had to chip to the center and then two-putted for a bogey. After that it went downhill.. (and when a round that starts bogey, bogey, bogey, goes downhill it’s never pretty) I hit a 200 yard par 3 just left of the green in some thick rough. My goal was to chip it out onto the center of the green to avoid a bunker in between me and the pin, but the club didn’t sink into the grass as I thought it would and I bladed the ball over the green; it took a hop and ran down a huge hill 62 yards away with a giant tree blocking the entire putting green. I had to lay up on my third shot and then chip on with my fourth. Putting was downhill and super fast and it took two to get it in the hole. I was already 6 over after just four holes. During holes 5-8 I managed to bogey them all in different ways and never felt comfortable over the ball or on the green. The ninth hole I finally hit what I thought was a good tee shot, but it bounced hard left down a hill and ended up behind a tree. I punched out but it hit a low root and ended up stymied again, so punched out for a second time then hit the green and two-putted for a double. A 49 on the front. I never found a groove, never felt comfortable and never made a putt from longer than 4 feet. It was just bad, nervous golf.
The back nine started a bit of the same with a bogey on 10 and 11. At this point I began to realize what I was doing. I was trying to hold on to strokes by playing “safe” golf instead of just playing how I play and enjoying the process. I wanted so much to not mess up that I had found 11 ways to mess up a hole. And, this really wasn’t a tough course. It was one that I had never played before and a course where position on the greens is crucial as they can be wicked to putt if you are above the hole, but a course that all-in-all shouldn’t produce large numbers. I decided it was time to move on, start playing golf, and put the morning behind me. I parred 12, 13, and 14, then missed a shortish putt on 15 for a bogey. I tripled 16 due to a club choice error and bad putting. I pulled a 5-iron on an approach that was 224 yards to the water (downhill at the end) thinking it would come up short but it ran into the drink, then dropped and pitched on to the wrong side of the green where I proceeded to 3-putt. After that I got a par on the 210 yard par 3 and then three-putted 18 for a bogey. The back nine came in at a 43. Not good by any means, but I cleaned it up some from the morning 9. Still, it was a 92 on the day and a dismal start to my fourth tournament round. That is the highest I have shot in this type of play.
A lot of people actually walked off of the course mid-way through there rounds on Saturday and the organizer told me this morning that 12 more didn’t show up for their tee times this morning. I think I can understand why, but it doesn’t teach you anything to give up. For me, walking off is not an option as this is a learning experience and the only thing that would have done is established a bad pattern. Golf is a hard game and tournament golf is even harder, but it’s the same course for everybody and you never know when that breakthrough might happen.
The worst part of shooting a 92 was that I knew I would have an early morning round and the course is an hour drive from my house. I enjoy playing early, but leaving the house at 6 a.m. on a Sunday to warm up in the 48 degree weather isn’t exactly my definition of ideal.
Once I got out there today, though, it was a beautiful day and I was happy to have another chance to prove myself on the course. I was paired up with a guy who works at Nike Golf that I had not met before, but he had heard of The Dan Plan, which is cool. From the very beginning of the day I was determined to improve on every aspect of yesterday and began by launching a drive right down the middle. I pitched on to 8 feet but was above the hole and tried to baby it in and the ball ended up 8 feet below the cup. The second putt was missed and in turn set the tone of the day: play well but putt poorly. I didn’t read greens well all day and my pace was either way short or way long. For some reason I just could not find the feel of the greens.
I shot a 41 on the front, which was 8 strokes better than yesterday. It felt good to hit some solid shots but I was putting afraid and it cost me. On the back I felt like I played better than the front, although still shot a 41. I had two doubles, including hitting a ball in the water again on 16 and having a 2 foot bogey putt bump offline on a par 3, and one birdie on the 18th hole that was the whip cream of the 36.
92-82. It took me 15 extra strokes over the first 12 holes to mentally warm up for this tourney. I tried to approach it just like any regular round, as I have all four of the tournaments I have played in, but judging by the last few tournament scores I think it’s time to seek new methods for taking these on. Again, the first step to fixing a problem is to admit that you have a problem. I am ready to admit that I need to work on tournament play. Of the 3,335 hours I have spent practicing golf, 28 of those hours have been playing in tournaments. It will get easier and I will get better, but that will only happen with hard work.
Good thing there are 6,665 hours remaining. :)
What has everyone else done to play consistent in tournaments?