Tomorrow’s the day
People keep asking me if I am nervous or stressed out about tomorrow’s tournament and I can honestly say no. Not at all. Well, about the golfing part at least. I am a bit nervous about waking up on time and getting out there with enough morning left to warm up and shoot pre-tournament video with The Dan Plan videographer as well as potentially an ABC videographer who might be showing up. But, I’m not nervous about the actual playing of golf.
My mind is thinking about it, though. I dreamed that I was in a Scottish golf tournament last night and the holes were all flat, long, and facing directly at each other so you had to dodge balls while making your tee shot. This style of golf could really build some nerves. How it is, though, I rarely have to worry about incoming balls when teeing it up, just have to get in position and let it go. The more I think about it, I believe that my dream’s most obvious interpretation is that I need to ignore distractions while out there tomorrow. Regardless if it’s a videographer on my line or someone teeing the ball directly at me (ok, I might not ignore that one) I need to not lose focus on the task at hand: making solid golf shots.
And, it’s as simple as that. I walked the course yesterday with Chris Smith and we talked about the dos and don’ts of Pumpkin Ridge. I know where to hit the ball and on a few holes where you simply cannot afford to miss; now it’s a matter of focussing on the shots and trusting in the work I have done to date. I did not, however, get a chance to play due to the pouring conditions, so it will basically be a brand new course to me, which is a good test.
Today, I’m going to rest the larger muscles and just do some putting and short course work out at Columbia Edgewater. I felt like my drives were pretty solid over the past two days (hit ten fairways the day after my last blog post, what a difference a day can make!) and instead of tweaking anything I think it’s more important to solidify short course confidence. Will probably get in 3-4 hours then call it a day and rest up for tomorrow.
Speaking of the tournament.. I hope this doesn’t come off like I am asking for money, but wanted to share something that I thought was really cool. A couple of people on Twitter have spontaneously decided to donate to The Dan Plan according to birdies/eagles scored tomorrow. At this point, I think it is somewhere in the neighborhood of $35 total for each birdie and $20 for every eagle. To be blunt, the most birdies I have ever scored in a single round is 2 and I have only shot one eagle in my entire career, so I do not think I will be breaking anyone’s bank, but it is an awesome incentive and added pressure for me over those short birdie putts. Thank you for the support you wonderful Twitter peeps!