When it counts

Sometimes it doesn’t actually matter but you psych yourself into thinking it counts and have a blow up round.  For whatever reason, you start to overanalyze your swing and motions and begin to “lose” it while out on the course.  This happened to me yesterday while playing with a couple of friends.  There was, basically, minimal pressure to perform, and whatever pressure there was was purely internal as nothing was on the line.

The round started off on the wrong foot and didn’t seem to ever get grounded.   It was one of those rounds where I hit 3 birdies (par three Mason course out at CECC) and about 3 double bogeys.   Consistency was not my friend this day.

I did learn a good bit from this experience, though.  First and foremost:  if you have a new putt or swing alignment, ALWAYS practice that before heading out on the course.  I had a lesson with Christopher the night before and he realigned my shoulders in my putting because I had been starting slightly off line and I unfortunately did not have time to get this new stance down before heading out on the course.  If you do this, you add uncertainty to your game and there’s not much worse than questioning yourself on a 4 foot putt.  My putting was off and deteriorated throughout the day as I started to get frustrated with it.  As I now know that you need to warm up every part of your game before hitting the links, I also suggest entering a round with confidence in all of your strokes, or at least as much confidence as you can muster, you’re going to need it out there, such a mind game!

I also learned to walk away from a hole with a positive outlook no matter the score.  If you just miss a par putt, don’t tell yourself “bogey” but say:  “I made that putt, it just didn’t happen to fall in.”  It helps!  The next shot is a completely new endeavor and some positive thinking going into it always helps.

And, no matter what’s going on around you, focus on the shot at hand, and only the shot at hand, when it’s your turn to hit.  It’s probably a good thing to get lost in a bit of conversation between shots or to enjoy the scenery, but when it’s your time to go, focus that mind on everything you need to do to get from A to B.

On other news, I got a PSP training club the other day:

It’s called “the little one” and is a tiny-headed 8-iron that limits the club to just a sweet spot, throwing any missed shot off of the toe or hosel.  So far it actually seems easier to hit and am starting to learn to shape the ball with it.  I’m also working a lot of shaping all of my shots, which is good fun.

And, finally, a little glimpse of why I live in Oregon.  Such a beautiful place.  This is part of the drive back from Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course: