Let’s Turn This S#!+ Show Around

Recently, I went out on Sunday to play an early morning round at Crosswinds Golf Club. I wanted hit the links before it got too hot and apply my recent lessons and see if I could control my driver. My confidence needle sat toward to lower side of the gauge. The only way to get it to rise was to hit the course and swing for the fences.

Not the Best Start to the Day

When I packed my clubs in the car, I made sure to stick two extra sleeves of golf balls in my bag. I like to keep 12 to 15 balls in my bag. Unbeknownst to me, I would put four of the in danger on the first six holes.

I won’t belabor this post with a play by hole hole by hole but I dug myself a better deep hole with three double bogey and one triple bogey in six holes. To add a kick to the shins, I lost four golf balls in six holes. I started to do the mental math of how man more holes I could play at this rate of bleeding golf balls.

For most of us, that would mark the end of the day in any pursuit of improvement or handicap shrinking. Not me. When I stopped caring about me score and concentrated on each shot in front of me, I started playing better.

What the Hell? How Many Pars was That?

I found myself playing better and harvesting five pars in a row. MY drivers said in bounds which saved me from needless penalty strokes. I will credit my chipping game to saving my bacon. My chips gave me a decent putt that usually stopped at tap in/gimme range of the cup. I also laid up to several longer holes instead of hitting my 4 hybrid, which is in mortal danger of ending up int he garage corner. We all have that corner in the garage.

I also just played the hole itself and not to erase the score of a previous bad hole. My brain will commonly set the goal of a birdie on the next hole to erase a double bogey or see a par five as a possible eagle. If I haven’t scored a birdie all day how am I going to rack up three in a row. Instead, I played for the shot which led to a good shot which led to a good chip and a makable putt. Less pressure and better results.

The net results of the day was an 89 after finding my groove. If I could start out of the blocks that smoothly, I would live in the mythical land of low 80s.