Now a lot has been said about my golf in competitions. I've been accused of trying too hard, thinking too much and putting too much pressure on to play well, get a handicap cut and move towards Homers Odyssey of a single figure golfer. I've not really been thinking too much at all lately as the last two rounds have been social rounds with no baggage and lo, I've played well. Today I was determined to go out and do what I'd been doing to good effect and not think about the round in any context. Enjoy the good shots, forget the bad and let the score take care of itself.
A noble vision that lasted one shot. My opening drive was carved right and narrowly missed going out of bounds. However I was forced to play backwards which I failed to do with any aplomb. My third shot, (on a par 3) found the sand and the escape wasn't great. There were low expectations standing over the putt but the putter was as hot as it had been yesterday and I canned an absurd twenty footer to rescue a five.
In truth the round today never really got going. I was trying to just play the shot without thinking too much about implications or score, much as I thought I'd done in the last two rounds. However in truth I wasn't thinking enough, or in particular, paying enough due care and attention and so threw shots away like confetti in the breeze. I missed the third green from 120 yards for a double bogey, and despite then making two pars and an acceptable bogey four at that pesky 6th hole (par 3) I threw another two away at the 7th. I had found the fairway and then hit an out and out rank poor five iron. I basically nobbled it 100 yards along the deck into the rough. The recovery overshot the green and the chip back barely made the putting surface. Two putts later I was writing down another double bogey on the card.
I thought I'd throw another double in on the next. The tee shot found the bunker and it had nestled just inside the back lip of the trap. With one foot outside the bunker and the back edge of the bunker to avoid it was a tough, tough shot. However just for once I pulled of something a bit special and it not only came out perfectly but was only about fifteen feet from the pin. Two putts to salvage a bogey. Three putts later we're recording a five for another double.
If that was bad then the ninth was just messy. I hit a good drive which was a fraction too tight to the fairway bunker and it duly found the sand. Not a problem thought I as I wandered up to play my next shot. If the bunker shot on the last had been tricky with one foot out of the sand this was a doubly difficult problem with a high risk tariff. It had literally just fallen into the sand from the side and I was faced with standing outside the bunker, with a downhill lie. Just get it out you fool I hear you say. The options my friends were limited.
There is a ditch that traverses the fairway and was about thirty yards away going forward towards the hole so anything going forward would need to clear that or be played delicately to avoid rolling in on the fast running fairway. Coming out sideways would need a good shot to get over the edge of the bunker and would still only have one foot in the sand. Problems, problems. In the end I opted, wrongly in hindsight, to give it a go with a 7 iron with the intent of catching it thin so it would come out low and potentially have enough velocity to bounce the ditch. The execution was lacking and I hit it right off the toe. It ran straight right like a scalded cat. I dropped another into the sand, extricated myself to the side with the one leg in escape route and went to look for the original shot. Surprisingly (NOT) it was lost and so a third consecutive double bogey brought to an end a shocking front nine. I had only hit a couple of actual bad shots but had been so lax in my thinking over the ball that I'd frittered shot after shot after shot away. My purple patch had hit the skids.
The tee shot at the 12th had cost me yesterday but today I went on a more direct line opting not to take the dog leg carry on. Perfectly struck I had a perfect lie and a four iron approach. For the first time in ages, well two games, I went into meltdown again. I pulled the 4 iron left into thick rough, hacked out into a bunker and then air mailed the bunker shot through the green. A duffed chip, a half hearted second one and two putts meant a vicious snowman (8) on the card. Not pretty. Golf is a truly ridiculous game. I topped my tee shot on the 187 yard 13th no more than one hundred yards and hit a mediocre shot on to the green. I was at least twenty feet away looking at a sharp right to left breaking putt that was downhill towards the cup and so going to be like greased lightening. To be honest the heart had gone out of my game following the trouble on the last and so inwardly I was resigned to three putting. I hit it well but it was travelling way too fast until it found the hole. Dead centre and dropped straight in, no questions asked for a "routine" par.
I got back on the double bogey train at the next courtesy of yet another duffed thirty yard pitch shot which of all the facets of the game is normally one I don't have an issue with. By now, the medal card was wrecked and interest was waning. It probably reads as though I was having a howler. In fact the actual ball striking for the most part had been good, certainly on the longer shots but it was from close range that the problems were occurring and I was just being so wasteful. Even trying to think more on the back nine hadn't really helped.
By now my brain had switched off. It was like an old Western town just before the final shoot out with the tumbleweed blowing through
However it must have worked as I made a birdie at the par 5 15th hole. I left myself another thirty yard pitch shot but played this one perfectly to within six feet and made the putt. Stupid bloody game. I was forced to lay up at the 16th as I had pushed the drive right and couldn't go for the green. A nine iron from 126 yards went to within four feet for another relatively easy putt and another par. I even hit the green on the long par 3 17th (218 yards) and made another par. Sadly though the round would end as it had started with another double bogey and it all added up to a rather messy nett 79 (+9).
It looks bad and probably reads bad too. I said in my previous post that the "no pictures on a scorecard" saying would come back to bite me on the bottom. People will look at the score on face value and not realise there were some good shots in there. There were far too many bad ones too but overall I wasn't as devastated as perhaps I might have been in recent months.
However it does beg the question what went wrong. Why this screeching halt after a lot of good golf? Well we all know form is fleeting in this game but it does only seem to be in competitive play that I can't perform to anything like my true potential. Where does it go wrong? I tried adopting a more relaxed approach, perhaps too laid back in todays case. Granted there wasn't too much in the way of banter today. The company itself was excellent but both my partners were intent on trying to make their best scores possible and a medal round is never going to have that same devil may care atmosphere as a friendly game with some mates. It's about harnessing the relaxed approach though and trying to play well without thinking about how to do it.
I'm off to give this book a read.
I've obviously got what you might call "competitive baggage" somewhere in my psyche and the ability to produce card destroying shots from nowhere. I need to find a release valve or a trigger to stop this happening. It strikes me that most of the guys that play at my club, and I guess most others, find it easier to accept the bad rounds, enjoy the good ones and play with a certain degree of freedom. Perhaps it's the Odyssey itself causing the problem. Maybe single figures is out of my reach. Certainly with the handicap in full retreat it would appear so. However I don't think it's the case. I know I'm on the right path but what I need are ways of working through the mental side. I'm sure this book will help. I'm a big Rotella fan and have read a couple of his other tomes which made sense and were explained things in a way even a fool like me could understand.
Royal Ascot Golf Club is forced to scale down operations to accommodate the crowds that flock to the Royal Ascot race meeting, a landmark event in the English social calendar, and so there will be no more competitions until June 25th which is the monthly stableford. In between times I've a lesson with my teaching professional, Paul Harrison, and I'm going to be working on triggers and mental exercises on the course to dump this baggage. I'm not quite going into the murky world of sports psychology but thought it might be interesting if nothing else to at least dip a toe in the water. I fear I'm a lost cause. We'll just have to wait and see but for the moment let's see what Dr Bob has to say. Chapter One........
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