Courses

Weekend of Golf

So, my last few rounds (prior to this weekend) were pretty darn good. 76 (+5) last Sunday at Spooky Brook, 36 (E) on Monday at Quail Brook, then a 34 (-1) at Green Knoll on Tuesday from the tips. First time I broke par on 9 holes, here I am thinking I’m figuring this game out. Then Friday, I had a tee time with my wife and father-in-law at a much more difficult, Don Ross design course…and I was put back in my place! 87 (+15) at Echo Lake Country Club.

While everything seemed to be going right the 3 previous ’rounds’, everything seemed to go wrong at Echo Lake. The first couple holes seemed promising actually. Scored a par on the 1st hole, had hit the fairway and GIR. Second hole, fairway…GIR…then…ooops…3 putt. So some doubt creeps into your mind. I’ve been putting on relatively slow municipal greens most of the year, now I have to putt on relatively fast, hilly, lots of break Donald Ross greens…hmmm..can I do this? 35 putts on the day points to no. But a lot of that was probably just mental. This leaked out to the rest of my game, and I hit a lot of poor shots most of the day. It was unfortunate. But hey, it was a beautiful day out, and whenever you get a chance to play golf on a Friday, it’s hard to complain.

We had an early (6:24am) tee time on Sunday at Spooky Brook and I thought I’d get myself back on pace. The day started off quite rushed, late getting out the door in the morning, no breakfast/coffee…get to the course and the starter is telling you you’re on deck. This all leads to a double on the first hole. I find that I have a hard time recovering from situations like that. I hit a few bad shots, the swing doesn’t feel right that day, and I start getting down on myself. I think I must have told myself ‘go home, there’s no point’ at least 10 times on the front nine. My short game came to the rescue quite often, and I managed to save a lot of bogeys, so, not all was lost…really. I never bothered to count up the front nine, as I figured it was a complete bomb. But, but the end of the day, I had par’d the last 4 holes, and hit some pretty nice shots again. The final score turned out to be an 82, which is pretty decent for me. But after having shot a 76 here the week before, you’re always wanting to improve and go lower. Frustrating game, I tell ya!

The people at the Subconscious Training Corporation sent me a copy of Golf Mind, which is geared toward helping out with the mental side of golf. I’ll definitely be checking that out shortly…perhaps it can help with my tendency to get down on myself when things turn south.

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