Stuff between my ears turning to mud.

[dannyra]

I end up blowing every great round somewhere.

Saturday, I'm out on the course. Sitting 1 over after 4 holes and I end up shooting a 52 on a par 36. This **** happens more than it should.

I parred the first 2 holes. Put my second shot in a lateral hazard on the 3rd hole and saved bogey. Parred the 4th hole (screwed up a makeable birdie putt). Then it hits me. I've never been this close to par after this many holes. Bam! 11 on hole 5. 1 out of bounds duffed pitch, 3 putt it all went wrong. Same thing on hole 6 triple bogey. I think I shot around double bogey from there on out.

Last year I was going into 8 and 9. All I had to do was bogey-double bogey to beat my best score. I ended up going 9 over the last 2 holes.

I really don't feel pressure when I blow up. I think I get 2 excited.
On my round from last year I just came off a birdie on 7 when it all went to ****.

League starts in 10 days so I hope the competition will help me get through this as I hate to lose more than anything.

[GregJWillis]

Re: Stuff between my ears turning to mud.

Get Bob Rotella's "Play to Play Great". This will dig your brain out a nice big hole where you get to look inside (be sure to use a mirror). What you will find out is that a lot of all the stuff you talked about is in there ready to be s****ed out.

It takes a little time, but worth every ounce of your time to think differently on the course. One of the theories it that you subconsciencly sabatoge yourself. You have not accepted that you are capable of the score you have on the 4th hole. So your inner thoughts turn to negative ones. You more then likely do not know it is happening unless you are looking (or listining for it). You counter it by telling yourself that you actually are this good of a player, and what you end up shooting is your expectations. It really is that simple. What is hard, is pushing out all the years of bad thoughts, and replacing them with good ones. The subconscience always goes to the more recent thoughts you gave it in whatever similar situation you were in. So, if you have been bombarding your thoughts after a bad round or hole or even a shot that you stink, or will always be a high handicaper, then that is what your subscience will hear and remember.

It's a great easy read that will sing to you and get you a good frame of references in which to put your brain thinking around the course.

[bonzi_532]

Re: Stuff between my ears turning to mud.

I used to be this way too. I would get exited about the first couple holes of a would be good round and i blow it. Now i just get into the flow of the game and keep whakin away!!

[dannyra]

Re: Stuff between my ears turning to mud.

Just got back from golfing 9 on my lunch hour (err. hour and half). Anyway I kept it together the whole round. Missed some makeable birdie puts but shot a 42 on a par 36. Which is my best score. Hit 3 iron off the tee on some of the shorter par 4's which probably saved me at least 3 strokes.

I played an additional 3 since nobody was on the course and was 3 over after 3 so I'm with that as well.

[bonzi_532]

Re: Stuff between my ears turning to mud.

Thats good..... just keep your mind in it all of the time. Play shot by shot. Today i was spraying everywhere but i stayed in and kept my irons consistent, shot a 42 so i was decently happy considering i hit 1 fway

[Ian Hancock]

Re: Stuff between my ears turning to mud.

Hi Danny,

This is something I've put a lot of effort into over the last year or so, what it comes down to is barriers.

From your second thread you have put yourself in the same position and played throught it in your "lunch Hour", No doubt you have worked enough on your swing this winter and now you find yourself in strange waters..................Quote "Your swing is now better than your previous scores" this means you are hitting the ball better as most of us should do year on year as we practice more, what shocks you is when your on the course you suddenly find yourself scoring better.

This is a barrier like breaking 80 etc, all you can do is keep putting yourself in a position to better your best once you achieve it a few times you "WILL" move on to the next barrier.


Remember this on the course " your only under pressure because your playing well"


Hope this helps


Ian.

[dannyra]

Re: Stuff between my ears turning to mud.

I wish I could say I put a lot of effort into my swing this winter, but I can't. We kept getting nice days during the week and **** during the weekends.
Now I'm trying to get out there every chance I can for at least 6 more days as I need to post 5 more rounds to have a handicap for league. Unfortunately we've gotten snow twice in the last week.

I think the biggest contributions to my improvement this year is a better grip. I have a broken club in my basement I practice my grip with about 20 times a night now. Last year I was to much in the palm of my hand and then when I tried fixing it, I was to much in the fingers. Now I have it properly where the grip mainly lies in the crease of my fingers and the top of the shaft is just slightly more in the palm than that. The other things that contribute is getting used to how far I hit these TaylorMade LT's. I flew the green into trouble a lot at the end of last year. Lastly, staying out of trouble. I started teeing off with my 3 iron a lot more and that probably saved me at least 4-6 shots in penalties.

[gord962]

Re: Stuff between my ears turning to mud.

Course management and club distances are very important, probably the most important. Off the tee, play to distances you are comfortable hitting a second shot from. For example, let's say the hole is a par 4, 350 yards and you hit driver 275 yards. If your shortest club goes 100 yards, now you don't have afull shot into the green, but are still looking at a 75 yards into the green. I would much rather club down off the tee on shorter par 4s and leave myself a full shot for my second shot - this is course management. But without knowing your distances for each club, you would never know your driver off the tee would put you past full shot range and then you may or may not know a full shot from 75 yards with a SW is to much.

[dannyra]

Re: Stuff between my ears turning to mud.

The course I play isn't extremely long, but it's a little above average I think.

I used to take driver off and most of the holes I'd have a full sandwedge into, about 110 yards. I've decided to stay in the short grass more with the 3 iron and now I'm hitting pw, or 9 iron which I'm completely happy with.

I'm just using the driver on the par 5 holes and if the par 4 is over 440 yards.

Plus the 3 iron keeps me from blowing the drive through the corners of the numerous dog-legs we have.

I think the toughest part of this is just swallowing your pride, and playing smart. When you know that you can blow your drive past your playing partners.

[gord962]

Re: Stuff between my ears turning to mud.

I play the same way. I will only hit driver on holes longer than 430 yards. That way, I have a full shot into every green and I hit WAY more fairways.

The course one of my playing partners works at (and he brings us out there quite a bit) is under 6,000 yards. Most par 4s are 260 - 280 yards, and are all driveable, but I play to the 125 - 150 mark so I can work on full approaches into the greens instead of worrying about driving the green every hole. The rest have finally started to follow my lead because my ball is always in the middle of the fairway and not in a bunker or a hazzard, trees, or a 60 yard 1/2 shot into the green.