Re: PW one day then PB the next

More years ago than I care to count, I use to golf with a group of guys who I knew could not score as well as myself, but for some reason I was never able to play well while out with them.

Finally I told myself that I was going to just play my own steady game, and let them make the mistakes in their own games. Obviously it was a mind thing for me. From the first tee I fell behind, and stayed behind for 13 or 14 holes. However I was never that far behind them, and the fact that I was always in their collective rear view mirrors was what finally allowed me to break through, and have one them buy dinner at the 19th for a change. In fact I never bought dinner again for the next 3 or 4 years.

Just go out and play the game that you know you are capable playing. You know the strong, and weak points in your own game, and you should take advantage of that knowlege. Just play a steady, with in yourself game. Let your own mental aspect of your game play the shots for you. If you run into problems, don't deviate from that mental aspect of your game. Do not let bad shots change your mind set. After you hit a shot, you are done with it anyway, so make sure you make your next shot your priority. Do not allow a previous shot, good, or bad effect what you want to do on your next shot.

There is a PGA instructor who's name escapes right now, who speaks about letting the analytical part of your mind control the physical part. That's what it is there for anyway.

Sorry for the long winded reply. Hope it helps, and good luck in your finals match. GJS

Re: PW one day then PB the next

Hey Slats...

All other factors being equal, apart from the nature of the round, then, for me, the only other possible difference is "between the ears"...

Unfortunately though, that said, it may not be a concious thing, which makes it that much harder to deal with...

For me, I just try and be as relaxed and as casual as I can be, bearing in mind all the etiquette things that need to be...

During a comp round, I will happily chat about anything but my own golf game and score with my playing partners. Football, cricket, business opportunities, news or whatever else comes up, just so long as it keeps my mind away from the round at hand.

The fun part is turning the golf brain on and off as you need to... I try do that now in turning on the golf brain on arriving at my ball, going through the routine, target, alignment, club selection, etc etc and turning it off again just before pulling the trigger.

All I can say is that this may be working for me in that I have shaved 3 strokes off the cap in the past 3 months or so...

Congrats on the PB 82, if nothing else, that round confirms the fact that now you know you are capable of that number and possibly lower...

Sorry this got so long...

Cheers

Re: PW one day then PB the next

The PW - was it a couple of bad blowouts and everything else pretty tidy, or was it pretty bad across most holes? Presumably also, I guess it wasn't tied to one aspect (your driving seems to have been fine, though I know you mentioned putting recently?) or you'd have mentioned?

This won't help but I kind of had a similar experience yesterday in that I came third in the medal, but with 3 WILD holes - a 9, and 2 8's. Embarassingly, the 9 was on the first hole, where I sent a wild huge drive OB left, and the provisional in a similar direction but wedged against the wall. I found 7 out of 12 FW - really bad for me - and the driving was just all over the place.

When I returned after work to play another 9, if anything, things were work, and I could not stay away from the left hand side of the fairway.

In desperation, and with light fading, I thought - you know what? In all these, and improvements I've been trying to make recently (keep width, keep v's tight in hands, keep flex in right leg, Hogan's don't be afriad to hit it hard, drive down swing with hips first, etc), I've lost the two things that actually made biggest difference in the first place.

1) RHD (thanks to Greg)
2) Swing easy (thanks to Scragger)

I played the 1st 4 again, and there it was - straight back again to how it should be. It was like the whole windows "Return to last known good version" boot option. +1 over for the 1st four, and I returned home feeling positive again.

Any simple- and I think they have to be - or failsafe swing thoughts you've used in the past you can return to?

Re: PW one day then PB the next

Thanks for the replies guys
with hindsight maybe i am trying to relax too much when playing in the comps and not paying enough attention to my presot routine.
i think i carried it out when i was on the tee box hence 12/13 FIR'S but it sort of went a bit 'pete tong' after that.
so i'll enter the comp and try and apply the same amount of focus i do when im playing/practising alone
like scraggs said ive got the game to shoot low scores so i just have to apply myself correctly

cheers guys

Re: PW one day then PB the next

Hi Slats,

I know what you are going through. It is tough and I'm not sure that I have the answer but I think having a pre-shot routine ( i mean a real pre-shot routine that you have worked on in practice) and really sticking to it may be the key. In the past I thought the pre-shot routine thing was a little overrated but I am beginning to see the benefit of it. Often when I'm playing with people that I'm not familiar with I start to think about 'what they are thinking about me' - am I being too slow? does he think he's some kind of pro going through that pre-shot routine etc. - and this takes my focus off what I'm trying too achieve and results in tension.

In my last few rounds I've shot a 38, 40 and 41 on the front nine and then had complete disasters on the back nine (48, 50, 50). Also I've being striking the ball better than I ever have in the range but cannot consistently transfer to the course.

I think the key here is focus and concentration but without the tension (the tension being alleviated by not think about the situation you are in i.e. the comp you are playing in, the shot you 'have to make' or the 'c**p' shot you have probably just hit)

The thought should be - you know you can do it, so simply step up and do it!

I think scragger has a really good point - switching the golf brain on and off is probably a good way of approaching it.

I know it's easy to say what you should do but it's really hard to transfer this into your game - I still struggle to do it but i think if I keep working on it I'm sure in time it will happen.

In the meantime, congrats on the 82 and stick with it - you know you can do it, it's simply finding the right thoughts/actions that will help you to repeat it - I'm still looking !

Re: PW one day then PB the next

I'm reading a book which suggests a technique akin to photographic focusing.

Your pre shot routine is in close up and the rest in normal or even wide angle.

So as part of your psr you visualise the way a camera zooms in, to mix metaphors you are entering your cocoon. Once you've played the shot the camera zooms back taking in the whole course, surroundings and fellow players and leaving that shot behind.

Just another way of playing a shot at a time I suppose but I rarely manage that so I think I'll give it a try.

Re: PW one day then PB the next

Hi Slats, I may have said this before, if so apologies and ignore it.

Maybe, just maybe you are attempting too may shots in comps that have a high risk to them. try and play the course to your own personal par and not the courses par.

To play or break 90 you need to average 5 shots a hole or a bit less, it does not sound too bad like that. Consider every hole as one more than the course par, play a par 5 as a six for example, give yourself four fairway shots and plan them out, as long as you can two putt you will be there. Par 4's as fives, if you get 5 you have pared it, 4 a birdy etc.

Don't make a bad shot into three. Never attempt a risky recovery shot, get the ball back on the fairway in the safest way possible.

If you have a 420 par three that is tight then hit a 5 wood or what ever gets the ball on the short stuff, you will have two more shots to hit GIR.

I know this way of thinking always helps me, my blow ups are generally when I forget these things.

Re: PW one day then PB the next

I'm just entering the realm of discovery when it comes to the mental end of this game. My swing is fine enough to score, so I don't blame it anymore. I'm educating myself about the mental side of the game.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to settle the nerves - I'll know why I'm nervous and tense, but can't work past or dissipate it. You say you played up a set of tees. I know for me that 6500 yards is right at the limits of my comfort zone. It puts 1W in my hand more than I want, and anything longer just destroys me mentally. I'm still not confident with 1W, so it rattles me - even when I've hit it well on a few holes. As well, the better I hit it, the more the pressure of 'the other shoe dropping' gets to me. My course is only 6000 and change, and I only hit driver twice 'by force' - in other words, there's no real trouble (read: penalty) for hitting 1W and spraying it a little. However, you do have to poke it out there 180 or 200 yards to find the fairway (the hole is 416). So needless to say, my 'comfort zone' is hitting irons off the tee. Once I move to 6500 yards, it's more fairway woods and 1W off the tee, which puts the pressure on me.

Perhaps when you play casual rounds, you should push back to the medal tees, to get comforatble from there.

The point I'm trying to make is

Re: PW one day then PB the next

There's one other thing I'd like to add to this - play against your handicap, not par. By that, I mean don't get too ambitious on every hole. SS hole ratings are set for a reason so, if you're a 22 handicapper, you're really not expected to shoot par on the toughest hole(s) most of the time.

To take my own example; the hardest hole on the course is a long par 4 (456 yds) with pretty bad rough and some trees on each side of the fairway. Sitting in the middle of the fairway some 320 yds from the tee is another large tree (I hate holes with trees in the middle of the fairway - my course has 2!). Final point is, it has a hideously undulating green waiting for you at the end.

Now, typically, I set out to launch a big drive on that hole. As a result, I miss the fairway a good number of times. Given the rough, that typically rules out reaching the green in 2. I'm then in a position of now scoring 5 or worse. Basically, the more aggressive I play, the higher my score is likely to be. So, since I get a shot on that hole, why not convert it from a difficult par 4 to an easy par 5? Seems to make sense, especially in a competitive situation. By playing more conservatively, I can easily reach the green in 3 shots and may even hole a putt for par, 5 at worst.

Re: PW one day then PB the next

Yes, that was exactly my point as well.

Re: PW one day then PB the next

I have the same problem when i play with a few of my friends who I know can't even sniff my scores when I'm playing even just close to what i know I can do. For some reason I always seem to shoot poorly when playing against them and will be down till about 14 or 15 then win like 3 holes in a row and end up with a tie. I've recently though if I just go play my own game and forget about the competition there's no way that even on the best day of his life he can touch me. It's just a mental thing and basically all i do whenever i play now is go for even par. I figure if even par is good enough to make 3.2 million dollars on tour then it's good enough for me.

A pro up at my work told me that if you play for par birdies will come, but if you play for birdie that's when you make your bogies. And in the last round i played where i shot under par all i tried to do was make pars and it worked out great for me.

Again like anything else in golf its all in the 6 inch spot between your ears.