Underdog Golf Blog

There’s an old saying, “Practice what you preach”, that I think has finally registered with this wonderful game of golf and myself. One of the things I did this past week was go back through and read all my previous posts and I started to notice that one key factor that I hadn’t mastered was playing one shot at a time.

When I got out on the course this weekend for the first time (real time) in a month, I told myself this would be my main focus. My swing thought was dialed in on paying attention to my balance throughout the swing, but everything else was simply “One shot at a time”.

I can proudly say I did this two rounds in a row and managed to put together my lowest score yet, shooting a 90 on Sunday at Balboa. I for the most part was shooting pars and bogeys but I still had a few holes that were terrible. As soon as I walked off the green on these holes I told myself, “Glad that’s over” and meant it. It was over. There was nothing I could do to change it and I couldn’t let it affect the rest of my round. It seemed to work because I made par the next hole each time.

So my new outlook is just that. 2011 will be the year of One Shot at a Time. Hopefully by keeping this a main focal point I’ll be able to engrain it in my brain and can have it occur naturally. Until then I’m putting it on repeat.

You may have noticed I didn’t post last week and this was due to the fact that I was visiting family on the East Coast for the holidays and between seeing everyone and the whirlwind of traveling I didn’t make time to do so. However, I was able to get out on the course with my brother and uncle and had a great time despite the less than ideal conditions.


I didn’t bring my clubs because I didn’t think we’d be able to play so I had to use what was available. With my brother playing hybrids which I couldn’t hit to save my life and my uncle’s larger grips, I ended up having to use my grandmother’s clubs. My grandmother is also 5’3” and in her mid 80’s. My brother and uncle both loved this because I looked like a circus act out there trying to hunch over to hit these things. Add in the fact that it was 34 degrees out and in my 7 years living in San Diego I have become a sissy to cold weather. However I did still manage to beat my brother which made the round worth every bit of the frustration.