The easiest way to get better at anything in life is to examine past patterns, whether they be your own or that of history and learn from them. This is why in golf so many players keep track of specific results throughout their rounds.
I myself keep track of fairways hit in regulation (tee shot), greens hit in regulation (with at least two strokes left before par) and total putts. May golfers even go to the extent of keeping track of up and downs, sand saves, distances with each club out of every lie and so forth. I’m still have so much to learn and my swing is still evolving at such a changing rate that I only focus on the first three mentioned.
This weekend I started to notice one pattern in particular, that at first glance seems glaringly obvious, but I hadn’t pinpointed until now. I noticed that all of my worse than bogey holes come after a bad tee shot.
Now there could be a number of reasons behind this and here are a few theories:
1) Bad tee shots put me in a trouble scenario that I may tend to “go for” instead of playing the safe shot. Often times going for it leads to an added 2 or 3 strokes on a hole rather than the most likely 1 playing it safe would add.
2) When I have to hit a provisional second tee shot, I’m not able to put the bad first one behind me and end up hitting a crappy shot trying to “make up” for the first one. Typically if I push the ball right on the first one, I’ll pull it on the second out of fear the second one ends up like the first.
3) I start thinking about the potential bad outcomes a high score on the hole will do to my total round score rather than focus on the next shot at hand.
4) I still suck at golf.
5) A combination of one or more of the above reasons.
So how do I fix this? Practice, practice and more practice. The next question is how. There are two ways to approach and I’ve got to figure out what works best for me as a person and as a golfer. The first is by inducing a pressure situation. This is done by getting myself in the mindset I’m in after I hit a bad tee shot, whether it’s with a consequence should I not overcome it or positive reinforcement if I do.
The next way to approach this and this is the one I feel will work for me the best, is to focus on eliminating that feeling all together. If there is no pressure of the second shot, I won’t be affected. If I’m investing all of my focus and energy on the present moment, on the shot at hand there will be no room for me to feel any pressure from what has happened in what is not the past, or what my happen with my score in the future. And quite honestly it doesn’t matter because there is nothing I can do about it.
Say it with me. THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT. What can I do? Hit this shot well. Let all the hours of practice I’ve put in go to work. Because the shot before this one cannot be changed, and if I’m focused on how my score will turn out in the end, my round is already wasted.
And for those of you wondering what the title of this post has to do with any of this, I actually hit a fence this weekend. But all pride aside I’m glad I did as it kept my ball inbounds. I could have easily gotten mad at the crappy shot or that I hit the fence but I didn’t. I saved that for the next shot when I hit the tree next to the fence on an attempt to punch it under and back into the fairway (see reason number 1 above). But that’s another story for another day…
Happy golfing everyone.
Keep it up, PAT!!!