Course Management

As some may know, I'm in the middle of a swing rebuild and yesterday was the first competition of the season, so entered just to see how things were progressing. I went into it very confident as I have been playing well under my handicap for a few weeks. I was playing with a Cat 1 player and a cat 2 player both of whom hit it a mile, and having the extra 600 yards from the back tees was going to add pressure. I was 13 points after the first 5 holes and playing reasonable golf, when stood on the 6th tee which is an extra 60 yards off the back tee and over a lake, which makes this all uphill par 4 a par 5 for me and it was into a head wind. So why did I try and thrash my drive when I only needed to play it as par 5 as I get a shot on it anyway. I hit my drive wildy over trees onto the next fairway, followed by 2 attempts to get back into play. Nightmare time and my first blob of the day. 7th just needed the ball hitting into a wide fairway, but managed to put it into a plantation, and stupidly thought I could not only get out of the crap, but reach the green with a 6-iron!!. Yes I managed to put myself further in the jungle and finished up blobbing again. The Cat 1 player took me to one side and tried to make me calm down and said you've been playing great, don't try to be Sevvy, use your nut. The 8th was another 3 points thanks to this chat. The 9th saw me hit a great drive followed by a fantastic 3-wood to this long par 5, but the shot took a wicked kick and finished up against the face of a fairway bunker. All 3 of us looked at where the ball had finished and just laughed, because it didn't seem fair. It took me 2 to get out and then I hit an 8-iron to 6-foot and managed to walk off with another point, making 17-points for the front 9 but 2 stupid blobs because of bad course management.

Even though I played some great shots on the back 9, even nearly getting my first ace on the 200 yard par 3 13th, I only managed another 11 points in the round. I was gutted knowing that there would be no cut yet again, and both my partners after told me a few home truths. 'We all get some tough breaks at times, but its how you deal with them that makes the difference'. I had a card full of blobs due to letting pressure get to me and i played some silly shots when I should have accepted the punishment and gone backwards or sideways. I should have walked off that course with no blobs and even accepting that some bad luck, a few putts that horse shoed should have scored at least 38 points, and on another day would have had over 40.

So the morall of this tale is; even if you think you use your nut, have a think about what your doing, because I thought I always used good course management. UNLESS I'm playing in a comp with cat 1 players and then i try and play like them

The trick is Doc, to learn from the experience and be wiser for it next time. (Says he who continues to hit it in the jungle as much as anybody!)

This is always a game of coulda, woulda, shoulda. All too easy to look back in hindsight and say if only. The thing is I think we recognize bad decisions in others but when faced with the same decision we fall into the trap of doing the same thing. I think there is the mindset of always going towards the flag as you always want to advance it towards the hole.

This year I'm going to think hard about my decisions and try to take the least impactful option and make sure bogey is the worst outcome. Of course this isn't always possible if you're three of the tee but hey you never know a second ball birdie could happen.