Focus on THIS shot
 

I played poorly starting off today, but the game came on & I eventually made 3 birdies and a bunch of pars for a decent score. On the last hole I was tired & felt I did not really make an effort on tee. The result was a bad swing causing me to not even being able to bogey that last hole - a short par 5. Later I found out that if I'd made just a bogey I'd lowered hy handicap & felt really proud. Up to that point I had a really good score going. I was just not aware of it. And a bit tired.

As we know Tiger became the first to hold all four professional majors at the same time, the "Tiger slam".

Looked at some of Nicklaus stats. Noticed he feel to Lee Trevino by one shot in the 1972 Open Championship. That after having won all three of the preceeding majors; the 1971 PGA, the 1972 Masters and the 1972 U.S. Open.

In other words ONE shot over a total of 288 played holes robbed Jack of the "Bear slam".

Not that I care a lot about this, even though golf historicians do.

Not to say that that Jack "should have" had one shot less or that Tiger got lucky with one of his.

But to say: This very shot may matter.

Next round I will remember this & execute every shot as if it was my last ever.

Your round isn't over until you make the putt on the 18th hole....

Remember that

There's ALWAYS time to turn it around.

EXAMPLE:

My last six holes went like this:

13= drove the green made birdie
14= par 5, 280 yard drive, hybrid to 2 FEET, tap in eagle
15= drove the green, lipped out eagle, made birdie
16= par
17= carried the ball 260 yards over a creek, made birdie
18= bogie

-4 under for that 6 hole stretch after i was 6 over on the front nine.

ITS NEVER ONLY UNTIL ITS OVER BABY!!!!!!!

Copy And Paste Material
 

Great stuff, Jim! So why isn't this in the Hole-ies And Pole-ies Forum? :D

Unfortunately.....none of the shots hit the pole (polies) and none of them went in on the fly (holie).

Does what i wrote qualify? Do we have greenies for driving greenies?

Posting Rights
 

You bet it qualifies, Jim! Posting rights in the Hole-ies and Pole-ies Forum go to anyone who has a memorable 'out-of-body' experience on the Golf Course.

Re: Focus on THIS shot
 

Eat a little bit of food every 2 or 3 holes or so and drink water all the way round . If you don't your energy and concentration levels will dip . If you get thirsty it is too late . I learned this the hard way in Thailand. My playing partner a retire New York Fireman and former top level 100M runner put me right on this.

Re: Posting Rights
 

Oh ok....misunderstood the forum.

I'll put something in there later. Don't want to rush something while i'm at work.

Re: Focus on THIS shot
 

True. One reason was definetely that I overslept, rushed to the course only had a quick sandwich starting out & actually felt pretty bad the first few holes. Let me just say I am becoming more and more interested in Vickie's section.

How true. However in this case I think it was most of all because for some reason I felt I 'did not care' about the final score during the round, but more about each shot. In the end of the round I felt the lack of food got me.

IMHO. If you rushed to the course, you were already cooked. Preparation for a round is all about slowing down and relaxing. If you race from home to the first tee, you create a perceptual state distortion.

Ever drive for 70 mph for an hour, then get off the highway onto a 25 mph road. Hard to keep it under the speed limit?

Betcha your swing is fast. Even if you aware of it, you have to expend mental energy gearing down, while trying to play.

Any ol' caddie can tell you to loop for the dentist, if it's Wednesday. It's money in the bank. The dentist is off all day. The salesman or businessman rushes his butt off to make calls etc and then head out to the course. :)

"Never do anything as if it is your "last". Because it isn't. Do it as if it is the first of all the rest."
Dr. Aaron T. Beck to a grad student in 1977.

Dr. Beck gets the same treatment from the hotshot sports psychologists, that Homer Kelly gets from golf instructors. They use key parts of his Cognitive Behavior work and he gets zero, zilch, nada credit.

Good one, theodan. That part of my post was indeed rather lousy. Did not really have 'concious thought' when I wrote the last part including "last ever". #-o