Competing

"Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course, the space between your ears." - Bobby Jones

Without fail, in almost every event I have played as a professional, my best scores have come during practice rounds. I am not talking about the kind of practice round where you may hit several shots on a particular hole and pick the best one - I'm talking about starting out on number one and putting out on number 18 - as if it were a "real" tournament round. Don't misunderstand me here, I'm not saying that I only played one ball from start to finish and then added up the score. Being that it was a practice round, I would often hit a couple of different clubs off the tees, hit some practice chips and pitches and bunker shots. If we were playing on bermuda and we would get a lot of "bird's nest" lies in the rough, well, of course I would practice a bunch of those types of shots during the round - but I always made certain to play one ball from start to finish just to see how I could score... perhaps hitting all of those other shots helps to explain why my practice rounds were better than the one's that mattered... perhaps.

Formula Number 1: Try to play the practice rounds as if they were the most important rounds of your life - in other words, try your very best to emulate actual tournament conditions. No re-hits, USE YOUR NORMAL ROUTINES ON EVERY SHOT - this means absolutely adhering to your pre-shot routine RELIGIOUSLY (we should always do this anyhow, even when hitting practice shots at the range)... when putting, accept and understand that even though it is a practice round and the two-and-a-half footer you are facing for par, or birdie or bogey WILL PROBABLY BE MADE - convince yourself that you are under the gun - you might need this putt to make a cut or to get into the money or to keep a nice run of holes going - so you've got to go through all of your normal tournament round routines - it is very difficult to do - to FOOL yourself into believeing that a two-foot putt in a practice round is every bit as important as a two-foot putt to get your Tour card.

I think the type of person you are and how you approach things, determines whether or not you fall under 'formula number 1' or 'formula number 2' (which we will cover shortly). I have attended many professional tournaments (both for practice rounds and for the tournament rounds proper). Though not based on any qualititative/quantitive scientific research WHAT SO EVER - it seemed to me that that the players who were generally more focused and serious in their personalitie's and their approach to the game, were the ones who used formula number one. I watched Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player (and a whole host of 'similarly wired' golfers) play their practice rounds. Had I not known for sure that it was Tuesday or Wednesday, instead of Sunday, I would almost swear that their practice rounds MEANT EVERYTHING TO THEM (maybe it is the fact that even these great champions, with a zillion wins and a zillion dollars between them, played as if their little five or ten dollar nassau was almost as important as the tournament itself - SERIOUS, PROUD - DEDICATED TO WINNING AND HAVING THE BRAGGING RIGHTS FOR THAT PARTICULAR DAY... the stuff that true champions are made of - "winning is not everything, it is the only thing". In a nutshell, a formula number one practice round player PLAYS EXACTLY THE SAME WAY AND WITH THE SAME WINNING DESIRE AS IF IT WERE THE FINAL 18 HOLES OF THE TOURNAMENT... very difficult to do for most people.

Formual Numer 2: A lot of players have a totally different attitude when playing a practice round... score is the last thing on their mind. They are concerned with getting a good feel for the course (truth be told, this is almost always the way to go ESPECIALLY if they have no local knowledge about this particular course). How often should I hit driver? Are the greens consistent in their speed - they will hit putts from every area of the green. They will hit shots from almost every greenside bunker. By the end of their practice round (or rounds), they will know which holes are most likely to present a green light opportunity to go for birdie and they will totally understand when, where and under what types of conditions/situations they should exercise a more cautious approach. These players take a lot of notes, draw little pictures of the greens and fairways and harazds and will generally understand a new course almost as well as the casual player who may have been playing the course for years.

I think that individual success, in any area of endeavor, comes with a complete sense of self-awareness... knowing who we are, what makes us tick and being totally in tune with our "inner being". Now, if our inner being is not what we want it to be - if we are often full of self-doubt, if we dislike something about ourselves, if we are "not happy with who we are on the inside", well... steps must be taken before we can ever achieve what we are truly capable of - on the golf course or in our lives. As funny as it may sound, we will never be our best if we do not "love ourselves", and I'm not talking about looking in the mirror and wanting to kiss ourselves - I'm talking about having a sense of ourselves that says we are a good person, we always do the best we can do - we win with humility and we lose with grace and dignity.

2. have total belief in yourself that you are a good person and you deserve to be successful - and success will come that much more easily. Physical and mental - the two biggies! I think there is a direct correlation between our scores and the amount of effort that should be put forth in our physical games and our mental games. If you are nowhere near breaking 120 or 110 or 100, well, you obviously have some purely mechanical things to master that will help get your shots airborne and headed in the right direction. On the other hand, if you consistently shoot "expert" scores (under 80 but closer to 70 and below) and you just can't break through to the next level, chances are your mental game is "stuck in the mud" (or your short game needs a lot of work) and you need to totally reassess your "inner you".

You have probably been programmed (without actually realizing it) to "accept results that fall into your comfort zone" (this can also apply to the person trying to break 100 for the first time). Has this ever happened to you (it's happened to me hundreds of times)? In my case, 95% of my scores fall between 70 and 78. I'm playing a round of golf with my buddies and things are not going well (usually, because of being lazy "mentally", or of being "uninspired" - make a note, please... if the mere privilege of being able to play this game does not inspire you, you may want to consider another sport). I stupidly 3-putt the first two holes for bogey. On number 5, I totally flub a 90 yard sand wedge to a par four and come up 20 yards short of the green. It festers in my mind now because I know it is a shot I've worked on tirelessly and have hit beautifully thousands of times. The great birdie chance THAT I ALREADY CHALKED UP IN MY MIND is now gone and instead of "letting go" of the negative and focusing on my little pitch shot, my brain and my muscles forget all that they know and I make some sort of half-hearted flip at the ball and skull it to the back of the green. Instead of the birdie I expected and getting back to just one over par, I instead, three-putt from the back fringe and find myself four over after five holes... PRIDE-PANIC sets in and I settle into a state of denial, saying that this can't be happening to me - I am much better than this (which, ironic as it may sound, seems to settle me down). It normally takes until the eleventh or twelfth hole to find the real me once again. I manage to play the last 5 holes in 2 under and turn what looked like a sure mid-80's score into another so-so 78.

I somehow got back to 'near' my comfort zone (the point I am making here is that we all have a certain comfort zone and if we continue to be satisfied because "at least we got back to our comfort zone", well, we will never break out of that comfort zone - and we should always be striving to lower the numeric boundaries of our own particular comfort zones - I would love for my comfort zone to be between 65 and 72... if I'm on my way to what might be a 65, I SHOULD start feeling a little out of ease - new territory - it is only human nature - but we must convince ourselves we can break through... similarly, if I am on my way to another ho-hum 71 or 72, well, I can't get angry BUT I should be aware that I am getting close to leaving my own personal comfort zone - in the wrong direction).

Similarly, there could be a scenario where a young golfer, who has been working extremely hard to get that first sub-90 score, falls prey to the "comfort zone" enigma. Without thinking about it, he plays the front nine in 39 strokes - his best 9-hole score to date. If he is really lucky (and focused), he won't think about what he has just accomplished (and, hopefully, his playing companions, if they are true friends, will not make a big deal about it and will, in fact, go out of their way to not even bring it up). But a player usually knows (especially one who is too SCORE-CONSCIOUS - something every golfer at every level must fight against - PLAY EACH HOLE LIKE IT WILL BE THE LAST HOLE YOU WILL EVER PLAY AND WHEN ONE HOLE IS FINISHED, MOVE ONTO THE NEXT, TOTALLY FOCUSED ON WHAT SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS THIS NEXT HOLE DEMANDS...) forget the past, don't look into the future past the next shot and start the process all over again on every new tee. Why do you think so many great pros who come in and post a 61 or 62 say something like... "I had no idea - I knew I was hitting my shots pretty well and making some putts but I had no idea what my actual score was"... that is "being in the zone" my friends and each and every one of us has a zone level that we are capable of - that will yield better results than we may have ever had prior - IF WE JUST LET IT HAPPEN.

Back to our 90+ shooter. He faced a critical shot on the 13th hole. He managed 2 pars and a bogey on 10, 11 and 12 - he is 5 over after 12 holes and needs only play the last 6 holes IN DOUBLE BOGIES and he will shoot 89 - a milestone for him. Now number 13 just happens to be the most difficult par-4 on the course and, almost unfortunately for our friend, he hits probably his best drive of the day. Now he has played this hole a hundred times before... it is 440 yards long and the second shot plays uphill and there is a fairly large pond on the right side that sits between him and the hole. Never mind that this player has NEVER hit this green in two shots. He has hit a career drive and has just under 200 yards to cover the pin that is nestled on the right half of the green. If this golfer would allow his "inner caddie" to step in and guide him, he might just say something like... "look, you've made a whole bunch of pars on this hole by pitching a shot up the safe, left side of the green - you leave yourself an easy chip shot that you can quite possibly get close and if you are lucky enough to one-putt for par... you can allow yourself a well-deserved pat on the back and can confidently call yourself a golfer". Well, old Mr. Ego sets in and our doomed 90-shooter says to himself something like... "I can easily hit my 5-wood 200 yards (and he can - OCCASIONALLY - on the driving range where he sets the ball up perfectly and then makes a one out of ten good swing and the ball flies on a nice straight arc, hits and rolls about 15 yards in order to reach the two-hundred yard marker).

His go at this pin, uphill 200 yards, with a slight breeze in his face that he didn't even notice... well, the rest is an all too recurring theme. Amazingly, our friend carries the water but his ball hits the slope a few yards short of the green and slowly snakes it's way down the hill and hits the water with that sickening "kerplunk" sound. Instead of settling down, our friend is now red in the face, angry as hell for not taking the prudent route and just wants to get the hole over with as quickly as possible. Two more Titleists in the pond and a desperate attempt at "not hitting a third fat shot into the hazard", our beleaguered friend half skulls the shot over the hill and over the green. The resulting '12' that he takes on the hole dooms our friend to another score over 90.

The following type of golfer never ceases to amaze me - and I've played with MANY such players, even in tournaments where all that really matters is the final score (the spiritual golfer inside of me will never allow the "final score" to be all that matters - unfortunately, when you are trying to "play for a living", final score is what will determine whether or not you are "successful"). This fellow can sometimes outright BOMB the ball. He loves letting you know that on that last 200 yard par-3, he hit a 7-iron (while you hit your 3-hybrid). It doesn't matter that you hit the green and barely missed a 40 foot bomb for birdie and he hit a pull-hook into the left bunker - from where he took two shots to get out and two-putted for a big, fat 5. Later on in the round, he kills a drive on a medium-length par-5 and has just a 6-iron for his second shot. You've managed a decent drive, a strategically placed lay-up with a 4-iron and a sand wedge from your "distance of choice", 95 yards. Our friend's 3rd shot, a putt from about 60 feet comes up 12 feet short of the hole and he is "still away" as you have stiffed your wedge to maybe three, three-and-a-half feet. You make a birdie four and he walks off with a par-5.

Our friend is playing what I call "ego-golf" and you are playing strategic or "percentage-golf" which requires a fair and honest assessment of your abilities and your strengths and weaknesses (witness, 2007 Master's Champ Zach Johnson and his play on the 5-pars). The main lesson here is that when you are competing, you have got to convince yourself that it is not you against 10 or 200 other golfers - it is you and the golf course... and the course is just sitting there, for you to play anyway you'd like. I'll admit it, I have occasionally fallen prey to the "WOW" factor while competing... guys pulling off shots that I just knew I was not capable of or drives that ended up 70 yards past mine - well, in the end, the only thing that truly impresses me is the final score. In the above scenario, if our "gorilla" outdrove me all day and hit shots I would never dream of trying - well, he may have shot an 81 and my non ego-driven, strategic formula led to a 70. I know he is sitting somewhere thinking "how in the hell did that guy beat me", while I'm sitting somewhere else saying to myself... "that guy couldn't beat me on his best day - not until he learns how to physically AND mentally funnel all of that enormous innate talent... just ain't gonna happen."

When competing, you have got to stay focused ON YOUR GAME AND YOUR GAME ALONE (that having been said - if you are competing at a fairly high level but are still trying to "find yourself" as a competitor, you just might learn a whole bunch of valuable lessons by watching how your seasoned playing companion goes about his work). I will often have to force myself to not watch another player hit his shots. I know that the mind is a pretty amazing thing and if I have conflicting pictures of things running through my mind, well, it is going to be pretty hard to see "my perfect swing' and "my perfect result" if my mind is stuck on the "from the heels, lash at the ball" by a playing partner after thumping one 350 yards down the fairway. Don't get me wrong, I try to be the type of guy that people like to play with - I don't want to completely ignore you and I do want to know the general direction of your golf shots in case we have to go on a little ball-hunting trip (and believe me, it works both ways - I've very often had fellow competitors find my ball because I looked away out of sheer anger and or frustration with what I know was a lousy swing). No, what I am talking about is not letting anything external disturb your own internal metronome - your sense of rhythm and timing... and watching too closely, another golfer who's swing is "nothing at all like your's" can only lead to conflicting mental images and potential doubts about your own method... this must be avoided at all cost.

KEEPING AN EVEN KEEL: This is very much easier said than done. I think the secret lies in not getting caught up in score - and I think this applies as much to Joe Blow trying to win the third flight of the club championship as it does to Phil Mickelson trying to win his first U.S. Open. If our total emphasis is on the score (or the outcome of any one particular shot), we have set ourselves up for the worst possible outcome. The game is challenging enough when we are at our best and relaxed - if we start weighing the importance of every single shot in our minds and how it will affect the final outcome - WELL - talk about pressure... no one would ever shoot good scores if that is how they always played - the pressure would eventually break us down. As difficult as it may seem, we need to play our competitive rounds with a sense of joy, and thanks and love - love of ourselves and love of the game, for the game's sake. We need to maintain the same sense of wonderment and thrill that every young golfer who falls in love with the game experiences - as his game improves and his love of the game grows. We should feel a sense of gratitude that we are able to compete at a most wondrous game and not having to worry whether or not we will have food to eat or a roof over our heads at night.

We have got to realize how fortunate and blessed we are and play accordingly... with that attitude, nothing that happens on a golf course should ever be a cause for consternation, hence the old cliche (my version)... "a bad day on the golf course is better than a good day at almost anything else". I know that all of this is easy to say, but might not be so easy to live by. Suffice it to say that most successful tournament golfers, if they are fortunate to have won, will often say something like, "I was just in a groove - I just let my swing happen without any mechanical thoughts - and I was in great spirits - not even that 3-putt from five feet on number 15 could bring me down." A couple of other things regarding competitive golf. Do not let the quality (or lack thereof) of your warm-up shots affect you during your play on a particular day. There are a million stories about players who were barely getting it airborne on the practice range, going on to have a spectacular round and win going away. Conversely, many golfers (myself included) have had spectacular warm-up sessions, only to get out on the course and suddenly every club feels like a sledgehammer and you are trying your hardest just to finish without hurting yourself or your playing companions.

Give yourself a little pep talk before every round. Have a plan, be optimistic and be "prepared"... prepared to contain your enthusiasm if you are playing exceptionally well or refuse to let yourself get down if things are not going so well - EVEN KEEL - be prepared to scramble right from the beginning. I also can not express enough, the importance of "tee shots" in competitive situations. Get it out of your head before you even tee off that - NO MATTER WHAT THE HOLE OR LENGTH OF HOLE - you are not "required" to hit driver on all the 4-pars and 5-pars. I can't begin to tell you how many tournament rounds I played on the mini-tour that would have been under par rounds - if I could have taken back one or two tee shots. A drive into the trees, or out of bounds or into a water hazard, not only puts you immediately behind the 8-ball score-wise - it also can set the tone for what might be a long and arduous day. Here we get back to that old nemesis - OUR EGO'S - you are playing pretty well - one or two under - after 6 or 7 holes. Number 8 is a 460 yard par-4 with water on the right and out-of-bounds all down the left side. Even though you know this fairway is at least 40 yards wide and if this was a driving range, you could hit that fairway 49 out of 50 tries... but this is not the driving range and you are "in contention". Try as you might, you can just not "see the field" (from the movie, "Bagger Vance")... all you can see is the water and the OB. A lot of things might run through your mind in this situation (usually depending on the sheer number of times you've faced similar situations). "I'll look like a coward if I don't hit driver". Harvey Pennick says to "Take Dead Aim" but the only thing in my sights is a watery grave for my golf ball. If you are having a lot of conflicting thoughts in situations like this, you have got to do what the 'Texas Hold-em' player does in a situation where he is just not SURE about whether or not to go ALL-IN... fold your cards and live to fight another day.

CONFESSION TIME and one last note about competing. I am sorry and embarassed to admit to all of the times "I've thrown in the towel" - in other words, walked off of a golf course out of sheer disgust and frustration with my play. I almost always tried to justify such stupidity by thinking to myself - "I don't want to adversely affect the play of my fellow competitors or I don't want to start breaking clubs or cursing up a storm and embarassing myself even more"... well, the real truth is I didn't want to face the reality of a horrible score - a score WAY OUT of my comfort zone. Besides possibly cultivating a bad reputation among my fellow golfers and admitting and accepting defeat, I've cheated myself out of many opportunities to learn some very valuable lessons (you don't learn a whole lot with your great successes but you learn tons of valuable information by fighting back and "staying the course"). Who knows how many "come-backs" I've cheated myself out of. Every shot 'not hit' because of quitting were shots that may have totally turned me around - who knows - maybe one of those "walk-offs", had I not chosen to take that coward's way out, could have possibly led to me turning the corner and uncovering my personal key's to better scores and better overall golf. The only thing you will ever learn from walking off the course is that you have, inherent in you, a weakness that every successful golfer has learned to overcome - that weakness being able to take that long walk of shame, head down and knowing in your heart that somewhere, someone (worst of all, yourself) has just labeled you a "QUITTER"!

OpenMindedGolf