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Play Your Own Game

fupresti

fupresti

Former Big Deal
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I want to share with you an experience I had this weekend and the revelation that came from it. If you'll indulge me.

Normally, I am the longest hitter in groups I play in. I am not super long, but long enough I am regularly outdriving my normal foursome as well as the randoms I get paired up with. This has had an effect and to this day continues to, as I feel I need to be the longest hitter on every hole. When people pull a 7 iron on a par 3, I pull an 8. Its ego through and through. As Tadashi can tell you, my swing reflected it, I was always trying to murder the ball.

This weekend I played in a informal tourney with a lot of great players. On the first tee I hit a really great drive, probably around 270, not small potatoes mind you. The other three guys in the group just murdered me off the tee. One guy was easily hitting it 300 on every hole with a driver with a Bridgestone J33 driver. After 3 holes of being the short hitter, I suddenly found calm in my swing. I wasn't worried about driving the ball and I just hit my own shot. I can remember on the 12th tee box commenting on my goal to get my handicap low enough to play in a US Mid-AM Qualifier and two of the guys were shocked when I told them I was a 5 handicap, both stated they thought I was a 2. I really felt good and played some good golf.

The moral of the story is, stop worrying about driving the ball the farthest. Stop worrying about what the other guy pulled to hit an approach shot. Stop worrying about what clubs you have in your bag. Find what makes you happy and play your own game. Leave the envy and struggle to the guy next to you.
 
Easier said than done sometimes, but learned this one a long time ago. Sadly lol.
 
Golf is just like life. If more people would worry more about themselves and, in this case, how they are playing they will be much better off. No sense worrying about things you cant control. You cant control how your opponent is playing but you can control how you are playing and the type of shots you are attempting to hit.
 
DevRickus said:
Golf is just like life. If more people would worry more about themselves and, in this case, how they are playing they will be much better off. No sense worrying about things you cant control. You cant control how your opponent is playing but you can control how you are playing and the type of shots you are attempting to hit.
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Well said Ricky. I learned that what seems like eons ago. You have to play the cards you are dealt with. That is why I personally feel golf can be a great eye opener to some. I know it has thought me many things.
 
This is what I think of when I see the "swing your swing" commercial.

That commercial is not saying "don't get lessons!", it is saying play within yourself
 
Ugh. Every time I go out to play a round I always tell myself that driver isn't needed on every hole. To layup off the tee. What do I do? Driver - swing for the property line - and pray I can find it.
 
PLaying with nothing but long hitters since I moved to Cincy, Ive learned to do my own thing for quite some time
 
mikedean441 said:
PLaying with nothing but long hitters since I moved to Cincy, Ive learned to do my own thing for quite some time
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Last time out I played with T2GRN, Jlukes and Buck. I was hitting first by a good 50-75 yards+ on every hole. Thats called a reality check and lets you not worry about trying to kill the ball, especially with Buck. He is a good Goffer.
 
Being a shorter hitter, I know I have to play the course differently than the long hitters. The only time where it really gets me messed up is playing scrambles where I start overswinging because the distance matters more than the directional accuracy. My issue becomes transitioning from the scrambles back to solo play and getting the swing back it's correct length.
 
While I can hit my drives out there pretty good some days, my ego about it forever ended when I played with a guy who hit a 2 iron a mile high and 10 yards past me on most of the driving holes. I did see him try to hit a driver, but it was a hypersonic screaming hook that you could hear whistling 2 fairways over. I still enjoy hitting 'em past the guys I play with, and will rib them if I can, but distance ego? That's long gone, along with accuracy and putting ego. Just trying to get the damn ball in the hole.
 
adwillingham said:
Being a shorter hitter, I know I have to play the course differently than the long hitters. The only time where it really gets me messed up is playing scrambles where I start overswinging because the distance matters more than the directional accuracy. My issue becomes transitioning from the scrambles back to solo play and getting the swing back it's correct length.
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You must have been in heaven when we played in Atlanta. Haha minus the rain and the Leprechaun playing partner...
 
Hawk said:
Easier said than done sometimes, but learned this one a long time ago. Sadly lol.
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It's much easier said than done!
 
I think the name of the thread says everything you need to say!! I think this is a lesson a lot of people need to learn when it comes to the game of golf. You need to play your game because if you don't things are just going to get worse for you. You're not always going to be the best player in the group, longest hitter, best putter or most mentally strong. What many people fail or take a long time to realize is golf is a game played hole by hole and some days you have it, others you don't!! Some days you might have the best handicap in the group and shot the highest score. Enjoy the game and be glad you're on the course!
 
adwillingham said:
Being a shorter hitter, I know I have to play the course differently than the long hitters. The only time where it really gets me messed up is playing scrambles where I start overswinging because the distance matters more than the directional accuracy. My issue becomes transitioning from the scrambles back to solo play and getting the swing back it's correct length.
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I actually found that in scrambles I just go first on each tee and "try to put it in the short stuff" so everybody else can swing from their shoes because we (should) have one in the fairway.

I learned a long time ago it is not about how far I it, but more setting up a good 2nd shot. My goal now is to set up good approach shots for a GIR. Doesn't always work out, but keeps me from trying to go gorilla all over the ball.
 
Thanks for the post. Good reminder for all of us with the season starting up.
 
Thanks for the post, Fu. This is something I'm kind of coming to understand in terms of looking as my game and skills and figuring out what the best shot is based on that, not on what others are doing.
 
It is a tough thing to wrap a mind around, that you need to play your own game.... the other people in the group aren't hitting your drives, and aren't sinking your putts. I get so screwed up because someone else is hitting farther, and then I try to swing out of my shoes to try and close the gap... but I would be much better off just concentrating on how I play.
 
This is a great read, and it definitely speaks to me.

When I joined THP I was just starting to take golf seriously and I played mostly with my brother and my dad and his friends. I was usually the longest hitter by 15-25 yards and I took pride in that. In fact, I was happier after the round with 99 than a 90 if the 99 had longer drives.
This lead to an ego driven game where I would swing out of my shoes when paired with longer hitters, and course management didn't even enter my head. I would hit driver on a par 3 if I thought I could. Also, most of my approaches were played from behind trees in the deep stuff with wedges so I never developed a decent long iron game.

Since then I've made a lot of mental progress and I've been paired with some awesome golfers who showed me just how pathetic my long but wild drives really were. My game is still driver dependant but I'm close to a breakthrough I think.
I am trying to rewire my brain to have an ego driven pride in GIR, where it actually makes a difference.
 
Good opening post.
Easier said than done.....as someone who has been playing about 40 years!
But today I really played with the head not the ego, and played a beautiful round of golf.

Just need to keep at that when there is someone playing with me!
 
I struggled with this back in college my first couple of years and it ruined my golf swing....

I was at a point where our longest guys would literally take out their range finders and measure the distance between them and me and just not let go. I tried my best to keep up with them but when you start missing tournaments due to some blow up holes you realize it isn't worth it

Playing within your abilities would do so much for the game but people just won't do that bc it isn't considered cool or fun. Last time I checked you don't have to write down how you obtained a certain score


Proud Member of #TeamParadise
 
I find I enjoy a round of golf so much more when course management and strategy is on your thoughts, makes the day more strategic, more goals to accomplish from hole to hole giving yourself objectives. If your only objective all day is to smash the ball as far as you can that's a boring day to me, and the same could be done just standing at the range. Enjoy a nice day walking 18 and setting a gameplan for each hole at the tee box, if a hole doesn't match that plan forget it, hole 2 isn't hole 1 and shouldn't be on your mind at that point

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
 
ArmyGolf said:
This is a great read, and it definitely speaks to me.

When I joined THP I was just starting to take golf seriously and I played mostly with my brother and my dad and his friends. I was usually the longest hitter by 15-25 yards and I took pride in that. In fact, I was happier after the round with 99 than a 90 if the 99 had longer drives.
This lead to an ego driven game where I would swing out of my shoes when paired with longer hitters, and course management didn't even enter my head. I would hit driver on a par 3 if I thought I could. Also, most of my approaches were played from behind trees in the deep stuff with wedges so I never developed a decent long iron game.

Since then I've made a lot of mental progress and I've been paired with some awesome golfers who showed me just how pathetic my long but wild drives really were. My game is still driver dependant but I'm close to a breakthrough I think.
I am trying to rewire my brain to have an ego driven pride in GIR, where it actually makes a difference.
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That sounds like my story exactly. Getting out of my own way on the golf course is a much bigger hazard than anything the course designers threw out there. Example; playing this fall after 3 rounds of 0 driver luck and no range time to be able to sort it out, things were going really really down hill. With all of the penalty strokes and punching out from behind trees on the front 9 I carded a 51. I finally broke down and gave up on "just one more hole and I will have it all sorted out" and played the back 9 with my 3w. Shot a 37 on the back which is the lowest 9 hole score I've ever had. I kicked myself all the way home.
 
I let the driver ego thing go a long time ago, when I realized I wasn't anywhere near as long as some guys. Top of the mark for me is like 250 carry, maybe 270 ish with roll; a more common good drive is more like 235 or 240 carry. I've played with dudes who could hit it 350 yards plus in Utah (helped by the altitude, but still crazy long) and have a partial wedge 2nd shot on par 5's. Keeping up with this is just plain impossible for me, and once I realized that a few years ago, I started to play better by positioning myself off the tee and not hitting driver unless it was necessary to give me a short iron into the green. Now I hit driver a little more frequently since I hit it much better now, but I still leave it in the bag on holes where precision is required.
 
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