Slammin'SAM
Never a flatbelly
Anyone who read my Saturday post in What Did You Shoot Today? saw that I talked about getting in the "zone". I want to elaborate on that a little bit, and hopefully some of you can share similar experiences, and maybe we can all learn from it and make the "zone" a place we ALL visit more often.
It started with no warning. I was having a decent day, nothing spectacular, but hitting the ball fairly well and feeling fairly comfortable about my overall game. I am a 2 handicapper, and had turned my front 9 (the easier side) in even par with one birdie, one bogey, and a few missed chances for better. Then at the relatively easy 10th, a straight par 4, I got in the fairway bunker and handled the difficult position near the trap wall poorly and made bogey. The bogey riled me, and I went to the 11th tee a bit heated with myself. I took it out on the tee shot, and hit a missile over the corner bunker and around the corner. By the time I got to my approach shot, a feeling had come over me that we golfers call the "zone" (it was really several holes later that I realized I was in the "zone", but this was the point it began). I stepped up to that approach KNOWING I would hit it well, and I did, a 9 iron to 18 feet. Then I KNEW I would make a good putt, and burned the edge. And for the rest of the round, the last 7 holes, every time I got over the ball I KNEW the results were going to be good, and I was at peace about every swing, every obstacle, every club choice - there was just a serenity that just doesn't occur very often. This was a lucky day, because usually the "zone" feeling goes away after a set of good holes, but on this day it rode me to the end. At the 18th tee, facing a dogleg left with a very tight landing area, I hit a bomb dead down the middle, and standing over my 95 yd SW approach I was actually feeling like I might hole it - the shot pitched about 3 feet right of the hole and spun back to 4 feet straight below it. The putt hammered in the absolute center of the back of the cup like I knew it would. When we reached the parking lot I told my cart partner we needed more holes so I could ride this wave til it ended.
I don't know how adequately I am describing this feeling - it has always been something that happens infrequently and unexpectedly - but I want to hear others describe when that feeling has come over them. I want us to learn and to see if there is something common to the occurrence that we can learn from. Obviously what I really want to see if we can learn any keys that help us more frequently find this "zone".
It started with no warning. I was having a decent day, nothing spectacular, but hitting the ball fairly well and feeling fairly comfortable about my overall game. I am a 2 handicapper, and had turned my front 9 (the easier side) in even par with one birdie, one bogey, and a few missed chances for better. Then at the relatively easy 10th, a straight par 4, I got in the fairway bunker and handled the difficult position near the trap wall poorly and made bogey. The bogey riled me, and I went to the 11th tee a bit heated with myself. I took it out on the tee shot, and hit a missile over the corner bunker and around the corner. By the time I got to my approach shot, a feeling had come over me that we golfers call the "zone" (it was really several holes later that I realized I was in the "zone", but this was the point it began). I stepped up to that approach KNOWING I would hit it well, and I did, a 9 iron to 18 feet. Then I KNEW I would make a good putt, and burned the edge. And for the rest of the round, the last 7 holes, every time I got over the ball I KNEW the results were going to be good, and I was at peace about every swing, every obstacle, every club choice - there was just a serenity that just doesn't occur very often. This was a lucky day, because usually the "zone" feeling goes away after a set of good holes, but on this day it rode me to the end. At the 18th tee, facing a dogleg left with a very tight landing area, I hit a bomb dead down the middle, and standing over my 95 yd SW approach I was actually feeling like I might hole it - the shot pitched about 3 feet right of the hole and spun back to 4 feet straight below it. The putt hammered in the absolute center of the back of the cup like I knew it would. When we reached the parking lot I told my cart partner we needed more holes so I could ride this wave til it ended.
I don't know how adequately I am describing this feeling - it has always been something that happens infrequently and unexpectedly - but I want to hear others describe when that feeling has come over them. I want us to learn and to see if there is something common to the occurrence that we can learn from. Obviously what I really want to see if we can learn any keys that help us more frequently find this "zone".