Howdy Hacker Folk!
I tend to get wordy, so if you have a short attention span or don't care to read random ramblings of a bumbler from Ohio, please feel free to move on. I'll start this off by telling you a little about me. In my late teens to early 20's I played a ton of golf. For a brief time I thought about trying to go pro (VERY glad I didn't, I was nowhere near good enough-shooting par on the 6000 yard wide open local courses I play translates into mid 80's on real courses-and wouldn't have come even close). Life happened (have 3 wonderful sons, 13,12, and 5) and I didn't play much from 23 or so until four years ago. Maybe a couple times a year in a charity scramble or similar. I did compete in long drive comps a few times in my early 20's, but never placed higher than 4th, and that wasn't in a national competition, just a regional one. To an outsider though, I could (and thanks to great technology, still can) hit a ball a long ways. That's all you'll hear on that front, I've found it's a pretty incendiary topic and I've learned to be pretty vague in that area.
Anyways I hadn't played much until 4 years ago for a long time. I found a golf APP and as long as I wasn't overly picky on the time I went, found that I could play most area tracks for 10.00 or so (18 with a cart to boot! Sign me up!). Booked a round at a course 20 miles from home and proceeded to play a great round which included my first ever hole in one (par 4 to boot! In name only, it was a wide open 267 yards) kept it all together on the back nine and ended up shooting a one under 70 for 18. I can only imagine herion addicts feeling similar to what I felt and I was instantly rehooked. I have Thursday off of work most of the time so I play a ton of rounds then. I usually take my little guy with me and we have a grand time of it. He only putts at this point but he is so serious about it, I can only chuckle. He'll line it up (after setting it down 6" from the cup) take exactly two practice swings, then tap it in. He goes to school this fall and I am going to REALLY miss these rounds with him.
On to how this season is going. I started hot, and so far have stayed there. I am very inconsistent. I hit a bunch of shots that look like a pro hit them, then hit shanks, fat, bladed, etc etc that tells everyone that I'm no pro. Heck, I even swung and missed (with a freaking 430 cc driver!) once last year. During an otherwise decent round. How?? Each year I'll have a miracle under par Round or two and then I'll have another round or two that I'm close to or even over 100. Last year for example, I had a 29 (par 36) back nine where I made two eagles and three birdies (luck, I'll be equally shocked if it ever happens again), but I had shot a 44 on the front. An interesting 73. I also played a round with a BIL for the first time. He had heard that I was a solid golfer (not my words). He held up his end of being a "90ish" golfer. I absolutely failed my end. I didn't have a single par. Not one. Nothing worked that day. I think I hit 3 greens (and 3 putted all of them). I didn't add up my total, but it was 100+. Yikes!
This year I've started out hitting it very well. My first round of the year started bogey/double. Btdt. Then something else happened. I started scoring. My irons were WAY off. Horrible. I was hitting them solidly and distance control was pretty much on but they were going 20-30 yards left or right of target. A strange thing happened. I have never had a good short game, chipping and pitching in particular. From 3-15 I constantly left myself in the absolute worst place you can imagine. You know the type, you look at it and think "if I can get this under 20 feet that'll be pretty good". I didn't have a single putt from a chip that was over 4 feet. I didn't hole any of them, but I was a scrambling machine. Step on to 16's tee one over. Proceed to hit a great drive on this drivable 4 and have about 20 feet for eagle. Drain it and I'm now one under. Ended up going bogey bogey for a one over. Crap.
Next round out, again end up 18 holes at one over. This time, apart from missing an 18 footer for eagle on one, I made EVERY putt under 20 feet. I have never putted that well ever before. The rest of my game was a hot mess but when you make every makeable putt the entire round, it sure helps your score. Starting to think that this Smiter guy has the game figured out...
Next round out, play about to my normal level, 7 over. Happy as heck with that, anything in the 70's is always my goal. Nothing noteworthy about that round. Didn't blow up, just couldn't score. Nothing dropped, the chips I'd expect to hit close ended up just outside of auto range, blah. Typical round.
Outside of this I've played nine three times, and I've been +1 all three times. It's been the same nine too, and two of those felt like I should've been 3 under for it (again, couldn't drop a dang putt) and one of them felt like I should have been +8.
Goal for this season for me. Eliminate the 90+ rounds. Interestingly I have very few rounds from 80 to 90. I'm either on or I'm off. I think that on those rounds that I shoot over 90, once I know that things aren't going to break my way, I check out mentally (without consciously doing so) and just make dumb mistakes. My goal this season is to turn those 90+ rounds into 80's. When I have a blowup hole, and I will, I need to stay focused and still try to play good after, knowing that there is no chance to go low. Those 100+ rounds have to go. I'm not great but it's embarrassing to shoot those for me. Anyone playing with me can see that I have a small amount of talent and have no business shooting these type rounds. Even on my horrible rounds, 80+% of my shots look great. I just check out mentally if I know that I'm not going low. I don't want to have one of these rounds ever again. I need to find a way to make my bad round be mid 80's and my horrible rounds to be high 80's. I know a lot of it is due to not practicing/playing as much as I should, but I'd guess that the majority of it is me mentally checking out once I know that I'm not going to shoot par or better.
Any thoughts or suggestions on how to stay on point mentally when nothing's going well would be welcome and very well received. I know this is where I struggle but to date haven't found a way to overcome it. And go ahead, give yourself a pat on the back for reading all of this. I told you from the get go that I was wordy.
I tend to get wordy, so if you have a short attention span or don't care to read random ramblings of a bumbler from Ohio, please feel free to move on. I'll start this off by telling you a little about me. In my late teens to early 20's I played a ton of golf. For a brief time I thought about trying to go pro (VERY glad I didn't, I was nowhere near good enough-shooting par on the 6000 yard wide open local courses I play translates into mid 80's on real courses-and wouldn't have come even close). Life happened (have 3 wonderful sons, 13,12, and 5) and I didn't play much from 23 or so until four years ago. Maybe a couple times a year in a charity scramble or similar. I did compete in long drive comps a few times in my early 20's, but never placed higher than 4th, and that wasn't in a national competition, just a regional one. To an outsider though, I could (and thanks to great technology, still can) hit a ball a long ways. That's all you'll hear on that front, I've found it's a pretty incendiary topic and I've learned to be pretty vague in that area.
Anyways I hadn't played much until 4 years ago for a long time. I found a golf APP and as long as I wasn't overly picky on the time I went, found that I could play most area tracks for 10.00 or so (18 with a cart to boot! Sign me up!). Booked a round at a course 20 miles from home and proceeded to play a great round which included my first ever hole in one (par 4 to boot! In name only, it was a wide open 267 yards) kept it all together on the back nine and ended up shooting a one under 70 for 18. I can only imagine herion addicts feeling similar to what I felt and I was instantly rehooked. I have Thursday off of work most of the time so I play a ton of rounds then. I usually take my little guy with me and we have a grand time of it. He only putts at this point but he is so serious about it, I can only chuckle. He'll line it up (after setting it down 6" from the cup) take exactly two practice swings, then tap it in. He goes to school this fall and I am going to REALLY miss these rounds with him.
On to how this season is going. I started hot, and so far have stayed there. I am very inconsistent. I hit a bunch of shots that look like a pro hit them, then hit shanks, fat, bladed, etc etc that tells everyone that I'm no pro. Heck, I even swung and missed (with a freaking 430 cc driver!) once last year. During an otherwise decent round. How?? Each year I'll have a miracle under par Round or two and then I'll have another round or two that I'm close to or even over 100. Last year for example, I had a 29 (par 36) back nine where I made two eagles and three birdies (luck, I'll be equally shocked if it ever happens again), but I had shot a 44 on the front. An interesting 73. I also played a round with a BIL for the first time. He had heard that I was a solid golfer (not my words). He held up his end of being a "90ish" golfer. I absolutely failed my end. I didn't have a single par. Not one. Nothing worked that day. I think I hit 3 greens (and 3 putted all of them). I didn't add up my total, but it was 100+. Yikes!
This year I've started out hitting it very well. My first round of the year started bogey/double. Btdt. Then something else happened. I started scoring. My irons were WAY off. Horrible. I was hitting them solidly and distance control was pretty much on but they were going 20-30 yards left or right of target. A strange thing happened. I have never had a good short game, chipping and pitching in particular. From 3-15 I constantly left myself in the absolute worst place you can imagine. You know the type, you look at it and think "if I can get this under 20 feet that'll be pretty good". I didn't have a single putt from a chip that was over 4 feet. I didn't hole any of them, but I was a scrambling machine. Step on to 16's tee one over. Proceed to hit a great drive on this drivable 4 and have about 20 feet for eagle. Drain it and I'm now one under. Ended up going bogey bogey for a one over. Crap.
Next round out, again end up 18 holes at one over. This time, apart from missing an 18 footer for eagle on one, I made EVERY putt under 20 feet. I have never putted that well ever before. The rest of my game was a hot mess but when you make every makeable putt the entire round, it sure helps your score. Starting to think that this Smiter guy has the game figured out...
Next round out, play about to my normal level, 7 over. Happy as heck with that, anything in the 70's is always my goal. Nothing noteworthy about that round. Didn't blow up, just couldn't score. Nothing dropped, the chips I'd expect to hit close ended up just outside of auto range, blah. Typical round.
Outside of this I've played nine three times, and I've been +1 all three times. It's been the same nine too, and two of those felt like I should've been 3 under for it (again, couldn't drop a dang putt) and one of them felt like I should have been +8.
Goal for this season for me. Eliminate the 90+ rounds. Interestingly I have very few rounds from 80 to 90. I'm either on or I'm off. I think that on those rounds that I shoot over 90, once I know that things aren't going to break my way, I check out mentally (without consciously doing so) and just make dumb mistakes. My goal this season is to turn those 90+ rounds into 80's. When I have a blowup hole, and I will, I need to stay focused and still try to play good after, knowing that there is no chance to go low. Those 100+ rounds have to go. I'm not great but it's embarrassing to shoot those for me. Anyone playing with me can see that I have a small amount of talent and have no business shooting these type rounds. Even on my horrible rounds, 80+% of my shots look great. I just check out mentally if I know that I'm not going low. I don't want to have one of these rounds ever again. I need to find a way to make my bad round be mid 80's and my horrible rounds to be high 80's. I know a lot of it is due to not practicing/playing as much as I should, but I'd guess that the majority of it is me mentally checking out once I know that I'm not going to shoot par or better.
Any thoughts or suggestions on how to stay on point mentally when nothing's going well would be welcome and very well received. I know this is where I struggle but to date haven't found a way to overcome it. And go ahead, give yourself a pat on the back for reading all of this. I told you from the get go that I was wordy.
