TL;DR I played golf sick and kinda shitty this weekend. Had a decent time, learned some stuff about myself. This is mostly for my own therapy:
I started out this year like every year with a goal of trying to improve. I decided that my A-game performance is excellent, but that I just don't have the consistency. Athletes talk about being in the zone all the time and I've definitely felt it, only to come out of it again realizing with great disappointment that I don't have control over being there. My grandfather once told me that the best round of golf you play will be your easiest. I decided a few months ago that I would go back to semi-serious tournament golf to try and work on my mental approach to the game.
I haven't played a real tournament since high school. That's 12 years for those counting. My golfing ability is actually about the same now as it was then. The only real difference is that I'm probably 30-40 yards longer now. I was a wispy little shit then and now I have this beer gut to lever against. Also, my bald spots might cut down on wind resistance too. I dunno, I'm not a scientist.
This past weekend was the amateur tournament at Turtle Bay. The tournament is flighted by handicap and I noticed a very minimal about of sandbagging, which was surprising. I played at quite a disadvantage so it's hard to tell where I actually stand. I caught the flu on Thursday and managed to sweat out my fever by Friday afternoon but I was not in good shape. My muscles ached, my back was stiff, and I was coughing. On top of this, the sun and humidity were brutal. The air was stagnant and the temperature hovered around 90 degrees.
The two courses played at this event were long. One was fairly easy, the other unforgiving as there are thick ironwood forests lining the left and right sides. And where there are no trees, there is water.
Fazio: 6,769 yards 73.8/130.
Palmer: 6,795 yards 72.5/140.
My strategy going into the event was to hit driver only when I absolutely need to. I spray it and on Palmer, it's unacceptable. Most of the tee duty would be with the 3 wood and 2 hybrid. I thought I might get some ribbing from players in my groups about my infrequent use of the driver but nobody said anything. And I out drove most of them anyway. This was tournament golf. They understood why I wasn't using it.
In my first round (Fazio) I played with a guy named Vic. He was an affable guy in his late 50's. He had the worst nerves of anyone I had ever seen. He shook violently through the first five holes. Enough so that I wondered if he had Parkinsons. He shook again on the 18th hole and was so flustered after the round that he couldn't even confirm the score I kept for him. He just said he trusted me. It was some high math. I had never seen a ten handicap shoot 108 before. I felt bad for the guy. He had the worst composure I had ever seen, which was reassuring to me in a strange way -- at least I'm not THAT guy. His bad play was hard to ignore and sometimes I wonder if it bled in to my game. I spent a lot of energy trying to count his strokes instead of focusing on my own shots. We actually had a discussion as to whether he made a 9 or an 11 on a par 4. I wrongly negotiated a score of 10 to get past the hole. It didn't matter, of course.
Back on the first tee, before I noticed his shaking I had small butterflies that brought me right back to high school. It was actually a comforting feeling and I played the first hole, a 511 yard Par 5 basically on autopilot. I didn't hit a bad shot, I just sorta bunted my way toward the green and two-putt for my par. That was sort of how my game went on Saturday. I can't recall any stellar shots, and a few horrid ones. Carded an 83, which put me in a 6 way tie for like 30th. One thing I did notice is that my grip pressure was tense. No wonder I was pushing and pulling shots.
In the second round on Palmer the groups were matched up by score so we had all shot 83 the day before. I was more comfortable with this grouping. I was hot to start. In the first nine holes, I had seven pars and two bogeys, which I'm fairly sure was leading my flight in this round. On the 10th hole, I was overly confident and made a tactical error. I took out the driver. The hole is a slight dogleg right with OB on the right side. There is a tree 150 yards from the tee box that blocks the line toward the fairway. Options are to hit a 180 yard shot to the left of the tree and have 220+yards to the hole, or hit a draw with the driver to the right of the tree over the OB and bring it back left for a small wedge shot. That's the pro shot. That's the shot I chose and it probably cost me the round mentally. I erred and hit a line drive that never got more than 10 yards off the ground. The line was good, but it was too low and not left enough. The course was definitely in my head after that. I limped in with an 8. I'd also score a 9 on another tight par 4 before the round finished. I birdied the last hole to finish the round with an 87. I was 13 over on the last nine holes. It was an amazing meltdown.
I'm not sure where I finished in the tournament. Probably somewhere right in the middle of the pack for my flight. I saw a lot of scores in the high 80s and low 90s. On the bright side, the tournament was sponsored by Oakley and the swag was excellent. A shirt, shorts, hat, belt, and golf shoes. Like $250 worth of stuff.
Takeaways:
Playing well makes me more aggressive. I need to work on throttling that back. Stick to the gameplan. That driver was a rookie move on my part and it cost me a good score. This is where I think having a caddie would help me. Someone to tell me "hey dipshit, put that club away."
Tournament rounds are slow. Painfully slow. The average time on the course for each round was about 5 hours and 30 minutes. I have to figure out a way keep my focus through that.
Breathe. Don't be like Vic.