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I was able to get the 100th round of the year in this week as temperatures were in the 50’s on Wednesday and we went to Fort Cherry where I managed a 77 despite the two week lay off. I hit my irons really well , hitting 12 greens in regulation. I had 3 really bad holes, all double bogeys leading to the 7 over par round. It was a very good day and very glad to get that even 100th round.

Today’s blog will deal with the third A of the mental A’s of golf, a positive one, Awareness. I am going to leave Anxiety last as it is the most complex and there is some research to be done.

Let’s get the easy awareness out of the way first and that is being aware of your surroundings and the things that are going to affect the results of your shots. This is the easiest to explain but sometimes not the easiest to do. When you get on the golf course you must be aware of the wind, that can be ever changing, the hazards of the hole, the condition of the course and the qualities of the greens. Some days you will be better at this than others, but as I say you just can’t fall asleep out there. Sometimes lack of course knowledge can get you into trouble. The bottom line, the faster you get in touch with your surroundings the better your score will be. There are no secrets to this, you just have to do it. In future blogs I will discuss some problems and ways to hopefully get better at being aware of your surroundings.

The second awareness is much more tricky. That is the awareness of what your body is doing, when you are approaching a shot, addressing the shot. and playing the shot. This is where the famous mind body connection comes into play. In other words there can be times that you are too aware of what your body is doing during the execution of a shot. The old paralysis by analysis syndrome. The old what am I doing wrong syndrome.  However, if you are not aware that you are aiming 20 yards right, or some other address problem, or not swinging the way you think you are swinging,  then your chances of hitting a good shot are pretty slim. This will be another subject to cover in more detail in a future blog. One way of saying this is, that you want to be aware of what you are doing but not conscious of what you are doing. Like I said, this is real tricky. This could be one of the big keys to the answer to this goofy game.

Next week the blog will be coming from San Diego, where I will be celebrating the holidays with those dear grand kids. Next week the subject will be my take on those dreaded YIPS. See you then.

No golf in the Burgh this week as we got some snow, but not as much as predicted, and it has stayed cold. I thought I would discuss the second of the mental A’s and that is Acceptance. If you are going to play golf, and I would think long and hard on this if I was you, there are two things you are going to have to accept.

First, you have to accept your golf swing. Some people like to say that you should own your golf swing, but I am not to sure you would like to buy it. No golf swing is perfect. Every golf swing is going to have little idiosyncrasies and flaws. There are some golf swings that are more pleasing to the eye, and may seem more technically correct, but every swing is flawed. I think the best way to accept your swing is to watch golf on TV, especially on Thursday and Friday. There are lots of odd swings out there on all the professinal tours. This is one of my main beefs about golf coverage. With every odd swing you see, they are always telling you what’s right with the swing. What they should be telling us is all the things that are wrong with the swing. The rest of us out there tinker way way too much with our swings. Remember this one important point, every time you hit a bad shot 85% of the time it was caused by something you did before you swung the club. Now, that’s not to say that the golf swing is not important and you can swing any old which way you want, but with some rhythm and smoothness and turning of the body the golf swing is not an exact procedure. So, accept that golf swing and the game will definitely get better.

Second, you have to accept the vagaries in golf. This can range from missing short putts, to getting a bad bounce,  unexpected playing conditions, bad lies, and how different your game can feel from week to week, day to day, and even hour to hour. In order to play your best you have to accept the fact that you are going to hit bad shots, miss short putts, and have rotten luck. There is one other thing you are going to have to accept also, good luck. Lots of players when they get that lucky shot think they don’t deserve it or it means disaster is right around the corner. Now granted things do seem to even up, but accept the good breaks and try to take advantage of them. If things are not going well, accept it, and in order to get back in the game take an ultra conservative approach, until things start to go your way again. You can not make up lost strokes, and the more you try, by going for pins and cutting doglegs, the more strokes you will lose. Throttle back and get in the fairway and on the green, and if you make a long putt,  pull or push an iron close to pin, accept it, make the putt and you may start  a hot streak. Be ready for anything and accept the fact that your not.

Next week is looking promising to get round number 100 for the season. If the weatherman is wrong I will just have to accept it.

It’s a very chilly Sunday here in the Burgh, with temperatures in the 20’s, so no golf today. I was able to get in two rounds this week, shooting a 79 under some tough conditions at North Park, windy with temps in the high 40’s, and a nice solid 75 at Scenic Valley under better conditions with temps in the upper 50’s with just a slight breeze. I have been fortunate enough to have 5 holes in one, over the 50 plus years of playing this game, and the ball going in the hole is certainly just luck. But I must say, I had one of my luckiest shots of all time, which contributed mightily to my 75 on Thursday. I hit my tee shot just to the right of green on the par 3 sixth hole. It left me a very difficult pitch to an upslope and then a downslope to the hole. I shanked the shot across the green to the back and about 6 inches in the rough. I was already in a bit of foul humor, as I had just 3 putted the last green from about 20 feet. I did not go back to the cart and all I had in my hand was my 60 degree wedge and putter. I was about 50 to 60 feet from the pin and the correct shot would have been a low running chip. I was not comfortable shutting down the lob wedge especially after the shank. So I putted the ball and the ball just popped out of the air and carried about 5 feet onto the green and started to scurry along the green. As I was watching the ball, I thought I just might make a 4 here, and the next thing you know the ball broke about 10 feet to the right and into the hole. You gotta love this game. I bogeyed the next hole, but then went on to play the last 11 holes even par with two birdies and two bogeys. These two rounds this week were the 98th and 99th rounds of the year. Last year I was able to play 102 rounds. This does not include 9 hole rounds I played. The difference between the 2 years so far, is that I played 7 rounds in March of 2012 and only 2 rounds in March of 2013. The USGA doesn’t have to tell me to go out and play golf. I think all the new rule adjustments are fine that they recently made,  but I still think they missed the boat in one area. All rule decisions should be made on that day of play. Nobody should go to bed thinking they shot one score and then the next day find out they have been penalized for something that was discovered the next day no matter how it was discovered. When the day is over it is over. This weather is looking like it is going to sit in here for awhile, so golf is not looking too good this week. Will get back into the Mental A’ and discuss Acceptance next Sunday.

 

The blog is a day late because of a very busy weekend with dinner on Sunday night. This week I continued to play better despite less than ideal playing conditions. On Wednesday with 40 degree temperatures under a light mist and wind most of the day I shot 75 at Scenic Valley. On Thursday with about the same temps and a brief sleet storm that lasted a half a hole I shot 77 at Village Green. Yesterday at Scenic Valley with a little better conditions I had a real erratic day but managed to shoot 78.  I have a little 70’s streak going right now. Now it’s time to get serious. This has been the year to try and find the key to mental success in this game. While I have not been  successful in this endeavor, and it has caused by handicap to go from 3.1 to about 4.7, I feel that I have come to some important conclusions and have had a very productive learning experience. First lets get to some definitions.

The Physical Game: I define this as the way you grip the club, address the ball, and swing the club. The same thing can be said for putting. Its the way you grip the putter, address the ball, and stroke the putt.

The Mental Game: I define this as the way you plan your shots and what you are thinking when you make a swing or stroke a putt. It also includes the way you react to the results of each shot.

So the first question is, How much is this game physical, and how much is it mental. If you read instruction articles, one of the most common numbers put out there is, it is 90% mental and 10% physical. I do not agree. As far as I am concerned it is a 50-50 split. So lets look at the two sides.

1. Lets say you have a great mental game. Everytime you step on the tee you are focused on the middle of the fairway and are able block out the hazards right and left. You have complete confidence on the read of the green and think you are going to make every putt. But if your grip sucks, your alignment is wrong and you swing like a basball player, your going to put the ball all over the lot.

2. On the other side of the coin, your physical game is textbook. But if everytime you step up to the tee your thinking about trouble or doubting something, you are going to hit it  all over the lot, also.

A golfer in order to play to the best of his ability, must perfect the mind-body connection. The mind can not take over the body and body can not take over the mind. They must work together in unison. Obviously I have not perfected this, or the blog would have a different name. I will discuss in future blogs other reasons I think this is a 50-50 spit. The above 2 examples are extreme but you get the point.

In the coming weeks I am going to write about what I call the A’s of the mental game. The A’s are: Acceptance and  Awareness  Or what I call the good A’s    Anger and Anxiety or the bad A’s.  How you do with the first four A’s will affect the last A of the mental game Adjustment.

I will be heading for San Diego to spend Halloween with the grandkids, so there will be no rounds of golf this week. But there will be plenty to write about in the coming weeks.

This week the weather was not very co-operative and was able to get only 3 rounds in. The scores were a little better this week with a 76 and 78 at Scenic Valley and a 79 at South Park in some really tough conditions with some pretty good wind and a mist with temperatures barely in the 50’s. As I look back on this season so far and it is winding down, I look at the one big mistake I made this year. Playing Golf. I should have gone back to bowling. I think I am going to try to live the life of the Big Lebowski. Bowling is much better than golf. First of all there is no waiting. You get a lane and go at it. There is no rain. The season is 365 days. When I was bowling I refused to bowl on February 29th. The crashing and the noise of the pins beats anything golf has to offer. You are always close to a beer. Just like golf courses no two lanes are alike. The only thing you have to decide in bowling is whether you have to take a 4 or 5 step approach. Bowling balls are too heavy to throw so you never have to worry about hurting anyone with a thrown club. You never have to clean bowling shoes. You can be perfect in bowling, the 300 game. Your are never going to shoot 18 in golf, even at the minature golf level. So with that,The The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer is coming to a close because the answer can not be found. I am going to start a new blog: The Beautiful Game of Bowling Where You Can Belch Anytime. I can’t wait to get my first strike.

 

 

 

 

 

GOTCHA SEE YOU ON THE LINKS ALTHOUGH THE WEATHER IS LOOKING EVEN WORSE THIS WEEK. THE SEARCH WILL NEVER END UNTIL THE ANSWER IS FOUND.   WHOOPIE

The blog is a day early because I’m in Columbus, Ohio attending a veterinary conference. I just got back from 7 hours of lectures on dogs and cats skin problems. Whew! I will be getting home late tomorrow so I thought I would do the blog now, although I have this overwhelming desire to go to the bar. My play this week could also drive a man to drink. On Wednesday I played St. Clair which is a difficult track and I did manage to shoot an 80. I drove the ball pretty well and putted well but the iron game was a little off which led to some tough positions. On Thursday I went to my normal stomping grounds, Indian Run feeling pretty good but my iron game got worse and one horrific drive led to a double bogey and I shot 81. Even though the scores were not the greatest I worked more on getting my swing back and did some more things on the physical side, putting and chipping which seemed to help. I put the mental game on the back burner this week. Next week I should be able to get 3 to 4 rounds in. One of the mysteries of this game, which there are many, is why do swing thoughts or keys only work for so long. Bobby Jones wrote about this in the 1930’s. Golfers have always accepted this phenomenon as part of the normal ups and downs of the game. I think unlocking this mystery is one of the keys to the game. I don’t think I’ll be coming up with that answer any time soon. Well the bar is calling, and I am answering. See you next week.