Sorry I just now have time to write again, with even another golf weekend coming up. I did not do it, break 80 that is. I shot an 88. There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance and I think I fell on the side of arrogance. I have been working on my long game so hard that I neglected my short game, which was good but not up to what I can usually do. My putting was fair with 28, which actually save me a few times. The style of my putting does not need much practice once you get it down. Even Randy Haag does not practice putting often, my father in law is his putting coach. The short game cost me at least 6 shots, by having to many two putts. I also had two penalty shots, so I believe that I am knocking on the door. I also cost myself a couple of shots by not thinking. This game is mental and not as physical as we believe. I learned that day that if I cannot see the shot do not take it. The closer I get to the 70's the more I do realize how you must picture what you are going to do and then command the muscles to do it. We get greedy on golf shots, maybe we hit a tee shot in trouble and believe that we have a hole or space that we can advance the ball forward, which is the game, instead of calculating the odds of settling for par or an easy bogie by hitting just back to the fairway. Instead we nick the branch or do not carry the rough and end up with an even harder shot, when the punch out was the answer to begin with. It is making the decisions that force us to not be the hero that will get scores in the 70's. I hit the ball well hit more consistently than I ever do from the tee, but it was also adding the pressure of a tournament that broke me I believe as well as cockiness. I must realize that it is one shot at a time and that you want par or better from each hole, but until the tee shot is hit you can't think of anything else but that one shot. This weekend is a skins game I believe, so I will try again for my quest with a different outlook on my approach to the day and to each shot. We saw it over the weekend with Jerry Rice, he is a great golfer by the way, but add all the different pressures that he has never felt and you might miss the cut if not prepared. If we do not experience we will never know, but how we learn from those experiences dictates our future progress.










best,
mike