I went out and played this weekend and for some strange reason before I even got to the course I knew it was going to be a good day. The night before I had good feelings about how I was going to play. I hit the ball perfectly in my warm up. I had zero anxiety on the first tee. Everything just felt right.
I played stress free golf for the first seven holes of the day and had my best score to date going. That is when I started thinking about my score. As soon as I looked down at the scorecard and realized how well I was playing I started to feel nervous and anxious to see if I could keep it up for the rest of the round.
I got to the 7th tee which is a short par 4 that requires no more than a 5 iron to get into pitching wedge distance and I thought to myself, “I am playing this well, why not hit a driver and try to make a birdie?” Man was I wrong. The moment I pulled my driver out and deviated from my game plan and got away from how I know I should play the course I imploded. I ended hitting my driver into a plugged lie in a bunker and left with a double. Not the end of the world, but I was playing catch up the rest of the round. I was no longer playing my game and it lead to bogey after bogey after bogey.
My best round of the summer quickly became my worst round of the summer just because I let myself get caught up in the score instead of the next shot. I wish I could say lesson learned, but I know that this has happened to me before and I can’t seem to let myself get away from checking the score card. I’m anxious to see what will happen in my next round and if I am able to put this big disappointment behind me quickly. I certainly hope so.
