What's on your mind? Enjoying the Game

It is part of our American fabric to be competitive.  What other sport challenges our competitive nature more than golf.  Most sports are team sports.  Even the other individual sports involve a competitor that directly affects your own play such as in tennis or raquetball. Golf however is a beast all its own.

In golf it is man/woman against the elements, man against his ball and a hole in the ground, and most of all it is man against himself.  When out on the golf course and particularly in competition you are your own coach, your own team, your own cheerleader and your own critic - all wrapped up in the same person.  Target shooting, archery and cross country bike riding are the only competitive sports that come to mind that might have the same elements.

Being of a competitive nature and of course preferring to win rather than loose, why do we set ourselves up for more losses than wins?  The game is hard enough as it is so why do we choose to tee it up when we play on a set of tees that make it harder on ourselves to succeed?  Barney Adams called it "managed frustration." Consider playing one set of tees further up.  Get your buddies to agree to one round on those tees and see what happens.

Understand just how far you REALLY hit your average drive and adjust accordingly.  Note where the hazards are located.  Hazards are obstacles.  You play around obstacles.  Would you go running into a mine field or would you go about it in a systematic and concentrated way?  I bet the latter!  Apply that strategy to your golf.  Manouver your way around the obstacles.  Sometimes that means not playing your approach shot to the pin but rather to the largest part of the green.  Maybe you should play around a water hazard rather than try the heroic shot over the water.  Ultimately it's about scoring better isn't it?

If you find yourself having to hit too many heroic shots during a round maybe it's time to move up to the next tee.  Don't get me wrong, we all like to hit the occasional heroic shot.  Nothing feels better when you pull it off of course.  But honestly, a heroic shot doesn't have to be the 200 yard carry over a pond to a tight pin placement.  Nor should you have to hit heroic shots all the way around a golf course to have fun.  It could just as easily be a great pitch shot over a bunker to a tight pin placement or a hook around a tree onto the green, or even a great long putt that nestles up to the hole.

Change your perspective and make it just that - "yours" and not someone else's.  Your buddies apply pressure to your game simply by being there because somehow we feel we need to impress them with long drives, heroic shots and attempting the impossible.  We are suckered into believing we are invincible.  Sure it's fun at times but not all the way around a golf course.  Advertisers love to make you feel invincible.  You're not!

Try it the conservative approach around the course for a change.  See how you score.  I'm sure you will still get that occasional opportunity for the heroic shot but maybe even a better chance to pull it off!  Give it a chance!  What sounds better to you, 75 or 85?  What sounds better 80 or 90?  How about 85 or 95?