First Golf Tournament… Need Advice…

Last weekend was my courses club championship and I finally had nothing going on so I signed up.  I have never played in a competition round of golf besides just playing for some money with friends.  It was a two day event of 18 holes each day.  The first day I shot a 47 on the front and a 42 on the back for an 89.  I was OK with this score but knew I could play better.  The next day I wanted to improve my front 9 score and shot a 42 on the front and completely blew up and couldn't do anything on the back and shot a 58 on the back for 100!!!!  I haven't shot 100 in 5 years.  On number 10 I hit my second shot in the water and posted an 8 and from there I couldn't pull it back together.  Any advise on how to stop the bleeding in something like that.  I've never had a blow up that bad before. I couldn't hit drives straight anymore....took 3 shots to get out of the sand at one point.  And to top it all off I went out yesterday to play that back 9 again and shot a 40.  So apparently its all in my head.

It really is the 6 inches between your ears friend. There's nothing anyone can really say that would help in a situation like that, except maybe before you tee off on number 11, go back and think about all the good shots you've made there in the past, or even good shots you made on the front 9. being 3 or 4 over on the 1 hole is never a good thing, but being that you've got 8 more holes on the back 9 to fix er' up you're still in good shape.

It's much easier to type than to do that's for sure. You just gotta stay positive and focus and the good things at that point. If i've had a bad shot, and I need something to get me positive - or even just not to be negative I repeat a quote from my favorite movie (nothing to do with golf but it takes my mind off the 10 I just posted). Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday, "Downfield, downfield, see it before you do it, see it you do it." One of those weird things that just helps me visualize a good shot off the tee, and 9/10 it works....if only I said that for all of my shots.

Try it out.

You know when you get old in life
things get taken from you.
That's, that's part of life.
But,
you only learn that when you start losing stuff.
You find out that life is just a game of inches.
So is golf.
Because in either game
life or golf
the margin for error is so small.
I mean
one hip turn too late or too early
you don't quite make it.
One half second too slow or too fast
and you don't quite flush it.
The inches we need are everywhere around us.
They are in every break of the game
every drive, every putt.

In this game, we fight for that inch
In this game, we tear our gloves, and the turf around us
to pieces for that inch.
We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch.
Cause we know
when we add up all those inches
that's going to make the ****ing difference
between PAR or BOGEY
between LIVING and DYING.

I'll tell you this
in any fight
it is the guy who is willing to die
who is going to win that inch.
And I know
if I am going to have any life anymore
it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch
because that is what LIVING is.
The six inches in front of your face!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I can't make you do it.
You gotta look at the bag next to you.
Look into it's pockets.
Now I think you are going to see a bag who will go that inch with you.
You are going to see a bag
who will sacrifice itself for this game
because it knows when it comes down to it,
you are gonna do the same thing for it

That's a team, gentlemen
and either you heal now, as a team,
or we will die as individuals.
That's golf guys.
That's all it is.
Now, whattaya gonna do?

One of the biggest things I can tell you is to stay calm and have fun. My first tournament, I didn't set high expectations for myself. I didn't want to finish last or anything, but if I did, then whatever, it is what it is. My other playing partners would hit themselves in the head after every bad shot, but that didn't work out for the upcoming holes. Just take it one shot at a time. Good luck!

Now you know why even Tiger says he needs to get "reps in" in tournament play.  It is a completely different beast play a casual round versus playing in a tournament--even for the pros.

That is why I joined men's club at my home courses 10 years ago, so that I can see how well I perform under pressure.  I come to love tournaments more so than casual rounds as tournament golf gets my adrenaline going.  Now its almost euphoric playing in a tournament.  I guess I am one of those adrenaline junkies.

Play more competitions (I've played in my home course Men's Club for 22 years now - shot both my best ever (73) and worst ever (104) competitive rounds in club championships).  Experience under competitive pressure is the only way to learn to deal with it.  It becomes natural to you once you've done it a few times.  You learn to play no different than you do in any casual round.  It's a lot like going to a new course and playing with 3 strangers.  There is a lot of pressure not to do something stupid on the first tee, so naturally, you pull hook the ball out of sight into the trees.  But by the second or third hole, you've seen your companions make similar shots and it relieves the pressure on yours - you realize that they can suck just as bad as you can.  The same revelation will occur in tournament play.  Just learn to relax and be yourself.

Agreed. I loved playing tournaments after the first one - especially match play. Never felt more pressure per hole than in a match play format. I think it's fun being in a competitive background and for some reason I do focus more and score better during a tournament. Probably because there's something at stake.

When I was younger I had rounds that would go like this occasionally and it tough to get it back under control. The best advice I have is that a par or bogey can go a long way for the mind at that point. It's just a matter of not pressuring yourself into thinking now you have make all of the strokes up but rather settling down and playing your game the rest of the way. Look at it like this you could say I shot a 45 on the back with an 8 on number 10 or you could say I shot a 58 BECAUSE of the 8 on number 10. It's all mental...

I don't know if it is possible, but in the last little tournament I played in, I was doing okay and then I had a triple bogey on a par 4.  It was bad from tee to cup.

So, for the next hole, I told them to drive on ahead and I walked from the green to the next tee box.  Not a long walk, but allowed me to relax, be by myself,

not get told to forget about it (I knew that).  I did not hold them up, and by the time I got to the box and my turn to hit, I was okay, hit a nice ball to the right of the fairway,

made a decent 2nd shot, chipped up on the green and missed the first putt, sank the second putt and was pretty happy with the way it went.  The bogey was a lot better

than the triple and I moved on and had a decent remainder of the round.

Anyhow, that's how I handled it....

Ya thanks everyone....I tried everything to relax and calm down on that back 9 but that's the first time i couldn't put a hole behind me.  I was very tense and gripped the club firmer and i think that's why everything went downhill quick.....hopefully its a lesson learned and next tournament I can play better.

For me I have got to get off to a good start. Yesterday my golf team was playing in a tournament. Their were 13 teams there so shotgun started. I started on Hole #3, a par 3. I birdied it! After that I struggled most of the front 9 but turned up the heat on the back shooting a 38, tieing my lowest 9 hole score to date. I was 7 over thru 7 on the front, shot a 38 on the back, then came back on 1 and 2 to finish with a bogey and par for an 81. My second lowest 18 hole score. The key for me is to get off to a good start and don't get too comfortable. As soon as I get comfortable I think I can just go through the motions and keep scoring without thinking about my swing or anything. And I can't.

And to top it all off I went out yesterday to play that back 9 again and shot a 40.  So apparently its all in my head.

My opinion:

There are two things that happen in a golf tournament that don't always happen in a casual round.

Physical fatigue and mental fatigue.  That affects rythm and timing which of course is deadly.

The other thing that happened is that after you posted an 8 on one hole you tried to get back to where you were previously and pushed yourself past your normal game trying to do it.

Also..  You need to enter more competitive golf tournaments or games in order to hone your game.    You will learn to compete or you will find it's not to your liking.

Slow down, and take one shot at a time