The importance of staying positive (or, not giving up...straight away! :)

On Sunday in our monthly medal competition I teed off on our first tee and imediately hit the ball all of 15 feet which ende up to the left of us on the foot path RIGHT IN FRONT of the club house (thankfully there was only a couple people around watchng!!!!:)! So I reload, fire off my drive which ends up down the left hand side of the fareway making the next shot in to the green very long! I line up my next shot, hit it fat and straight in to water! Take my next and promptly put that in the water too! At this point Im starting to think its not going to be my day! Anyway, I walk off the first green with a solid 10 on my score card! On the next tee I put my drive DEEP in trouble down the right side in to a thickly wooded area where my only optio is the chip the ball out and play my third shot up to the green. BUT by now Im really chuntering, feeling sorry for my partners because Im the one that has already put us well behind the group in front playing military golf BUT I keep reminding myself that this is only the second hole and the game isnt over yet! I put my third shot is about 10 feet from the pin followed by putting the putt in the bottom of the cup for a hard worked par! I then par the next hole, then proceed trying to hold my found together by limiting damage as I come in 3 over par (for my handicap) after the front nine (52 in total). The next 9 holes were completely different though! 4 pars, 2 doble bogeys, and 3 bogeys (which ALL should have been pars thnks to crap putting!) meant I screamed back in 4 under par with a hugely improved 43 on the back 9!!!! Anyway I ended up with a net 70 one under par (95) but apart from the 10 on the first hole I really could have made something of this round as the thing that REALLY killed me was seven 3 putts! Then again, thats the thing...there is always something going wrong. I could be driving like a PGA pro BUT will completely screw up the approach shots or drive like a chump yet race around the round with 28 putts! I tell you, the day I put together two steady 9 holes in the same round Im going to be about average! So the big story really is that while I struggled through the front 9 I kept telling myself to stay calm and stay positive and limit the damage, which for the most part I did. This then allowed me to claw things back to the point where I shot only my second best medal round this year and more importantly ended up getting my handicap cut from 25 to 23.8. Yay me! :) But yes, gold is a cruel CRUEL mistriss at times! Regards Mailman

There is another thread on here about laughing about other's misfortunes on the golf course. I read your post and had to chuckle a little. I was not smiling about you, or your game. I was smiling about the times I remembered being in your shoes. Keeping one's focus after a bad shot, or a series of bad shots is the mark of a good player regardless of their handicap.

I was in a big time tournament (for me) and on the first tee I topped the ball and sent it into the left rough/bushes. Maybe 50 yards. Boy did I get some rolled eyes, and some not so kind "muttering" from those around me. The starter even asked me if I thought I actually belonged in the tournament. Of course everyone else got off the first tee in decent shape.  (As I left the first tee, I whispered a few choice words to the starter, which made me feel much better.) It was a par 4 and I scored a 7. Long story short, I shot the low round of my group, and finished with a net 65, which was good enough for 3rd place in the tournament.

Bad shots are the same as good shots once they are played. They are history, and the golfer's next shot is what is important. I once read where a MLB umpire was asked what his toughest call was. He replied "My Next One". All golf shots should be treated the same way.

QFT.