rclark0809

I was at the Boeing Classic yesterday is the Seattle area and watched Mark O' Meara hit one thin on the first playoff hole. He was was hitting his second shot into the par 5 18th. The ball never left ground and went about 150 yards. The difference between him and me is, he then stuck his third shot to about 6'. Ryan

I don't know if this would bother me enough to affect my shots, but I do know that it would bother me from an etiquette point of view (unless it was a good friend, then that's a different story). Congrats on being able to quiet your mind, and good luck in the future. Ryan

This has happened to me quite a bit as well. When I am walking up to a shot I usually have a gut instinct about what kind of shot I want to play, particularly around the green), for instance a safe bump and run might be the best shot to play. But, when I get there I decide maybe this time I should try to hit a high soft shot (I'm changing my mind more on a feel or internal talk and not because of the lie or other outside influences), and results are usually pretty bad. For the last few rounds part of my "game plan" has been to trust my instincts and not try something crazy. Of course this does not guaranty that I hit a good shot. But, I have felt more committed to the shots I want to hit. I guess we have maybe got a bit off topic. But, what I have realized is that I tend to be much more distracted by my own thoughts andI hardly notice what is going on around me. Ryan

I agree with this 100%. If I don't have some kind of game plan going into a round I have also set myself up for disaster. For me, when I think about mental fortitude I am thinking about quieting down my own self talk. That is the biggest demon I face on the course. I have found, that having a game plan (whatever it is, it changes from round to round) has helped me stay focused, and to quiet the critic in my head.

I'm gonna be honest. I just don't understand how people get so distracted. Sure, I do not talk or jingle change when people are taking their shot. I understand the etiquette. However, when I am addressing my shot, someone could be having a full volume conversation behind me and I would not notice. I don't know, I grew up playing baseball, and with the crowd noise, and the other team yelling at you, you learn pretty quickly to tune it out. I am not saying this about anyone on here, but I have noticed that people I have played with in the past are very quick to blame a poor swing or poor shot on some random noise or outside influence (i.e, wet ground, dry ground, wind, no wind, a bird, etc you get the picture) . When in reality I am positive that had very little to do with it. Peter Alliss said on Friday during The Open Championship, that golfers today are too soft. I tend to agree.

Having just joined this forum, I have to say I have learned the most from this post (and from finding references to the "Talent Code"). As a 24 handicap I have long been frustrated with how GOOD my short game is. I get up and down with the same frequency as players much better than myself. (As an example, I couple weeks ago in a tournament I left my self short sided in some fluffy grass hitting to an elevated green. I hit a flop shot with my sandwedge to about 3 feet and tapped in for par. One of the course pros had been watching from the clubhouse and jokingly said I must be as sandbagger, because 20 plus handicappers don't hit that shot, I told him if he could teach me to get to the green I'd be a great player, but the real point is that I didn't get lucky on that shot I saw the shot I wanted to hit, and executed it perfectly) I average between 1.70 and 1.75 putts per round (this has been constant for about 2 years now), and on occasion I have some really great rounds. But, for the most part my scores stay about the same. I put in a lot of time practicing, but again the scores stay the same. Why? After finding this forum and by working with an instructor, I wound say the reason is, that even though I am getting up and down more than my fair share of the time, I am doing it for bogey or worse (sometimes much worse). We have deduced that I am losing the most strokes on my approach shots from the fairway. I now spend around 65% of time working on my ball striking, and I have started to see some dividends from that. The changes are slow, but they are coming, and for the first time I feel like I have a real plan for improving my game. I used to do the reverse, I felt like I was enlightened because I would spend about 70% of my time on the short game and the rest on my ball striking, and while I certainly believe that helped me create the short game I have now, what good does it do me if I am getting up and down for a 7 or 8? For me I think that the most salient point of this post is to be honest with yourself and find what parts of your game are weakest and formulate a plan to start correcting them. For me that is working on my ball striking. Thanks, Ryan