Let's just put it out there.  I'm a 14+ handicap.  With that in mind, it's not all that often that I go home from a round of golf feeling like it's just a matter of time until I 'put it all together' and post something around even par for a round.  In September, during a shotgun tournament, I played the front nine of a course in even par... and the back nine in +9.  But... like I said, it was a shotgun event and the front nine was somewhere around the middle portion of my round.  It was nice to look at the scorecard afterward and realize that I shot even par on that side, but... it was still even par.  My career best has been an 81 on 3 different occasions.  

Over the last few weeks, however, things have been coming together nicely for me.  I managed one of those 81's during a match in which my partner and I blitzed our opponents 7 & 5 the Saturday before last... and then on Friday of this past week, a buddy and I went to play a practice round at a tournament venue and I posted an easier-than-it-seemed 82.  I had a handful of bad holes that day, but otherwise... I was hitting a lot of fairways and a larger-than-average number of greens.  

Following that round... I really felt that maybe some of the good things were being memorized by my body.  If I missed a green, I left myself in reasonable position to make a par putt.  I managed to convert 5 of 8 such opportunities.  I felt good about how I had pitched and chipped the ball.  The bottom of my swing was easy to find and it resulted in not only a good score, but some pretty good thoughts to fall back on.  

I didn't get to touch a club since then until this morning.  I set up a round as a single at my home course.  I wanted to get out and hit some balls on the course, so... I figured I'd play and try to post a score.  Unlike the round a few days prior... all of my feel and touch was gone.  

On the first hole, my approach was short and right of the green.  There was a slope of about 3 feet in front of me to climb and it took me 3 shots from there to get the ball on the green.  Chunky, chunky, chunky.  I made a double.  

After a birdie on the 4th hole, I was facing a shot of about 75 yards on the 5th hole.  I had already struggled on the hole, hitting a poor drive and a poor approach, so... I wanted to get somewhat close.  Typically, that 75 yard shot is in my wheelhouse.  I hit it so ridiculously fat that I actually laughed out loud.  I managed a good pitch shot following that and salvaged a bogey, but... man.  

I missed a simple 3 foot putt on the 6th for double and ended up with a triple.  

On the 7th hole, the wheels came off.  A poor drive left me with little room to do anything but punch a 4 iron into the fairway.  Luckily, this was a short par 5 and I had only 90 yards to the hole.  No trouble in front of me and the pin was in a very accessible spot in the middle of the green.  Just like on the 5th hole, I hit a shot where I'm pretty sure if I looked hard enough, I could see some of the Earth's crust in my divot.  I still had 70 yards to go, and I bladed the ball over the green and out of bounds.  A drop and another pitch came up short.  My chip from there was also heavy and I two-putted for a quadruple bogey 9.  

I had similar instances on the 8th and 9th holes where I just wasn't able to get anything going.  Overall, my short game cost me about 8 strokes on the front side where I posted a 50.  Even marginal play from those positions would have given me a 45.  

Now I'm sitting here shaking my head at how different the feelings after the last 2 rounds are.  I was on a high after Friday's round.  Today, I'm mentally destroyed.  I want to go back out and figure it out, but... I won't be able to do that until Thursday, so... here I sit, left to wonder what I did so differently.  

All this brings me to the title of my post here.  Instead of getting excited about that one round where things went right... I need to learn a lesson from it and carry it over to my other rounds.  I can't get excited about that 'once in awhile' round until I'm able to repeat it a few times in succession.  Those rounds are my anomalies.  I'm better off realizing that than going out and coming home disappointed about a 93 that 'could have been' an 85.  

It wasn't an 85.  It was a 93. Any of my 81's 'could have been' 78 or better.  They weren't.  I've got to EARN consistently better scores.  They're not going to come just because I had a decent score the round before.  Today taught me a lesson.  I'm hoping that, mentally, it makes me a stronger player and drives me to improve on the little things that all go into posting better scores.  

CY