Bogey Golfers Only (Index 16-22) / Breaking 90 Topic

[newtogolf]

I made it to the quarterfinals of my clubs championship (C Flight) and wondering if any of you have played in tournaments and have any advice on how you got past the nerves.  I didn't expect to get this far so the earlier rounds I just played as a normal round without much thought about winning.  Now that I'm in the final 4 I can already feel the anxiety building for the match on Saturday, so I can only imagine what it will be like that morning.

I can never be sure which swing shows up, but the last two rounds my full swing was good so I'm thinking I'll play conservative and let him beat me by making better / riskier shots every hole.  Any thoughts?

[Hatchman]

I made it to the quarterfinals of my clubs championship (C Flight) and wondering if any of you have played in tournaments and have any advice on how you got past the nerves.  I didn't expect to get this far so the earlier rounds I just played as a normal round without much thought about winning.  Now that I'm in the final 4 I can already feel the anxiety building for the match on Saturday, so I can only imagine what it will be like that morning.  I can never be sure which swing shows up, but the last two rounds my full swing was good so I'm thinking I'll play conservative and let him beat me by making better / riskier shots every hole.  Any thoughts?

Your doing good and didn't get there by accident. One shot at a time.

[Braivo]

I made it to the quarterfinals of my clubs championship (C Flight) and wondering if any of you have played in tournaments and have any advice on how you got past the nerves.  I didn't expect to get this far so the earlier rounds I just played as a normal round without much thought about winning.  Now that I'm in the final 4 I can already feel the anxiety building for the match on Saturday, so I can only imagine what it will be like that morning.

I can never be sure which swing shows up, but the last two rounds my full swing was good so I'm thinking I'll play conservative and let him beat me by making better / riskier shots every hole.  Any thoughts?

Congrats and enjoy the ride.

Practice as much as possible between now and then.

[natureboy]

Polish your short game and putting. Relax and learn to laugh at your miscued long shots.

[newtogolf]

Your doing good and didn't get there by accident. One shot at a time.

Congrats and enjoy the ride.

Practice as much as possible between now and then.

Polish your short game and putting. Relax and learn to laugh at your miscued long shots.

Thanks for the responses and well wishes.  I played a practice round Wednesday and today I went to the range and simulated a practice round using Swingbyswing to provide the course layout and distances.  It was a good exercise because I realized I've made some poor decisions on how I've played holes in the past.  I'm inconsistent with my driver and don't expect much improvement given the pressure of the tournament and there are a few holes where I've used driver in the past that would be better played by me using 3 wood or 2 hybrid off the tee.   My goal is to keep the ball in or near the fairway as much as possible to avoid blow up holes.

Relaxing will be difficult but I will do my best.  I laugh at my shots all the time, I'm not good enough to get angry.  I also have no delusions of winning since the guy I'm playing is the best golfer out of the 4 of us remaining, I just don't want to beat myself and want to make him work for it.

[rkim291968]

I didn't expect to get this far so the earlier rounds I just played as a normal round without much thought about winning.

This!   Do this again.

I have a good record on match play (top 3rd finishes) vs stroke tournaments (bottom 3rd finishes).  I think it's b/c I do the above.   On strokes play, I put too much pressure on myself to beat the field and the result is often a disaster (10 stroke over my average).

[newtogolf]

This!   Do this again.

I have a good record on match play (top 3rd finishes) vs stroke tournaments (bottom 3rd finishes).  I think it's b/c I do the above.   On strokes play, I put too much pressure on myself to beat the field and the result is often a disaster (10 stroke over my average).

Things went my way and I made it into the final match tomorrow.  I played within myself and stayed conservative when my opponent made mistakes.  I won the semi-final match 4 & 2.  The guy I'm playing tomorrow won due to withdrawal (injury) after so it should be an interesting match.

[Duff McGee]

Things went my way and I made it into the final match tomorrow.  I played within myself and stayed conservative when my opponent made mistakes.  I won the semi-final match 4 & 2.  The guy I'm playing tomorrow won due to withdrawal (injury) after so it should be an interesting match.

Congrats! I feel like the championship match needs to be televised for TST members. Eye of the Tiger!

[newtogolf]

Congrats! I feel like the championship match needs to be televised for TST members.

Eye of the Tiger!

Thanks, but I wouldn't subject the members here to watching me play golf.

[PJCdude]

Good luck dude. If you don't mind me asking, what club in LI do you play at? I live in NYC now but grew up in St. James.

[Braivo]

Things went my way and I made it into the final match tomorrow.  I played within myself and stayed conservative when my opponent made mistakes.  I won the semi-final match 4 & 2.  The guy I'm playing tomorrow won due to withdrawal (injury) after so it should be an interesting match.

Good luck. Thanks for keeping us posted.

[newtogolf]

Good luck. Thanks for keeping us posted.

Thanks, it was a crazy day.  I got to the course early to spend some time at the range and started shanking the ball all over the range.  It was ugly, no matter what club I hit, it was a shank.  I figured it was nerves and decided to leave the range and go practice putting which went much better.

The match started and I was still shanking everything, when we got to the 8th hole I hadn't won a hole and was down 5.  I finally got the swing worked out at the 8th and didn't lose a hole until we got to 17.  I was up 2 with 2 to play and 3 putted the hole and lost, so now it was 1&1 going into 18.

At 18, we both hit good drives and both our 2nd shots landed just to the sides of the hole.  I hit a good chip to about 8' of the hole and he left his about 22' from the hole.  He asked the caddie for a read and hit a perfect putt to par out the hole.  I read the 8 footer, hit what I thought was a good putt and it looked like t was going in and at he last second it lipped out, so now we had to play a playoff hole.

At the playoff hole we both hit average drives and I slightly pulled my 5i about 185 yards into the rough to the right of the fairway leaving me about 80 yards.  He hit his 2nd shot into the woods and his 3rd shot went into the sand trap.  I hit my 60* wedge and it looked perfect but a gust of wind came and knocked it down into the same trap he was in.  We were both laying 3 and he hit a great shot out of the trap within 6' of the hole and I caught too much sand and left it in the rough right at the edge of the trap.  There was no way for me to take a stance so I had to stand with the ball about 6" behind my back foot and didn't hit a good shot, which left my ball about 25 feet from the hole.  I 2 putted and he sunk his 6 footer and took the championship.

It was a great experience and I learned a lot about match play (this tournament was my first exposure ever to match play) so overall I'm pleased to make it as far as I did.  Thanks to all for the encouragement and kind words.

[Duff McGee]

Thanks, it was a crazy day.  I got to the course early to spend some time at the range and started shanking the ball all over the range.  It was ugly, no matter what club I hit, it was a shank.  I figured it was nerves and decided to leave the range and go practice putting which went much better.  The match started and I was still shanking everything, when we got to the 8th hole I hadn't won a hole and was down 5.  I finally got the swing worked out at the 8th and didn't lose a hole until we got to 17.  I was up 2 with 2 to play and 3 putted the hole and lost, so now it was 1&1 going into 18. At 18, we both hit good drives and both our 2nd shots landed just to the sides of the hole.  I hit a good chip to about 8' of the hole and he left his about 22' from the hole.  He asked the caddie for a read and hit a perfect putt to par out the hole.  I read the 8 footer, hit what I thought was a good putt and it looked like t was going in and at he last second it lipped out, so now we had to play a playoff hole. At the playoff hole we both hit average drives and I slightly pulled my 5i about 185 yards into the rough to the right of the fairway leaving me about 80 yards.  He hit his 2nd shot into the woods and his 3rd shot went into the sand trap.  I hit my 60* wedge and it looked perfect but a gust of wind came and knocked it down into the same trap he was in.  We were both laying 3 and he hit a great shot out of the trap within 6' of the hole and I caught too much sand and left it in the rough right at the edge of the trap.  There was no way for me to take a stance so I had to stand with the ball about 6" behind my back foot and didn't hit a good shot, which left my ball about 25 feet from the hole.  I 2 putted and he sunk his 6 footer and took the championship. It was a great experience and I learned a lot about match play (this tournament was my first exposure ever to match play) so overall I'm pleased to make it as far as I did.  Thanks to all for the encouragement and kind words.

Congrats on a great tournament!

[dkolo]

Shot two consecutive 91s, which save for my one 89 are my best ever scores, but I'm kinda disappointed. Literally can't hit my irons. Just get stuck and hit fat or go long and left. I'm almost certainly coming over the top. Which is all sad because the rest of my game has been amazing. Hit about half a dozen drives over 270 over those rounds, nearly drove the green on two par 4s the other day, and my putting has been really good. But today I didn't hit a single green in reg on the way to a 91. I'd have thought that would be impossible but nope. My troubles with irons started when I started trying to implement the suggestions in the flighting wedges : irons thread, which has messed me up progressively. Which is on me, not on the advice, obviously. But anyway, I was mad today over a 91 when I had regressed to struggling to break 100 a few months ago again. Just could've been something special if I could take advantage at all today.

[Braivo]

Thanks, it was a crazy day.  I got to the course early to spend some time at the range and started shanking the ball all over the range.  It was ugly, no matter what club I hit, it was a shank.  I figured it was nerves and decided to leave the range and go practice putting which went much better.

The match started and I was still shanking everything, when we got to the 8th hole I hadn't won a hole and was down 5.  I finally got the swing worked out at the 8th and didn't lose a hole until we got to 17.  I was up 2 with 2 to play and 3 putted the hole and lost, so now it was 1&1 going into 18.

At 18, we both hit good drives and both our 2nd shots landed just to the sides of the hole.  I hit a good chip to about 8' of the hole and he left his about 22' from the hole.  He asked the caddie for a read and hit a perfect putt to par out the hole.  I read the 8 footer, hit what I thought was a good putt and it looked like t was going in and at he last second it lipped out, so now we had to play a playoff hole.

At the playoff hole we both hit average drives and I slightly pulled my 5i about 185 yards into the rough to the right of the fairway leaving me about 80 yards.  He hit his 2nd shot into the woods and his 3rd shot went into the sand trap.  I hit my 60* wedge and it looked perfect but a gust of wind came and knocked it down into the same trap he was in.  We were both laying 3 and he hit a great shot out of the trap within 6' of the hole and I caught too much sand and left it in the rough right at the edge of the trap.  There was no way for me to take a stance so I had to stand with the ball about 6" behind my back foot and didn't hit a good shot, which left my ball about 25 feet from the hole.  I 2 putted and he sunk his 6 footer and took the championship.

It was a great experience and I learned a lot about match play (this tournament was my first exposure ever to match play) so overall I'm pleased to make it as far as I did.  Thanks to all for the encouragement and kind words.

Congrats and thanks for sharing in such detail. You can tell you were really focused on the game and enjoying the competition.

[newtogolf]

Shot two consecutive 91s, which save for my one 89 are my best ever scores, but I'm kinda disappointed. Literally can't hit my irons. Just get stuck and hit fat or go long and left. I'm almost certainly coming over the top. Which is all sad because the rest of my game has been amazing. Hit about half a dozen drives over 270 over those rounds, nearly drove the green on two par 4s the other day, and my putting has been really good. But today I didn't hit a single green in reg on the way to a 91. I'd have thought that would be impossible but nope. My troubles with irons started when I started trying to implement the suggestions in the flighting wedges : irons thread, which has messed me up progressively. Which is on me, not on the advice, obviously. But anyway, I was mad today over a 91 when I had regressed to struggling to break 100 a few months ago again. Just could've been something special if I could take advantage at all today.

If you're shooting those scores while struggling with your irons, you're really close to scoring regularly in the mid-80's.  I have to make a conscious effort to feel the turn my hips on my backswing or I come over the top, not sure that's your problem but thought it might be worth mentioning.

[newtogolf]

Congrats and thanks for sharing in such detail. You can tell you were really focused on the game and enjoying the competition.

Thanks, I was very focused, especially after being down 5, I can replay every hole in my head.  I really enjoyed the competition and plan to play more tournaments and even more money games as I seem to play my best golf when there's something on the line.  If yesterday was a regular round I might have just given up but with something on the line I forced myself to focus and fight back.  I haven't felt that adrenaline rush since I played competitive racquetball and I never realized how much I miss it.

[rkim291968]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Braivo

Good luck. Thanks for keeping us posted.

Thanks, it was a crazy day.  I got to the course early to spend some time at the range and started shanking the ball all over the range.  It was ugly, no matter what club I hit, it was a shank.  I figured it was nerves and decided to leave the range and go practice putting which went much better.

The match started and I was still shanking everything, when we got to the 8th hole I hadn't won a hole and was down 5.  I finally got the swing worked out at the 8th and didn't lose a hole until we got to 17.  I was up 2 with 2 to play and 3 putted the hole and lost, so now it was 1&1 going into 18.

At 18, we both hit good drives and both our 2nd shots landed just to the sides of the hole.  I hit a good chip to about 8' of the hole and he left his about 22' from the hole.  He asked the caddie for a read and hit a perfect putt to par out the hole.  I read the 8 footer, hit what I thought was a good putt and it looked like t was going in and at he last second it lipped out, so now we had to play a playoff hole.

At the playoff hole we both hit average drives and I slightly pulled my 5i about 185 yards into the rough to the right of the fairway leaving me about 80 yards.  He hit his 2nd shot into the woods and his 3rd shot went into the sand trap.  I hit my 60* wedge and it looked perfect but a gust of wind came and knocked it down into the same trap he was in.  We were both laying 3 and he hit a great shot out of the trap within 6' of the hole and I caught too much sand and left it in the rough right at the edge of the trap.  There was no way for me to take a stance so I had to stand with the ball about 6" behind my back foot and didn't hit a good shot, which left my ball about 25 feet from the hole.  I 2 putted and he sunk his 6 footer and took the championship.

It was a great experience and I learned a lot about match play (this tournament was my first exposure ever to match play) so overall I'm pleased to make it as far as I did.  Thanks to all for the encouragement and kind words.

Outstanding!  Great comeback after going down 5 through 8.   I was no more than 3 holes behind on all my matches so I can't imagine what you felt like after seeing 5 down at 8th hole on the scorecard.   It must have been painfully disappointing to lose at the playoff after the great comeback.