Format: Stableford
Venue: [Home course]
Score: 38pts (2nd out of 11)
Handicap mark: 3.3
Themes in reply: Facts not opinions; choking; competitiveness
Hi Colin,
Hoping you are well. I don’t have much time today so here’s a brief description of Sundays Round:-
Good conditions with a slight westerly breeze. Played with KL, MN and OP.
1st – 3 wood, 9 iron to 10’ and 2 putts – 4 for 2 pts
2nd – Drive slightly right, good 7 iron to 8’, 2 putts for a 4 nett 3 and 3 pts
3rd – Drive into RH bunker, took 2 to get out, 4th shot just short of green as missed the long putt so a 6 for 0 pts
4th – Lovely 6 wood to about 8’ and 2 putts for 2 pts
5th – Good drive and 7 iron over the green, v fast 1st putt goes about 5’ past but holed up the hill for a birdie 4 and 3 points.
6th – 3 wood into RH semi, bad lie and a not so good 6 iron (topped it), wedged to about 12’ and 2 putts for a 5 nett 4 and 2 points
7th – Good wedge to 6’, just missed the birdie so 2 pts
8th – Poor drive down LHS so couldn’t get up in 2, laid up with a 9 iron and then another 9 iron to the green , 2 puts for 2 points
9th – Good drive and gap wedge to 6’, 2 putts on the temp green for 2 points and 18 points going out.
10th – Poor drive which plugged in the RH rough, no free drop so hacked it out, wedged to the green and just missed the putt so settled for a 5 and 1 point
11th – Good 7 iron to heart of the green and holed the putt for a birdie 2 and 3 points
12th – Good drive, good 3 wood and excellent gap wedge to 5’ – holed the putt for a birdie 4 nett 3 and 4 points
13th – Not so good drive down the RHS. V good 6 wood out of the rough just short of the green. Excellent approach putt that nearly dropped but a par 4 for 2 points.
14th – Good 7 iron to about 8’, just missed the putt so a par 3 and 2 points
15th – V good drive followed by a good 5 iron just left of the green. Putted up poorly to about 5 ‘ and missed for a 5 nett 4 and 2 points.
16th – Ok 3 wood followed by a v. good 6 wood to 8’. Poor birdie putt, short and right but holed for a par 4 and 2 pts.
17th – Good drive and 6 wood. Chipped up a bit short and never threatened the hole with the birdie putt. Par 5 and 2 points
18th – Good drive, in fact it was too long and wend over into the gulch. However, a good lie so I hit a gap wedge a bit short. Putted up a bit short also but holed a 4’ putt across the slope for a par 4 and 2 points.
So 20 points coming back giving a total of 38. Only 11 played in the comp and I came 2nd on countback. Handicap down to 3.3.
I played ok and had a good battle with OP who scored 37 points. He was ahead of me but I caught and over took him on the 11th through to the 14th. He picked up a shot on me on the 15th and another on the 16th (he holed a long putt for a 4 and he had a shot on that hole) to get within 1. For some reason I felt a bit of pressure particularly on the putting. I didn’t hole much except for the 5th and the 11th. OP knocked in long putts on the 3rd and the 16th and seemed to get up and down a lot. I just felt as if I should be holing more putts – I was putting for 13 birdies out there and only got 3. It’s very frustrating. On the 9th for example, OP was just outside me on the green. He holed for a birdie and I saw the line he took but I missed.
Anyway, I played ok but my driving accuracy will need to improve as the rough starts to grow.
Cheers,
John
Dear John,
You really are getting very good at these round descriptions – even when you are short of time!
Putting and your identity
You 2-putt your first 10 holes. Then you single-putt the 11th and 12th holes. The 13th hole you two-putt but only after an: “excellent approach putt that nearly dropped”. The 14th hole you 2-putt having: “just missed the putt”. At this point you overtake OP.
On the 15th, at which you receive a shot so it must be one of the three most difficult on the course, you hit two good shots to get to the green in regulation. You then hit your first poor putt of the round, miss the next and take your first 3-putt of the day.
On the 16th you hit a 6-wood to 8’, and 2-putt. On the 17th you leave your chip a bit short, and 2-putt. You rip a drive down the 18th, leave your chip a bit short and then leave your putt a bit short too but hole the next for yet another 2-putt.
So that adds up to 15 x 2-putts, 2 x 1-putt and 1 x 3-putt.
This is how you described your putting: “For some reason I felt a bit of pressure particularly on the putting. I didn’t hole much except for the 5th and the 11th. OP knocked in long putts on the 3rd and the 16th and seemed to get up and down a lot. I just felt as if I should be holing more putts – I was putting for 13 birdies out there and only got 3. It’s very frustrating. On the 9th for example, OP was just outside me on the green. He holed for a birdie and I saw the line he took but I missed.”
This is how I would describe it: “You played really well on the front nine and gave yourself lots of birdie chances with some excellent approach play. On the short 11th you hit a lovely 7-iron and the putt goes in. With that little boost in confidence you go on to hit three lovely putts: one goes in and two go close. At this point you overtake your playing partner and you become aware that it is going to be matchplay over the last few holes. At the 15th you get to the green with a couple of great shots and then hit your first poor putt of the day, leaving it an annoying 5’ short. ** You miss the 5-footer, hit a couple of good shots to give yourself another birdie chance on the 16th and come away with a good par. The 17th and 18th follow the same pattern with excellent approach play but no birdies. You finish on 38pts beating OP by 1pt.”
** [This is the moment you need to take from the round. My guess is that you were disappointed with the putt because you thought you had “choked”. You thought that you had buckled under the pressure of moving ahead of OP. You had putted really well up to that point, finally hitting your stride with four consecutive good ‘uns from the 11th to the 14th. Then you leave a putt 5’ short; and you would have felt it in the execution that your “timing” wasn’t quite there, that the stroke was a little nervy, that it reminded you a lot of previously fluffed putts. You would also have been reminded instantly of every other occasion in your sporting life when you have had to face the humiliation of “choking”. These are powerful memories and not easily overcome. The putting stroke is as delicate as they come in the sporting world, and is the place where any tightening of the muscles through nervousness will have unfortunate consequences.
Fascinatingly, it also happened to the golfers at the end of the tournament in Dubai. Cabrera-Bello could not hit a straight drive once he hit the front, but chipped and putted like an angel. Westwood drove and ironed beautifully over the same holes but tightened up on his last chip and couldn’t find the hole at all with his putting. Stephen Gallacher had a bit of both. Everybody who ever bothers to play sport, and enjoys the cut and thrust of competition, chokes. EVERYBODY. Everybody, but in their own way.
It would be an interesting exercise for you to go back over OP’s round and to try to identify where he choked: after all, he didn’t beat you!The key is the feelings and memories choking arouses in you. They will stretch all the way back to experiences you had as a child playing sport. Just look at them, re-live the pain, and then see them for what they really are: trivial. They won’t go away, but you can get them to shrink in influence a little (if you are really committed to getting them to shrink a lot then tell your kids one of your most painful memories and watch as they look at you in utter astonishment that you can even remember such rubbish). At that moment when you left the putt 5’ short you were at your most vulnerable for a number of reasons: 1. you love winning 2. you hate losing 3. you think it is always going to be your putting that lets you down because you know that underneath it all you ARE a shit putter; and the fact that as soon as any pressure comes on you, you hit your first really shit putt of the day only goes to prove that you ARE right – you really ARE a shit putter.
So, what to do. Well, take a few moments out for yourself after reading this e-mail and consider that you left the putt 5’ short not because you are a shit putter but because you think you are a shit putter. The facts, on the other hand, are these: your subconscious can “time” putts so that they go very close to the hole. We have agreed that getting a putt close is difficult but do-able; getting it in the hole is so difficult that it borders on the flukey, but the fact that we do get it in the hole quite often just goes to prove how phenomenal our ability to “time” actually is. In this very round you get close with 15 out of 18 approach putts (83%)’ and of the 3 that are not close you hole the second putt anyway. This is very good putting. You are a very good putter. You hit a bad putt on the 15th because you allowed the pressure of the situation to distract you by filling your conscious with the reasons mentioned above (you love winning, you hate losing etc). The evidence from the first 14 holes is overwhelming and suggests that if you hadn’t been distracted by your own competitive instincts then you would have got the putt on the 15th close too!
So consider that it is your competitiveness that left that putt short NOT that it came up short because you are a shit putter. If you are willing to accept this reasoning then we have something special to play with.
Your competitiveness is a special attribute that not everyone has got. You can see in your description of this round that you respond to pressure by producing even better shots. Your competitiveness works for you when it acts to heighten your senses and you bring that heightened state of awareness to the precise process of eliciting “timing” from your golf swing.
Your competitiveness works against you when you allow your heightened state of awareness to dwell on your unfounded belief that you are a shit putter, which is an opinion that itself is based on the wholly unreliable evidence of memory.
If you are willing to take responsibility for the fact that sometimes your competitiveness will lead you to dwell on unreliable opinions of yourself that are detrimental to the process of producing “timing”, then you will look for ways of NOT doing that the next time you feel it is about to happen. The next time you feel under pressure on a putt, remind yourself of the impact of being distracted by unreliable opinions; notice that it is your competitiveness that raises the spectre of your unreliable opinions; remind yourself that you are very lucky to have competitiveness in your make-up; remind yourself of how much easier it is to elicit “timing” when your senses have been heightened by your competitiveness; take your heightened awareness and apply it to the task in hand; and finally, remind yourself of what it feels like when a putt drops and you know that the other guy knows that you holed it under pressure. Then smile, and slap the f****r in!]
If I’m right about the choking then the last few holes are fascinating. Over the last few holes it looks as if you tighten up on the putts and the chips but your driving and irons are really good. What this signifies to me is that pressure enhances your long game but adversely affects your short game. This can only be because you have a hang-up about your short game that you don’t have about your long game. Mr Cabrera-Bello is exactly the opposite!
You need to remind yourself that every shot is the same once you see it as simply the need to apply a specific force.
Overall, though, to come second, get 38pts, beat B, and get your handicap down again is very pleasing. This is how you described it:
“So 20 points coming back giving a total of 38. Only 11 played in the comp and I came 2nd on countback. Handicap down to 3.3.
I played ok . . .”
What difference does it make to your score that there were only 11 in the competition? There could have been 50 in the competition but the other guy who got 38pts might not have been playing and then you would have won!
And another thing: you had a blob. Let’s say that that cost you a point; then let’s allow for a normal day’s putting somewhere between this one and the one in the summer when you had 28 putts – let’s say 31 putts. Combined that would have given you another 5 points, giving you 43 points in total.
You are playing great. Improvement is incremental and inevitable.
Thanks again for the report. I love doing this!
Colin
