The conditions were favourable and the course is shorter because of temporary greens. Those favourable conditions did not help all the other players bar one to outscore you. In effect, there is no such thing as “conditions”. When you reach your ball it will occur to you where it needs to get to. There will be a number of factors to consider. One of these factors could be described by the catch-all term “conditions”. They are neither favourable nor unfavourable: they just are. Sometimes the “conditions” will fall in such a way that scoring is easier but even that is irrelevant because they will be easier for everyone. Occasionally, within a round or a competition there will be a change in “conditions” that significantly alters the ease of scoring. So what?
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You also mentioned the windy conditions. In your comments about the recent prolonged spell of bad weather it came across to me that the weather was starting to get on your nerves: and who can blame you!
However, it did get me thinking about the way that we use weather and the conditions that it produces to “add context” to the retrospective appraisal of our performances that is so much part of playing games.
One of the many aspects of my theory about “timing” that I like is the way that it can help to make sense of our sometimes irrational behaviour as players. For example, we know that to give ourselves the best chance of a successful outcome to a shot we need to locate our “timing”. To give ourselves the best chance of locating our “timing” we need to consciously give our subconscious two things: freedom to get on with the job without interference, and information (visualisation).
For our conscious brain to be able to help our subconscious in this specific way it needs to be able to focus, to concentrate, to be “in the zone” free from all other concerns. In our correspondence I have often talked about the sorts of concerns that invade our conscious brain when we are faced with hitting a golf ball from Position A to desired Position B, and how these concerns take up the space and time we need to undertake the difficult task of locating our “timing”. Almost anything in our life – from the last conversation with one’s wife to the crass decisions of the greens committee – can end up as a concern that, at the crucial moment, prevents us from fully engaging with the task of locating our “timing”.
The weather is another such concern; but because it is a concern shared and, importantly, understood by the other players, it is the one that is most often cited by players when appraising their performance. But in talking (usually moaning) about the weather when appraising one’s performance, it is very easy to start to view the weather as a reason for the performance, that is, as an excuse. And even though it is seemingly obvious that the weather has a strong influence on the performance of players, using the weather as an excuse is, for two reasons, unjustifiable and therefore unhelpful in the long run.
Firstly, weather affects all players in the same way. An exception, obviously, is . . .
