Date: May 15th 2011
Format: Various
Venue: Various
Score: Various
Handicap mark: 3.7
Themes in reply: Course management; nervousness; that putter
Hi Colin,
Firstly I’m glad you enjoyed our knock last Sunday. It was good fun and it also gave you a chance to see the course at first hand so at least you will know what I’m talking about!
Dear John,
If you recall we started the afternoon at your course talking about the role of “course management”.
The point I was making was that there is such a thing as “course management” – it encapsulates the thoughts and calculations that make up a decision to play a shot a certain way to try to achieve a certain outcome -, but there is no such thing as “course management” when it is defined as the way a shot should be played. I am labouring this point because it is a good example of the sorts of things that can cloud a player’s thinking as they approach their next shot.
As I explained at the time, when you approach a shot you need to be using every shred of experience you have ever garnered (course management). To do this your subconscious needs to be a clear and empty space so that anything that needs to pop in there has the freedom to do so. A conscious thought such as “Oh, I should be using ‘course management skills'” is the sort of conscious thought that blocks the sub-conscious.
I’m bringing this up again because I have spotted another potential “blocker”. In your e-mail you mention twice that you are a “slow-starter”. You’re not; it is just that a couple of times lately you have started slowly (and even this is a “fact” only in the sense that I believe you!). This opinion of yourself as a ‘slow-starter” will be there every time you start a match and has the potential to get in the way of your thinking. Let’s say your approach to the first green is a little short and you are facing a difficult chip, it would be easy for you to blame your slow starting ability for being in this tricky position and for that thought to get in the way of a sharply focused shot-process.
So, I request that you give up this opinion of yourself simply on the basis that it is not true!
I admit that this is subtle mind stuff but I think it is important because it is very, very important that you approach each and every shot with absolute clarity, so that there is nothing in the way of your subconscious finding the right shot and then the right swing for that shot. You know what the process is and you must take complete responsibility for putting yourself through that process. Then, whatever the outcome, you must completely accept the outcome so that you approach the next shot with nothing left over from the last shot: no regrets or resentments, and your mind not distracted by trying to find something or someone (usually yourself) to blame.
In the last round of the 1967 Bell South Classic, Jack Nicklaus – 2 shots off the lead – shanked his second shot on the 15th fairway 50 yards into the rough. He rescued his par and then went birdie, birdie, eagle to win the tournament by a shot. When asked how he had managed it he replied that the shank was history as soon as it was a shank, every shot after that was just another shot that needed playing!
Wednesday evening. Our first league match in division 1b against Swansea Bay at home. Don’t forget this is foursomes (every other shot) and there are 6 players from each team – i.e. 3 matches. The team had a very good win 2.5 – 0.5 although it was much tighter than the score suggests. I played with CD who is off 3 handicap and we played bottom (3rd). The way it works is that the home captain (me) has to give the away captain his pairings. The away captain can then match up his pairings. This is done to try and negate some of the home advantage. Anyway, as it worked out we ended up playing their best pair (one off scratch and one off 1) and because it looked as if our second pair were losing (they managed to win the last 2 holes to get a half) the result was dependent on how we did. Both CD and myself played well and kept holing putts to keep them at bay.
We were one up going down the last (so the worst we could do was a half). It was really windy and we were playing off the blue boxes. CD hit a good drive onto the fairway but the wind was so strong I had to hit a 3 wood! I hit it really well onto the green and that killed them off. I was very pleased with the way I holed out under pressure to keep our momentum going and I think the breathing out helped considerably.
Thursday – Welsh Accies RFC golf day at Cardiff – This is a bit of a corporate day and I played with a chap off 15 and another one off 21. Cardiff is a tight tree lined course and I didn’t score very well on the first 9. My putting was poor and I put it down to lack of concentration. I played much better on the 2nd 9. I wasn’t too worried about my play though as it is only a fun event. The good thing was that I had a good look at the course for the following day.
Friday – Welsh Team match vs West Mon GC at Cardiff. – This is 5 single match play matches played until there is a result – i.e if the score is level after 18 you play on until someone wins a hole. This is usually quite a high standard and I was selected to play No 5. As it turned out I played their Captain who was off 2.
I am always a slow starter in these and he was a very good player. Again, I played poorly on the first 9 and was 3 down at the turn. After that I played a lot better but he matched me. I had one putt that I knew was crucial to get it back to 2 down and hopefully apply some pressure but it stayed out. He eventually beat me 4 and 3. However, we won the match 3-2 – EF our captain won on the first extra hole and are through to the next round.
I was disappointed with the way I played on the first 9. I hit the ball poorly and I put it down to being tense which I know I should not be – its only a game of golf!
Wednesday eve – It sounds like you played really well. A 3-wood onto that green in the wind and under pressure is a great shot and won’t go unnoticed. It also is a good example of how this process does better the more pressure there is; the lack of which you rightly blame for your poor-ish performance on your corporate day. I am really chuffed that you were pleased with your putting under pressure and that you think the breathing exercise is helping. You need to keep practising the pendulum rhythm on your putting and whilst doing this in the office remember to try the exercise where you stop at the end of the backswing and feel how much tension you can release from your arms and shoulders.
Thursday
I am very impressed with the way you are able to improve during a round; it is the sign of a true competitor.
Friday
Mmmmmmmm……………. Forgive me but I think I need to get a bit stiff with you. The tone of your writing suggests that you went into the match lacking confidence in your ability. As you well know this is a killer. Getting selected to play at this level is a fantastic opportunity to test your progress and a huge privilege; you know very well that you were only selected because your play is worthy of a place in the team. The only allowable emotion is rip-roaring excitement at the prospect of playing another very good player. Tension is a good thing because it is another form of the pressure that inspired the 3-wood into the 18th on Wednesday. It is only a bad thing if it presents as muscular tension because tense muscles won’t swing.
There is a very simple and effective way of freeing yourself from these emotions that made you feel tense as you approached the match. The emotions will be based in a past memory; you need to find the memory and then tell someone close to you (wife, Dad, brother, all three!) about the event as honestly and emotionally as you can manage; really open yourself up to the memory and let it rip.
As soon as the story is told to another, so it loses influence for ever. Do this over a glass of wine with lightness in your heart (it is only sport, after all!) but do it because it is a bit of your past that is spoiling your future. My guess is that the memory is likely to be an event when you really feel as if you let someone or some team down. It will occur to you as a personal humiliation that you are willing to hide from and willing to hide from others. It might be from when you were young, or when you were a rugby player, or even during your career as a golfer.
When you tell the story what you will see is that no one, not even those closest to you, gives the slightest damn. As an exercise for a Landmark Education course I was on last year, I said I would find something in my own past that I was ashamed of and tell everyone I was close to, and some not so close (basically everybody I had a current e-mail address for.). The story was that when I was 15 I had cheated in a badminton tournament by calling two shots “out” when I knew they were in. It took me forever to write the story without any justification for the actions in it, just the plain, simple truth: the facts. When it was finished I felt sick at the prospect of everyone finding out. But I pressed the “Send” button and guess what?; all the replies I had were people telling me how brave I was to own up, how much closer they felt to me because I had opened myself up, how stupidly funny it was that I was ashamed of such a minute thing: pure magic.
You had nothing to fear from playing their Captain off 2 on a neutral course, yet you were tense. It must be coming from somewhere. Hunt the memory down and kill its influence.
Saturday – Luke Rose Bowl at RPGC – I played with GH as my partner. It’s a bit of a fun tournament and basically the best score one each hole out of the two of us counts. We won it last year! The conditions were very windy and it was the prevailing wind. Put it like this, I hit a good drive off the first and was just about level with the bunker on the rhs of the fairway so that’s how strong the wins was and it got stronger as we progressed.
I played ok. I missed a short putt on the 3rd but generally struck the ball well particularly on the 2nd 9. We did ok as a team and on the 18th I hit a great drive and a beaut of a 3 iron to about 6 foot (it was almost right into the wind). The putt was across the slope and lipped out. If it had gone in we would have won the comp! (we ended up 3rd)
Summary
I get the feeling that I am a slow starter. This must be a mental thing because I was well warmed up before all matches (except Thursdays when I went straight from work). In am still hitting the ball well but need to get my chipping neared to the hole to give me a better chance of holing the putt. This was evident on Friday because when I was missing the greens I wasn’t getting up and down. If you can do this then usually the opposition get frustrated and it works well in your favour.
This week is a much quieter week. I am going to have a knock on We evening with most of the team and I’m not sure what is on for the weekend. Our next league match is a week Wednesday at home against Morlais Castle (Merthyr).
I am going to take your advice and use a normal blade putter on Wednesday and see how it goes.
Hope all is well with you and that the sale is going through ok.
Regards,
John
Saturday
In contention again! That’s good; and another fantastic shot under pressure into the 18th.
Putter
Thank you for taking my coaching so seriously that you are willing to ditch the Starship Enterprise putter (I can’t wait to tell Luigi!). The reason for changing putter to a simpler design is so that you get used to the idea that it is you who is responsible for hitting good putts and so you don’t require any gimmicks to help you. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the putter, it just sends your psyche the wrong message.
This is what you wrote in your e-mail:
“I am going to take your advice and use a normal blade putter on Wed and see how it goes.”
Can you see how your psyche is still trying to wriggle out of responsibility for hitting good putts by giving you the get out clause of “… and see how it goes.”. That is, if it doesn’t “go” well it must be the putter’s fault. Also, you describe the blade putter as “normal”. You know that I know what a blade putter is. Why did you have to tell me that it was “normal”? You will have a perfectly reasonable reason for telling me, but for me it is a dead giveaway.
Chipping
It will come. We need to get together, though, and have a nice session on it. It won’t take long; once you start to feel the ball sitting on the blade you will get so much confidence from the feeling and become so excited at the prospect of executing perfect control you will be gagging to find an impossible lie at the top of a glacially fast slopey green needing to get up and down to take the match to an extra hole!
Regards,
Colin
