narrominded
H av i n g
high expectations in
golf can be
a dangerous way to
approach
playing
a
round.
There’s
nothing
wrong with
being confident about your game;
however, expecting to shoot a
good score can lead to disappointment and frustration.
I’ll start with myself. I can
remember many more times in
my golf life playing well with little or no expectations vs playing
well when I fully expected to. A
great example of this would be
the 2000, yes, I’m that old, Gulf
States Section Championship at
the beautiful Old Waverly in West
Point, Mississippi. Due to a busy
schedule at work and home, I had
played and practiced very little
leading up to the three-day tournament. My mentality going into
the event was, “I’m just happy to
not be at work.” Any of you ever
felt that way?
There was a pro-am before the
first round which I played in to
use as a practice round. I rushed
to get to the course on time and
only had a few minutes to warm
up. For this reason, I only took my
6-iron to the range and hit only a
few balls to get loose. Not surprisingly, most of the shots I hit were
really bad to say the least, but the
last one came off perfect, so I took
that swing to the course.
Somehow or another, I made
seven birdies that round but still
only shot around par. Lots of bogeys and others came with the
good shots. That night before the
first tournament round, a couple
of friends and I went to the put-
ting green next to the proshop. We
could barely see the mini flagsticks
where the holes were cut but after a couple of loops around the
green we had a decent idea how
the putts broke. Believe it or not,
we started making as many putts
as we normally do during the day
and went to bed that night thinking nothing of it other than a fun
time with friends.
First round starts, and since I
hit it okay in the pro-am, I only
took my 6-iron to warm up again.
Fifteen practice shots later, I’m on
the first tee just trying to get the
ball somewhere down the fairway.
Well, I got it on the green in regulation about 40 feet away and
bam!! Made the putt. The second
hole is a par five in which I hit a
poor drive, scratchy lay up and soso wedge to about 30 feet. Drano!!
Another birdie. From there on, I
putted as if the hole was a wash
tub and when it was all said and
done, posted 7-under 65. No one
was more surprised than I was.
The second round was an
up and down even par 72 which
protected my four-shot lead I
built with the unconcious opening round 65. After hitting my 15
6-irons to loosen up for the third
and final round, the ball was coming off great, and my swing felt
great. I went out and shot a bogey
free 69 capping the day off with a
birdie on the tough 18th in front
of a crowd. Despite having played
and practiced very little coming
into the event I had won my first
real tournament of my life and
played as well as I ever had. Having no expectations is a great way
to play.
Having been behind the counter for nearly 23 years I’ve heard
many versions of rounds of golf
from many people. Low handicappers to high, men, women,
and children have all explained
their frustrations of battling one
of the toughest games there is.
While I’ve wanted to say numerous time, “You’re just not that
good,” I’ve patiently and compassionately been a good shoulder to
cry on. However, while listening
I’ve tried to explain that “trying
too hard” or lowering expectations can lift the self laid burden
of being perfect off ones shoulders
in a non-perfect game. It’s hard
being a psychiatrist.
Now that I’m a college golf
coach, I see this challenge of lofty
expectations in a whole different
way. These kids practice all the
time and work out like professional
athletes. They are very, very good
but expect to play golf like the
guys and girls on TV playing for
a living. I truly feel if they would
approach the game with slightly
less expectations, they would do
a lot better and more importantly, let the bad days roll off their
backs. My main goal for the team
is to have fun and look forward to
the challenge of a tough round,
course, or shot. It’s certainly not
life or death.
I once told a group of ladies
playing in a club championship
that you have to smile in order
to play well. I completely believe
that if most of us lowered our expectations of how we should play,
not only would we play better golf,
we could enjoy our bad rounds as
well. After all, isn