I've experienced some dreadful rounds in the past couple weeks. One of the leagues I participate in plays 9-hole team matches every Tuesday night. Two weeks ago, I shot a 44 after getting off to a good start, but then 4-putting on my 5th green. This week, I went out early to play 9-holes before the match with one of my teammates so we could get in a little practice and to check out the pin placements. I shot a 51, my second worst nine in my entire 2 years playing! I lost 2 balls on the first hole and another ball a few holes later! My putting was horrendous too! But worst of all, I was duffing shots with some of my favorite clubs. My game completely unraveled for the first time since I can remember.


Peaceful Reflections by brunosmi at flickr.com

When we finished our practice round, I learned I was matched against the best player in the league for the upcoming 9 hole match. My handicap has improved so much recently, that I also found out that I didn't even get any strokes. We were both playing as 4's. Honestly, I just don't see myself as being in the same league as this guy. He's at least 15 years younger, in a lot better shape, and simply kills the ball. He has the smoothest swing I've ever witnessed. I strike the ball pretty well, but I can't even come close to keeping up with this guy. I played a round with him last year, and on a 185 yard par 3 where I take a 6-iron, he takes a 7-iron and even goes 8-iron at times. He makes it look effortless, like a pro. Although we both share a background in hockey, he's played golf since he was a youth. I've been playing seriously for just over a year.

Needless to say, I was a little apprehensive and doubtful about my chances after coming off a 51 on the same nine holes we were about to play!

Now, my bad play of late didn't just appear out of nowhere. I've spent the last two weekends ripping up tile and carpeting and installing new flooring at my wife's retail store. My wife's partner's husband had already repainted the store, and I helped him install new wood-like flooring. In addition to all the bending over that's required, moving all their displays back and forth really did a number on my back. As expected, I lost my swing and gradually lost every other part of my game.

So, without an ounce of confidence, I took this guy on.

He starts off with a 300 yard drive on a par 4, leaving him with a short wedge in. He gets it up close and makes his birdie putt. I on the other hand, hit my drive into a hill covered in long fescue. I managed to hit the fringe on my approach, but left myself with an Augusta-like, curving downhill putt with sprinklers in the way. I chipped to avoid the sprinklers and was left with 15 feet for par. I made the putt! Although I lost the hole, I made a great up and down.

I had decided before the round to limit use of my driver because it had gotten me in so much trouble during my practice round. But on the following hole, my opponent hit his drive so far, he only had an iron in to the par 5 green. I pulled out my driver to at least give myself a chance to get close in 2. I then hit my favorite 5-wood left, into some wood chips below a grove of eucalyptus trees. To my amazement, my opponent then missed his approach right. I was still in it. I hit a full lob wedge from the chips that cleared some huge bunkers and landed the green, which was out of my sight, some 25 feet above me. My opponent chipped up, but failed to clear a mound and rolled back off the green! I lagged to 2 feet. He chipped again, this time up to about 4 feet. I missed my 2-footer. He made his. We halved the hole. I had thrown away a perfect chance to take the hole and get back to even.

It turns out that my poor play began to rub off on my opponent as the round continued. On the next hole, I 4-putted after struggling to even get to the green, but he then 3-putted on the following hole. By the time we reached the final hole, I'd pulled to even in the match, and was only 1 back in our stroke play. Unfortunately, I chunked yet another tee shot and lost the last hole with a bogie. We had both played terribly. I shot a 45, he shot 43. We're both looking forward to redeeming ourselves the next time we play against each other.

I finished the round just wanting to quit playing for a while. As hard as I tried, I had a hard time enjoying myself. I felt like I'd regressed all the way back to being a beginner.

Luckily, a good night's sleep changed my attitude.

After work the next day, I headed over to another course to hit some balls on the range. After a few swings, I decided to play with my grip and ended up going a little stronger than my normal neutral grip. Immediately, everything felt better and I reduced the severity of my natural fade. I took out my driver and started hitting some pretty long and straight drives. Then, as I often do at the end of my practice session on the range, I hit a few "Happy Gilmore" drives. I have an uncanny ability to hit some awesome drives by standing back about 10 feet from the ball, then walking up and swinging with everything I've got. It's great practice for hand-eye coordination. All the golfers from the local high school team happened to be on the range with me. Before long, about a dozen of them turned around to watch this "Happy" spectacle. Effortlessly, I sent these "Happy" drives, one after the other, to the ends of the range! One guy commented that my drives were "tight" ;).

I finished my bucket and went up to the clubhouse for a beer, where I ran into a fellow x-submariner friend who lives on the course, is retired, and currently plays to a 3. He asked if I wanted to play 4 or 5 holes with him after we finished our Firestones. Eager to try out my new grip out on the course, I obliged. We played 14 through 18. I hit every green in regulation and only missed one fairway by a few feet. After I hit that one drive a little left. My friend suggested I try strengthening my right hand too. Apparently, I'd strengthened my grip with my left hand, but my right hand was still neutral, causing me to come over the ball and pull it left. I tried his suggestion on the next hole and got immediate results. On the par 5 18th, I hit another booming drive, but still had about 220 yards to the back left pin. I decided to see if I could get a little extra out of my 5-wood with my new and improved grip. I hit it perfectly and cleared the lake protecting the entire green and landed nice and soft with an easy 2-putt for birdie. What was most rewarding about this shot wasn't the extra distance and accuracy I'd discovered, but that this was the very hole I collapsed on the last time I played it, shooting a quadruple bogie after putting 2 balls in the lake during a Men's tournament, after fighting back to get to even par after a poor start.

Now back to the title of this post. I made an artful discovery. However, I'm not referring to my new grip. Yesterday, I snuck away from my computer about 2:00 in the afternoon to go back to the course I had just shot that 51/45 round. I went out as a single. My goal was to get a little more practice in with my new grip, without the influence of the beer or two I experienced the day before.

I was told in the clubhouse that they were starting off on the 10th and that nobody was in front of me for several holes. Perfect!

But when I walked up to 10, I found I was behind 2 young guys that just teed off and were now hacking the ball from one side of the fairway to the other. It wasn't pretty but at least they're giving it a try. After I wait for them to get out of range and tee off, then start walking up the fairway, another twosome comes up behind me, glaring at me with their hands on their hips. I wait in the fairway for the hacker twosome to clear the green, while these other 2 guys are still waiting on the tee for me to get out of their way. I hit a poor 7-iron short of the green, chip up and 2-putt for bogie.

I then get up to the 11th tee and see that another twosome has just let the hacker twosome play through. I wait about 10 minutes for both groups to finish this par 3. While I'm waiting, the twosome behind me catches up and joins me on the teebox. I then learn why they're irritated and why this supposed empty course is all congested. It turned out that the hacker twosome and irritated twosome weren't told to start on 10, so they had just finished the front nine and now run into those of us just starting our round. What a mess. We decided to join up as a threesome. We warmed up to each other quickly and they started smiling again. Finally, the green cleared and we all hit good shots that landed the green, but ended up on the upper tier above the hole. We all 3-putted for bogies.

I bogied the next par 5 hole too with another 3-putt, but didn't care since I was striking the ball so well. After all, I was just practicing with my new grip. I wasn't focusing too hard on my putting or worrying about my score. But then I birdied 13 and started thinking I might as well try to play a good round. I bogied one more hole and finished the back just 3-over - the same nine I'd just shot my 51 and 45! I was feeling good and happy that I didn't actually quit golf like I told myself I would a couple days prior!

My newfound friends left after we finished the back since they'd already played the front, and I continued on as a single. I hit some trees on my approach to the first green, then left myself about 15 feet above the hole after my wedge in. I lipped out on my par putt and made bogie to go 4-over. Then on the par 4 2nd, I overswung and hit another tree. I decided to pull out another ball just for practice and hit it right down the middle. The ball that hit the tree had bounced way back, but into the fairway. I hit a 7-iron to about 50 feet from the pin. Just for fun, I played my other drive too and put a wedge to about 20 feet above the hole.

For anyone who decided to keep reading, this is where my artful discovery comes in!

I took a long look at the 50 footer and decided it broke left and was downhill - a putt that could easily run away from the hole, making for an easy 3-putt. While I was standing over the ball, I got this feeling that I just wasn't lined up right. I started moving my putter alignment further and further away from the hole, then all of a sudden, I just got this feeling that I was now lined up right. Since I didn't have much confidence in my ability to 2-putt from here anyway, I decided to trust this feeling and just putt. As you might have guessed, I sunk the putt and made birdie! I then decided to go ahead and see if I could recreate this feeling with that other ball, sitting 20 feet above the hole. I hardly spent anytime looking at the putt, just enough to get a general idea of which direction it would break. I then stood over the ball and turned my putter until something just felt right. It's not a feeling I can describe, but some type of intuitive knowing. While turning my putter head to change my alignment, I got that feeling again. With total trust (I already had my birdie), I took the putter back and sunk another birdie putt! A double birdie! I was now back to 3-over.

I continued to try out this new putting method for the rest of the round. Although I didn't keep sinking all my long putts, I did leave all my lag putts within inches of the cup for easy tap in pars. On one hole, I even tried this new discovery out with my lob wedge. I was about 70 yards out with an uphill shot to a hard-to-stick green. I waited for this feeling while standing over the ball, then swung. I landed 3 feet out and putted for birdie - now just 2-over!

I missed a curly little downhill putt for par on the 8th, but made an impressive par on 9 to come in just 3-over. I'd shot even-par since those first 3 holes where I wasn't really trying to putt or score well! Shooting a 74 right after those dismal scores I'd shot the other day certainly lifted my spirits!

This little discovery of a feeling or intuitive knowing while putting has me excited! I have no doubt that after my eyes have looked over a putt from all angles, my body has all the information it needs to make the putt. I just need practice working with and trusting my intuition to guide me. Being a naturally left-brained analytical type, this will be quite a challenge for me, but I have a deep sense that what I experienced yesterday wasn't just a fluke. I really did "feel" something different when my putter was lined up correctly, even though the analytical side of me was convinced I was now aiming too high or too low.

Golf can be quite an adventure in self-discovery! If anyone has any insights or experience of their own using intuition in golf, please share.

Labels: Disciplines, Intuition, Rounds