As of this month, I've now played golf for exactly 4 years. It took me a year to reduce my index to 8, another year to get down to 4, and as of today, another 2 years to get down to 2! I shot my first 4-under 68 today and finally broke through the 2 handicap barrier to a get to a personal best 1.6 index! The key? Lots of golf and making lots of putts!


Desert Willow Golf Resort, Palm Desert

Last week, my wife and I drove to Palm Springs for a small vacation. She spent the mornings at the pool, I headed out for golf. We then enjoyed the afternoons and evenings together. We planned to stay for a week, but after spending four days in 100+ degree heat, we headed home early and continued our vacation at home here on the California Central Coast. I just finished playing my 8th round of golf in 10 days!

While in Palm Springs, I played Tahquitz Creek, Terra Lago, Cimarron, and Desert Willow. Tahquitz Creek's Legend Course provided a nice, affordable warm-up for the following rounds. I shot 78, loosing all my strokes to par in the middle of the round after pushing practically every drive right. I finally found my driver on the 450 yard par 4 18th where I finished with a birdie. Terra Lago's North Course beat me up on the front nine where I found myself in sand on practically every hole! My driver was on all day, but I just couldn't score. I found every possible way to follow up an incredible drive with a bogie! I doubled 18 to finish with a disappointing 83. But the following day, I played the tips at Cimarron and finished just 3-over, even after loosing a ball on the final hole!

But I saved the best for last. I played my final round at Desert Willow's Firecliff Course with a pleasant couple from Vancouver. I was even par on the front nine, but managed to throw in 3 double bogies on the back nine thanks to a few errant drives. With one birdie on the back, I came into the 513 yard par 5 18th at 5-over. I hit a bit of a hook off the tee, leaving a hefty 250 yards to reach the green in two. There was a narrow opening to the green with a lake to the right. After letting my good round get away from me, I decided to go for it.

I hit a 3-wood right where I was aiming, leaving me just short and left of the green. As I walked to my ball, I observed that we had quite a gallery seated outdoors at the restaurant in the clubhouse up on the hill above. I got my focus back on studied my upcoming shot, a 60-70 foot chip breaking hard to the left near the hole. I picked a spot, looked down at my ball, and took the club back slowly. I made crisp contact, but started the ball a little right of my intended line. After watching the ball get started though, the speed looked good. The ball rolled towards the mound located right of the hole, took a hard left as I anticipated, then continued to roll towards the hole and dropped for eagle! An applause erupted from the restaurant! Not only did I eagle the final hole, I had a gallery to enjoy it with me. The couple I played with even treated me to a beer after the round to celebrate!

My wife and I headed home the following day, but I continued my vacation by playing local courses on Wednesday and Thursday, then returned to work on Friday. I planned to just practice and check out a demo day on Saturday, but ran into three friends and joined them for a late afternoon round from the back tees. I shot a solid 4-over 75 and one of my friends shot his career best round, an even par 71 with a birdie, birdie, eagle, par finish!

Today, I finished my golf marathon, playing in our monthly Men's Club tournament. We played the same tees where I shot my 3-under 69 just 2 weeks ago, but I let go of any expectations of repeating this success and decided only to enjoy the round and hit some good shots.

On the first hole, I hit a horrible hook to the left on this par 4 dogleg right, leaving a lengthy approach. My subsequent shot came up short and right of the green with a back-left pin. I hit a perfect lob wedge that stopped pin high and spun left and rolled in for birdie! Another player in the foursome then chipped in from well off the green for another birdie, and another player then chipped from below the green to within 1 foot! We had a nice start to the round!

I managed to par the next 5 holes, then birdied 7 to get to 2-under, but then came the difficult par 4 eighth!

My drive hit the large eucalyptus tree at the inside corner of the dogleg right, leaving a 210 yard approach. Like the first hole, my approach came up short and right. This time though, instead of holing my chip shot, I came up 15-20 feet short. My long putt for par was on line, but also came up short. Somehow, I missed my 2-foot bogie putt and walked way with a discouraging double bogie to get back to even par!

I let her rip on the par 5 9th, leaving only 220 in. I hit a 5-wood to just in front of the green, pitched to 2 feet and made my putt for birdie! I finished the front 1-under.

Pars on 10 and 11 kept me 1-under, but a horrible wedge from 80 yards out on 12 put me in a deep greenside bunker. A good bunker shot gave me a shot at par, but I settled for bogie and got back to even par. I had 5 holes left to get back under par!

Another good drive on the par 5 13th gave me a chance to reach in 2, but I missed a little left from 220 yards out. I got up and down for birdie to get back to 1-under!

I had a decent chance at birdie on 14, but read too little break and tapped in for par. But on 15, I made a nice downhill breaking putt from 10-15 feet for another birdie! Back to 2-under.

I gave myself another good chance for birdie on 16 after hitting a pitching wedge to 8-10 feet. My right-to-left putt dropped and I was now 3-under!

I missed the green on the challenging par 3 17th, but chipped to 1 foot and saved par.

I walked up to 18 at 3-under with 6 birdies, 1 bogie, and 1 double bogie. Two weeks earlier, I was also 3-under when I approached 18. I often reach this par 5 in 2, but 2 weeks ago, I 3-putted for par. Today I planned to birdie!

I hit an acceptable drive, leaving a 200+ yard carry over a lake to consider going for the green in two. Instead of protecting a good round, I decided to give it a go. I hit a choked up 5-wood, but pulled it left. It didn't look like the ball would carry the lake, but we didn't see a splash. We also didn't see a bounce. Most likely, the ball had come up short and landed in the lily pads bordering the lake.

The twosome in the other cart rode to the other side of the lake to take a look for me. They found my ball just 2 feet over the lake, in the hazard, but playable! I had a pretty good lie and a clear shot at the flag. I stayed relaxed, looked at the flag, visualized my shot, and made my swing. Like my chip on 17, the ball rolled right towards the hole and stopped just 1 foot short. I walked up and tapped in for my 7th birdie of the round, finishing 4-under! I'd just birdied 4 out of the final 5 holes!

My round beat the next best round for the day by 6 strokes! This was not only my first 4-under round, but my first tournament round under par, and my first first-place finish in a tournament! I posted my score and learned I'd finally reached my goal for this fourth year of golf - to break the 2-handicap barrier! My index is now down to 1.6! In my last 20 rounds, I've shot 2 rounds in the 60's, 15 rounds in the 70's, and only 3 rounds at or above 80!

My game doesn't seem that much better than it did one or two years ago. But one difference is my putting! I'm finally putting with trust, and without an attachment to the outcome. I'm just stroking the ball with trust and accepting what comes. The more detached I become, the more my putts are starting to drop!

Labels: Detachment, Rounds

After shooting one of my worst rounds of golf in 6 months yesterday, and realizing that I've taken too much time from work this week to play golf, I think I need to step back and get some perspective. It's bad enough that my score has suffered recently from trying too hard to improve. I certainly don't want golf to start interfering with other parts of my life, like work.


Photo by Deano8 at flickr.com

Jim Waldron, a nationally acclaimed golf teaching professional and mental game coach at Balance Point Golf Schools, believes that perspective is one of seven core traits comprised by golfers who learn the fastest, practice the most effectively, and achieve the most dramatic performance breakthroughs on the golf course.

Waldron shares that, "perspective means understanding that life itself - especially golf! - is always in a constant state of flux. There is nothing to hold onto that will truly last. Accepting this allows the golfer to see that golf is truly "just a game" and that there are many more important things in one's life than the current state of your golf game. Perspective allows you to see the larger view and apportion your time and energy to golf in a balanced blending with the other parts of your life."

Not only does proper perspective help to keep your life in balance, but in golf, perspective leads the way to detachment about the outcome of a shot, and that detachment removes all doubt and fear from your mind, enabling a tension-free swing and solid contact. Learning proper perspective may be the most important discipline in golf because doubt and fear only exist when the golfer cares too much about the outcome.

It is our ego that is attached to and overly concerned about the outcome. The ego's attachment to the shot interferes with the natural communication between brain and body in a futile attempt to prevent failure or achieve success. Both intentions affect your balance, coordination and mechanics, resulting in poor impact.

Great golf shots result from a detached state of mind allowing us to clearly focus on the target. So the freedom and fearlessness required for playing artful golf are rooted in detachment that comes from proper perspective, gained only by rising above the ego.

Labels: Balance Point, Detachment, Disciplines, Jim Waldron, Perspective