Tournament Golf

The last time I played in an individual, established handicap required, tournament was about 1992. This is the first time in over 15 years I will step onto the first tee in a true competition and I am pretty excited about it. I joined the men's club at a local course and started booking scores about 3 weeks ago for my handicap. I have 7 posted scores to date and I hope to easily exceed the required 10 rounds prior to June 8th.

The tournament is individual stroke play and I can think of no better way to get my feet wet. After coming back from his bout with cancer, Paul Azinger said he missed the butterflies coming down the stretch to win a tournament. I am very curious how I will feel on the first tee of a relatively foreign golf course while playing my first real tournament in 15 years.

Performance plays such a huge role in my life and I am guessing it does in yours. Work, parenting, sports, card games, board games, horse shoes; at the end of the day, its all about performance. I enjoy participating in many things but I must admit the better I perform, the more I enjoy it. Why does performance or mastery drive me, you or most people? I will guess and say it has something to do with living a full and interesting life.

The funny thing about improving performance is that I can't simply will myself to perform better or try harder. What I have found and it still fascinates me is the harder I "try" to perform well, the worse my performance gets. In golf, I believe this rule is magnified dramatically because there is nobody else that can cover your behind on a fatted sand wedge.

The best personal example I can give is hitting a huge drive, in play even, and being in the cat bird seat with a wedge from 115 in my hands. I can honestly say the term "birdie" automatically pops into my head the absolute moment I know the drive is a good one. I think this is actually good as I am absolutely a birdie hunter on the course. I will take a reasonable amount of risk for the reward that is offered. The problem lies in the mental game after that...

After repeating this scenario probably several hundred times, I am now quite sure somehow between hitting the drive and arriving at my ball I have been abducted by aliens. I have come to this conclusion based on the guy who just hit a nice, long and straight drive is not the guy that finishes the hole. This imposter has repeatedly skulled, fatted, pulled, chili dipped, sh___(I will not type it but you know the word) and damn near whiffed the approach shot.

Even if the imposter somehow actually manages to get the ball onto the putting surface, a four jack or at bare minimum a three jack is the next logical choice for this cretin. Beyond calling in Fox Moulder or Carlos Castenada for extraterrestrial assistance, what is this birdie hunter to do?

My answer to most problems is to read books and two that I think have helped me over the past 6 to 12 months are The Inner Game of Golf by Tim Gallwey and Golf and the Spirit by M. Scott Peck. I think both have much the same to say but in elegantly different and interesting ways. In a nutshell, I am now convinced more than ever that mental preparation and conditioning is every bit as important as a sound golf swing. As my great friend Matt tells me, there is no substitute for hitting golf balls. I would also add there is no substitute for mentally conditioning yourself while hitting those golf balls.

In preparation for the upcoming tournament, I will be spending a lot of time at the course hitting balls, putting and chipping. I also have a goal of placing myself into situations that matter while hitting all the shots. I want to get used to the increased focus and adrenaline while at the same time continuing to refine the fundamentals of the swing. The good news is being a Pisces and also true to the Piscean format, I am a dreamer. Coming up with scenarios to condition myself is easy. Nothing like teeing it up at the Masters for the first time to get the blood pressure to jump a bit.

I have personally found participating in life is the only way to live. Placing myself in situations that can reveal both strengths and weakness is the essence of life mastery. Its nice to know golf has a built in system that allows me to personally see and feel both weakness and strength. Its called tournament golf and I can't wait.