First competition of the year: NWGG best ball Gearhart

Let's play with some pressure and see what happens

On February 4^th, my friend and I played in a two-man best ball event through the Northwest Golf Guys.

It was my first competitive match of the year and I was excited to play Gearhart, where I could see more than 100 yards in front of me. The final for my golf league was there in October, and there was very little visibility on both days. Gearhart is a nice change of pace with a true links-style where you can really be creative. Also, it is pretty forgiving, and going through swing changes makes that an appealing trait.

Par 3 11th, there are people on that green. No really.

I went out there with zero expectations because of the lessons and wanted to be there with my friend and have fun.

My course-adjusted handicap was an embarrassing 19 strokes, and we used them to maximum impact on the front going six under with four net birdies out of me, two net pars, a net birdie from my partner, and a gross birdie from my partner to sit at -6 at the turn. I felt we played well, and I made the mistake of checking the Golf Genius app and seeing we were in the lead.

The expectations of having fun went out the window, and we had something to play for. And as soon as that pressure set in, boy, did I ever collapse. I shot seven strokes worse on the back than on the front. We fell out of contention in the net portion of our flight, but my steady partner shot a 38 on the back, using not one of my scores on a hole, to secure first place in our division for the gross score.

It was embarrassing to turn in that performance on the back. I began to struggle to get off the tee, and everything just imploded with that. I played tense, and while I recognized I was falling apart, I couldn’t refocus, calm myself down, and course correct. In a normal round, if I start playing poorly, it might last for a couple of holes but I feel like I can kind of pull myself out of it, but in a competition, I can’t.

We won money, I had fun overall, and came away with something I needed to fix. This year I am playing in multiple golf leagues and will have member events at my course. I want to try and get better at playing with pressure and learn how to overcome adversity on the golf course when it counts.

How do you handle pressure on the course?