First Round of the Year: Into the Fire

Nothing like a competitive match play match to start the year

One of the things I wanted to do this year was play in more high-pressure situations. Wait, let me amend that to “high pressure” situations. (Let’s be honest there is high pressure in life and then there is golf.) One of the biggest issues I have is that when things go poorly, I imploded quickly. I want to challenge myself mentally to be able to shake it off.

I also understand that going with a complete swing overhaul does not make me a competitive golf machine. However, it’s worth it for the experience. Going in with little to no expectations except the goal of gaining experience and being a tough opponent.

So, one of the first things I did was sign up for the Langdon Farms match play tournament they set up for the winter. My first-round opponent just happened to be the Net Club Champion.

I’d like to say that my first round of the year was a rousing defeat of the Club Champion, and everything clicked into place. It didn’t. However, I held on to losing on the 17th hole.

Positives:

- Came back from two down twice in the match to tie or even take the lead. In the past, if I would have gotten down two, I would have imploded.
-Strong start overall being two over through four with a one-hole lead.

-Also, I started well on the back, being down two I won the 10th and 11th hole to tie it back up.

-I got off the tee well until the end when I got tired and wasn’t using my legs as much

-I putted well

-I kept to a pre-shot routine probably 80% of the time.

Negatives:

-I got tired and my driving fell apart

-I just don’t feel comfortable with my shot selections from 100 yards in

-Once I battled back on the back, I imploded losing three out of four holes, you could attribute all three defeats to me being “all arms”. I basically finished the last five holes with an average of double bogey a hole.

-I had 6 double bogeys and 3 triple bogeys, the other nine holes were 5 pars and 4 bogeys. The blow-up holes are haunting me.