Interclub at Elkins Lake

Last week i play a course i haven’t played in some time. The course is Elkins Lake near Huntsville, Texas. The course has been there for many years and is fun to play and has some very good holes on it including the new 9 designed by Mark Blume. Blume also redesigned the course on campus at Texas A&M. He did a wonderful job on the redo of the campus course.

The golf course was very wet and we played lift clean and place. It was a good thing because there were holes i had to move 10-15 yards to find a dry spot to hit from. The spot wasn’t really dry just less wet.

We were not able to warm up because the driving range was closed because of the weather. I warmed up with my weighted club instead. Like the week before i got off to a slow start. Hard working par the first hole. 3 putt bogie in the second, missed green on the third and forth hole to be 1 over. Then as the week before i started to slow down my thinking and approach and started hitting the ball better. Made 3 birdies in a row and birdie the last to shoot 3 under for the front nine. I didn’t play as well on the back nine missing a few greens and missing several key putts to shoot 2 over and 1 under for the round. As the week before we lost our match but I gave it my all.

What i have concluded is that when there are things going on in your life that take up mental capacity it is hard to remove yourself from those situations. They weigh heave on your mind and don’t allow you to focus on what you need to do to be a good ball striker and focus on the distance putting like you should.

When this happens it is always a good thing to get in a quiet place a breathe long slow breathes to slow things down to where you can take the game as it should be and focus on what is right in front of you. Which is getting the ball into the hole in as few strokes as possible.

I can tell you when i make double bogie it is strange when i walk off the green i usually say wow that happened fast, and it is because i didn’t slow down take my time and think every shot through to conclusion. There are times when a double can be a good score if it is a hard hole and you have hot a few bad shot. The object on any hole is to take as few strokes as possible no matter what the score is will end up being the final score.

As said by several people sometimes there is such a thing as a good bogie. I know i play better when i have ample time to warm up, stretch, have eaten properly, and hydrated as well. Then i go through a pretty standardized warm up on the driving range. It takes me about 45 minutes to go through my routine and then i head to the putting green for another 15 minutes.

I am sure if you have ever been to t professional event that the tour players have a similar routine when they warm up.

I would encourage all of you to have a standardized warm up routine that includes stretching and putting before play.

The last thing i will advise is that you should hit the last club on the range that you will hit off the tee on your first hole. Just a bit of advise that has helped me when i am a bit nervous. Another thing i will say if you are not a bit nervous or anxious on the first tee that is not a good thing. You want to be a bit anxious it means you care and the round means something to you. There are times when the round is for fun and with your buddies i agree. However there will be times when it is in a tournament and people are watching and guess what you are anxious. So try and make most every round to where you are a bot anxious before you hit the ball on the first tee. Then you will have been in the situation and will have had success and will embrace the fact that you are anxious and know it is a good thing to be and not a bad thing.

More on this in future posts.

Enjoy the cooler weather and continue to practice the short game.