My spirits are high and being able
to be here playing professional golf is a real blessing. I have been patient
with the game for twenty years, and it still has lessons to teach me. The
Navajo Trail Open is my first official pro event this year. I am motivated by
knowing this initial stage has many hidden meanings that are deep down in my
soul aware that I have played well in the past at other events and shooting
impressive low scores. Getting into that zone mentality is no easy task and I
strive to be present on a daily basis when it happens. It is a process of
picking up the clues left behind while performing under pressure in tournament
golf.
Taking
inventory of my game, seeing the weakness of my putting and conflicting thought
patterns in my mindset; and other short game areas, that lack consistent feel
and awareness of active imagination, either creative of synthetic in nature.
Today’s
2:30 group was three other gentlemen and I by the names of Brandon, Dustin, and
Bobby. To sum up how our day went, we all left out a lot of birdies out there
and some of us struggled to make par on certain key holes. This round tested my
ability to recognize my attitude during play and did my best to flood my
thoughts with positive self-talk. Not corny self-talk either, I know I have
greatness in me, my ball striking proved this by allowing me to transition my
thoughts comfortably into target golf.
Brandon,
a PGA of America affiliated pro, had a fundamentally sound swing that I
observed most of the round. I used to observe the same caliber of players out
on the Minor-League-Tour in Florida; back then I was okay with shooting high
80’s while I enjoying competing against Nationwide Tour players practicing for
the off season. Brandon’s swing and overall game brought back key ideas that
made sense in simplifying the game when playing under pressure.
To
develop a strong mindset you have to learn to be aware of who you are, what
your game type is, and how you can transition your thought process effectively
during a round. There are always going to be areas of the game that needs
improvement, as long as I can keep up the pace of a good practice session
during the season, I am only going to get stronger as a player.
- The key swing thoughts that I took from Brandon’s game:
- Setup and address, easy, balanced and routine.
- This /\ made sense for the tee shots as I knew a lot of my strong set up.
- I just needed to piece the routine together by watching Brandon’s pre shot routine
- I observed a strong balanced setup and tighter, more compacted backswing.
· At a
certain frontal angle I could see Brandon compress the ball through impact
because of his unwinding of his body coil.
This
observation made sense to me, it’s like I was watching it on TV and I would get
that feeling of what I had been working on in my swing while watching a PGA Tour
event in my living room. Hyper observation allowed me to trust my swing for the
last few holes as I continued to strike the ball with a better level of
attitude.
A
familiar sense of playing with this swing before during a good round was enough
to trust my ability to move in this direction, swinging with the intent of
getting better. I will have to let the persistence take care of it in the end.
Feeling free’er with each shot is a matter of making every shot just as
important as the last one.
No comments:
Post a Comment