Adam Scott at the 2012 British Open

Playing golf is tough!  Anyone who says that golf is easy has never really experienced the total collapse of their game.  I mean a the complete inability to make any stroke; you have a case of the yips; or you are not sure where the ball is going!

I am sure everyone reading this right now is saying, yup been there done that.  I was playing in a tournament last year and  was even par after 13 holes.  I was hitting the ball extremely well, the hole looked like a garbage can lid, and my focus was razor-sharp.  Then walking down 13 something changed.  I have no idea what it was, but it was something.  What started my downfall was a pulled 6 iron into a green side bunker.  Lying two, I thought up and down and away we go.  After a smooth double bogey and six more over par, I finished my round with round with an 80.  Needless to say I started to second guess everything about my swing and finished sixth in the tournament and struggled for 2 weeks after.

After the tournament I thought about what went wrong with my swing.  And I finally came to the conclusion that nothing happened.  It was all mental.  I realized that I had convinced myself that something was wrong.  Once I figured that out, my game went back to normal, but what a lesson.

After reading the top 10 collapses of 2012 from the Golf Channel,  my little collapse is paltry at best! You can read them all, but I bet you can guess which were the top two were.  At number two – Adam Scott at the British Open and at number one – The US Team at the Ryder Cup.

My point of all this is that golf games collapse, golf games thrive and golf games….well you can add your own statement here.  Golf is a tough game and it does take quite a bit of skill to be successful, however a positive mental attitude is just as important as physical prowess.  Having confident in yourself will bring rich rewards on and off the course.  I am a grateful golfer.  See you on the links.