One of the greatest challenges golfers face is their own self-doubt. It comes in many forms and “the can’ts” is one of the most challenging. Regardless of how the mental blockages to our game manifest, they cause us to doubt about all aspects of our game and adversely affect our golf scores. I have here to tell everyone that we should never doubt our golf game!
Working through all the white noise bouncing around in our six inches of real estate onto of our shoulders can seem over-whelming. There is a fog over our eyes that prevent us from seeing clear of the haze of doubt. Mentally, this is the toughest aspect of anyone’s golf game and forces us to doubt if we have any golf game at all!
Well, I am here to say that yes we have a golf game. We should never doubt it because in my experience it all changes in just one shot. Yup, that is all it takes sometimes; we set up to play the right shot and the results are epic. Suddenly, the fog is gone and your golf game is back better than ever. It might seem like a bit of an overstatement, but I think everyone can relate to what I am talking about.
From my perspective, when we fear that we have lost our golf game, it is our emotions are at the forefront of our thoughts. We feel anxiety over every shot, which inturn creates a fountain of self-doubt. When our emotions are clouding our judgement, how can we really play our best. Yes, there are good emotions, but when the negative ones prevent us from focusing on our golf game……then bad things happen on the course.
When I am playing very poorly and feel that my game has deserted me, I patiently wait for the one shot, that one right decision, or that one positive feeling that rights my game. It is frustrating to wait for this moment, but it will happen. In the meantime, never doubt you have a golf game. It is always hanging around.
I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!
The Grateful Golfer 
I was beginning to doubt on the back nine today when things started going south. I’ve never played that course well. It’s chock full of dogleg right holes and a fade just doesn’t suit my eye. But I ended the day with an eagle from 145 yards and now all is well with the world again. My partner had never seen anyone hole out before. His reaction was priceless.
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Kevin,
That is great that you were able get things back together.
Cheers Jim
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I don’t know that I ever had it together today. Not fully. There was a lot of scrambling done that’s for sure. That course and I have a lot of bad memories I think I need to work on getting over. My game is much better suited for tackling it today though so I need to get past that.
It was my irons, usually the strongest point in my game that felt off today. I just wasn’t hitting them crisp. I hit some fat. I hit some thin. And I topped my 3 wood twice. In a row. That was sad. But my chipping was the best it’s been in months or it felt that way maybe because my putter worked well and even provided a few miracle par’s.
The thing was, I had started off fine. I was hitting lots of 8 and 9 into the first couple of greens and while I missed them, I was flag high on the first cut and putting so that wasn’t bad. But I got worse before finding a way out. But that last hole out made up for a lot and kept me just under 80 for the day. Just a soft 7 iron to keep it low and the idea was stay below the hole. But the little squall that we’ld sat through about 3 holes before I guess made the ball skip instead of grab like it had been doing most of the day and we got to watch it run about 15 feet uphill and just fall over the edge. My playing partner had never seen one before. I think he was more excited than I was over it though no more riveted to the view. I could hear him behind me encouraging the ball saying get there about 4 times I think as it headed up the hill. And then he was yelling. It was almost more fun to watch than my ball falling into the hole. Almost.
Anyway, the chipping and putting were encouraging. The irons will be back the next time out. And there’s always another chance at holing out. That’s what they’re for and I’m a lucky guy.
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Kevin,
Having a fantastic last shot of the round just makes you want to come back sooner. I do not hole out often….actually it did not happen outside of 20 yards this year…..I will have to work on that.
Cheers Jim
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