GolfDom Confessional My Return To The Golf Course

My Return To The Golf Course


person grass sport outdoors The mental game: Strategies for success in golf

This week, I returned to my golf club and played 9 holes for the first time in more than 3 months. My return to the golf course felt good. This is probably the longest layoff from the game I’ve had in years. Why? Well, I fell out of love with golf or with what I associate with  playing golf. Last year, hosted my return to full time work and somehow golf got shunted to the back of the queue. Obviously, golf means different things to all of us and individually this can change, ebb and flow throughout lives.

Getting Back On The Fairways & Greens

I went pretty hard at golf for a number of years. Playing 4 or 5 times a week. Practicing whenever I could and having lessons to remodel my swing. Writing 3 books on golf. I even, spent a brief time on my golf club’s match committee. Saying that I ate, breathed and shat golf was no exaggeration. Can you have too much of a good thing? My answer is yes in the longer term. I think that we can all benefit from a decent break. My return to the golf course intimated that could well be the case.

Coming Back To Golf

My putting was still shite and I only hit one fairway. The rest of my game was in surprisingly good shape. Bunker play was excellent. Short irons were OK. Chipping needed sharpening. Mid-irons were fairly good. Lots of room for improvement, but more importantly, I enjoyed the experience. Boy, I was sore afterwards, however, and definitely needed the run. I was the only walker amid my four ball, the rest of them were on these motorised scooter things. Old age shall not weary them – not sure about that!

my return to the golf course

The main positives I noticed involved less mental scar tissue upstairs endlessly running negative scripts prior to playing shots. The break had made some room for some other stuff. Frustration can weigh you down when you play a lot of golf. The striving for perfection can piss you off too many times. The memory banks can overly focus on the previous mishits and stuff ups. Lowering expectations is always a good thing in golf. Tabula rasa – the old clean slate is a welcome state. I woke up less sore and my mind enthusiastically thought about getting back out there again. Making a few putts this time. Hitting more fairways for sure would be a big step forward. My return to the golf course feels good.

RSH

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