Confessions of a Hacker – Holding Your Nerve

Filed in Other by on February 6, 2012

Last week we addressed the issue of how to keep things chugging alone when your round is shot to hell. But what happens in the inverse case? It’s once again a scene that many a club golfer has confronted. Your swing is sound, short game is on-song, putts are dropping…. maybe you’ve even caught a dumb break or two. Everything is going swimmingly until 5 or 6 holes from the end when you realise and/ or your marker tells you that you’re on pace to potentially win the comp that day. Suddenly that fairway doesn’t seem so wide, the wind seems to mysteriously kick up (always into your face, I might add) and the surrounding trouble seems more… well…. troublesome.

On the Sunday before last, that was my dilemma. Starting off the 10th tee once again, things were off to a fast start. Enough fairways were being found, iron play was strong and putts were dropping. The par-5 15th presented the dumb/ lucky break – the third shot finishing barely in bounds, before a low pitch through trees to the fringe and a holed 20-footer from there capped a completely undeserved par. Despite another calamity on the 17th, by the time our group had gone through the turn and eventually arrived at the 4th tee, I had 31 stableford points (or seven ahead of handicap) in the bag.

The natural tendency is to get a little tight around the throat region at this point in time – much like poor old Kyle Stanley did at the recent Farmer’s Insurance Open at Torrey Pines (although didn't he come back well in Phoenix?), where a triple bogey on the final hole dropped him back into a playoff that he subsequently lost. But there are ways to curb this tendency, some of which are as follows:

(1) Maintain an aggressive mindset.To get well ahead of your handicap with only a few holes to go, you clearly have to be having a good day. Why get tentative now and start focusing on what not to do, rather than continuing to focus on what to do well? 

Rory McIlroy did a tremendous job of this at last year’s US Open. After a disastrous final round 80 when leading the US Masters, he could have been forgiven for following a similar path at the US Open when comfortably in front. Nope. He just kept making birdies, despite US Open courses being designed specifically to prevent that behaviour. It was one of the all-time great tournament displays. Within your own in-progress great round, you might not shoot for sucker pins or the like. But there’s nothing to stop you thinking like someone who is going to extend upon, rather than protect, their good work to date.

(2) Stay jovial and have a good laugh or two.Confession (within a confession) time – during the early stage of the final round of the Abu Dhabi Classic, I all but assumed that Tiger Woods and/ or Rory McIlroy would make a run at the leader Robert Rock, and that Rock wouldn’t be able to withstand the heat. Woods got to within a shot at the turn and teed off first on the 10th hole. To my mind Rock was primed to self-combust, especially as there was a hold-up before he was able to hit his tee shot – then the camera panned to both he and his caddie having a hearty laugh. Indeed, his demeanour was more befitting a social round with a few drinking buddies than the back nine of a big moment in his career. Let the record show that he went on to win the tournament.

(3) Enjoy the nerves – you’ll miss them when they’re gone. You’re probably pulling a scrunched up face right now often reserved for hearing the ramblings of TV evangelists or reacting to noxious farts, but bear with me a moment.

Ask yourself this question – in any given round, what am I trying to achieve? Most of you will respond with some variation of beating your handicap and/ or winning the comp that day. How exactly do you propose to do that without going through this particular phase of the round? You can’t lean on the idea of reaching the last hole at around handicap and holing out from the fairway for a 5-pointer or the like. Any truly excellent round involves being well ahead of handicap with a few to play. So savour that moment and those feelings. After all, having 33 points in your pocket after 14 holes sure beats having 23 points, right?

As for yours truly, I played the last six holes in one better than handicap (despite a triple bogey ‘wipe’ on the 8th hole – don’t ask) for a 44 point total and my best round (82) by some margin since ‘returning’ to golf in 2010. It won the comp that day, but that was no more than an afterthought. For the first time since 2002, I felt like a golfer again. It felt good.

 

Previous ‘Confessions of a Hacker’ columns:

(1)  Seeking help, (2) Racking them up

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