I didn't quite manage 46 points in the winter league on Friday ; I had to settle for 45. Ship the Trekmate Wind Stopper RX7 synthetic leather palm gloves. Needless to say the word "bandit" was mentioned more than once. If only there was a word for lazy fat bastards who are scared to leave their comfort zone in case they fail and instead try to denigrate people who diligently apply themselves to become better at something in a year than they have managed in 20. "Golfers" might fit it. Or "poker players" come to think of it. Let's just say "people".
Last time I shot 91 I followed it up with 103, so I was pleased to card a 92 playing on my own yesterday. I can see what writers mean when they talk about how you can apparently "plateau" for a while before a sudden improvement ; I think that's happening here. Everything I've been working on and absorbing, including the mental side, is coming to fruition. Or it's the constant short game practice, it could just be that. It's quite exciting because I can see there's still a lot of potential to improve. When I was shooting 105 it would generally be with something like 15-20 shots wasted through tee shots out of bounds, fluffing fairway irons and 3-putting. So if I was now shooting 92 with like 5 shots wasted, it would look like there's a "ceiling" to my play. But in fact yesterday I chucked 11 shots through various profilgacies [1]. I hit 5 greens in regulation and got up and down 6 times, so I'm finding ways to pick shots up as well as cutting down on mistakes. If we suffer from any prolonged rainfall though the course will be underwater so I'm trying to fit in as many rounds as possible before that happens.
[1] Technically I could argue 13, but I rescued two of them by getting up and down after a fluffed chip & bunker shot.
Tuesday 8 December 2009
Monday 30 November 2009
Winter Rules
Something's really clicked in the last few days and I've been playing tons better. In fact it's not an indefinable "something", it's keeping my left arm straight. This means I get better compression, particularly on the long irons, and the swing is just that much more repeatable so I'm not tearing up huge divots/topping the ball so much. I've also been practising my wedges, often just in the park, stick my bag down here and my coat down 20 yards away there and chip from one trying to land it on the other. This is so much better for improving your scores than whaling 100 balls into space at the driving range it's scary. I didn't really notice a difference for a couple of rounds but today especially I was pitching and chipping much more freely.
Unfortunately, Enfield GC is in kind of a natural bowl and it soaks up the rain very quickly. So half the course was unplayable today, but I did manage to play 3 balls round 2-8, 21 holes in total, in 21 over par. Of course it's a little easier to play 6 holes with 3 balls than 18 straight, and they aren't the toughest holes on the course, but it was still a big improvement. With the course being wet, obviously you lose distance off the tee, but a good pitch shot just stops dead and putting is a lot easier. Hopefully the course will be OK for the "winter league" on Friday, if I can replicate today's scoring I'll be a super 46-point bandit off my current handicap :).
Unfortunately, Enfield GC is in kind of a natural bowl and it soaks up the rain very quickly. So half the course was unplayable today, but I did manage to play 3 balls round 2-8, 21 holes in total, in 21 over par. Of course it's a little easier to play 6 holes with 3 balls than 18 straight, and they aren't the toughest holes on the course, but it was still a big improvement. With the course being wet, obviously you lose distance off the tee, but a good pitch shot just stops dead and putting is a lot easier. Hopefully the course will be OK for the "winter league" on Friday, if I can replicate today's scoring I'll be a super 46-point bandit off my current handicap :).
Friday 9 October 2009
Keep It Simple Stupid
"Hit the shot you know you can hit, not the one you think you should." - Bob Rotella
As there was a match on at Enfield today I rolled up to Trent Park for a quick 9 holes. It ended up being 13 as I was playing well and wanted to complete a round. I couldn't quite, as I ran into a three-ball and didn't really want to hang around behind them in the rain and probably not finish before it got dark anyway. But it was a round of three thirds :
- Holes 1-4, +9, thanks mostly to a couple of errant tee shots on 2 and 4
- Holes 5-8, +5, much steadier
- Holes 9-13, level par, ZOMG !
9-13 I went par, par, birdie, double bogey, birdie ! By the 13th I was really in the zone, that's a 450 yard par five, driver and 3-wood to 15 yards short of the green, up and down, ship it. It's probably been 4 months since I played a round at Trent Park, and while my scores at Enfield haven't come down as much as I'd like, Trent Park felt so much easier today that I'm much more confident that progress is being made. Here's what I'm thinking about on each kind of shot :
Driving : Every drive is a lay-up. This is a tip from Zen Golf. Instead of trying to smack the cover off it, just think of the tee shot as a lay-up to roughly where you'd like to be. 210 yards up the middle >>> 240 yards in the rough (never mind the bushes). And in fact, when I sometimes play a second shot and try to hit it harder just to see what happens, even if it comes off I usually only gain about 15 yards. Just hold the tee shots back a little bit and lay them up into the middle of the fairway. Every par 4/5 is so much easier when you play your second shot from a nice central position.
Fairway Woods : Hit down on the ball to make it go up. Especially with the 3-wood, the temptation is to try to scoop the ball up, when instead you just play a normal swing and hit (very slightly) down on it. Let the club do the rest. That worked much better today.
Fairway Irons : Hit the shot you know you can hit, not the shot you should hit. If I'm 130 yards from the green and I think I need a 5-iron to get there, I'll take a 5-iron. You're more than welcome to laugh at me, take out your 9-iron, launch it, not quite get it right, and play your next shot from the bunker on the front. Especially now it's wet, I know I don't hit the ball hard, any turf I take cuts down the power even more and of course the ball won't run on after bouncing. I can't remember which book this was in but you should play the club that gets you to the back of the green if you catch it perfectly, not the middle. Because unless you're playing off like 6, you don't catch it perfectly often enough. As and when I start going through the back of greens, I can rethink this, but it's not happening yet.
Chips and Pitches : Get them up to the pin. It's the same concept as above really ; generally I find that if I do go past the flag, it's not by as much as I tend to leave it short when I don't think about getting it there. And it's surprising how often you think you've pulled one quite badly, but if you get the length right, it ends up much closer than you think.
Putting : Hit the ball, don't roll it. For a long time I was too intent on keeping the putter head moving at a constant speed, and kind of rolling it through the ball. That makes it too difficult to get the pace right. You have to let your natural touch come in by just sort of "clipping" the ball and I find my distance control is much better.
So putting all that together, after the first four holes I played 9 holes in 39 which must be my best so far ! I almost forgot as well, that was with 8 clubs. It was just (meant to be) a quick 9 holes and Trent Park's two miles on the bus so I didn't want to cart a full set around. I just played Driver, 3-wood, 5, 7, 8, P-wedge, S-wedge, putter. You'd be amazed how often that's enough. I certainly don't recall thinking "damn, I really need a 6-iron here" or anything like that.
In the interests of fairness, I did play like an utter (&*% yesterday with Lovejoy, so it's not there every day. But concentrating on the above, just one thing for whichever shot I was playing, put me in a great zone today and the more often I can do that, the more often it will happen on its own.
As there was a match on at Enfield today I rolled up to Trent Park for a quick 9 holes. It ended up being 13 as I was playing well and wanted to complete a round. I couldn't quite, as I ran into a three-ball and didn't really want to hang around behind them in the rain and probably not finish before it got dark anyway. But it was a round of three thirds :
- Holes 1-4, +9, thanks mostly to a couple of errant tee shots on 2 and 4
- Holes 5-8, +5, much steadier
- Holes 9-13, level par, ZOMG !
9-13 I went par, par, birdie, double bogey, birdie ! By the 13th I was really in the zone, that's a 450 yard par five, driver and 3-wood to 15 yards short of the green, up and down, ship it. It's probably been 4 months since I played a round at Trent Park, and while my scores at Enfield haven't come down as much as I'd like, Trent Park felt so much easier today that I'm much more confident that progress is being made. Here's what I'm thinking about on each kind of shot :
Driving : Every drive is a lay-up. This is a tip from Zen Golf. Instead of trying to smack the cover off it, just think of the tee shot as a lay-up to roughly where you'd like to be. 210 yards up the middle >>> 240 yards in the rough (never mind the bushes). And in fact, when I sometimes play a second shot and try to hit it harder just to see what happens, even if it comes off I usually only gain about 15 yards. Just hold the tee shots back a little bit and lay them up into the middle of the fairway. Every par 4/5 is so much easier when you play your second shot from a nice central position.
Fairway Woods : Hit down on the ball to make it go up. Especially with the 3-wood, the temptation is to try to scoop the ball up, when instead you just play a normal swing and hit (very slightly) down on it. Let the club do the rest. That worked much better today.
Fairway Irons : Hit the shot you know you can hit, not the shot you should hit. If I'm 130 yards from the green and I think I need a 5-iron to get there, I'll take a 5-iron. You're more than welcome to laugh at me, take out your 9-iron, launch it, not quite get it right, and play your next shot from the bunker on the front. Especially now it's wet, I know I don't hit the ball hard, any turf I take cuts down the power even more and of course the ball won't run on after bouncing. I can't remember which book this was in but you should play the club that gets you to the back of the green if you catch it perfectly, not the middle. Because unless you're playing off like 6, you don't catch it perfectly often enough. As and when I start going through the back of greens, I can rethink this, but it's not happening yet.
Chips and Pitches : Get them up to the pin. It's the same concept as above really ; generally I find that if I do go past the flag, it's not by as much as I tend to leave it short when I don't think about getting it there. And it's surprising how often you think you've pulled one quite badly, but if you get the length right, it ends up much closer than you think.
Putting : Hit the ball, don't roll it. For a long time I was too intent on keeping the putter head moving at a constant speed, and kind of rolling it through the ball. That makes it too difficult to get the pace right. You have to let your natural touch come in by just sort of "clipping" the ball and I find my distance control is much better.
So putting all that together, after the first four holes I played 9 holes in 39 which must be my best so far ! I almost forgot as well, that was with 8 clubs. It was just (meant to be) a quick 9 holes and Trent Park's two miles on the bus so I didn't want to cart a full set around. I just played Driver, 3-wood, 5, 7, 8, P-wedge, S-wedge, putter. You'd be amazed how often that's enough. I certainly don't recall thinking "damn, I really need a 6-iron here" or anything like that.
In the interests of fairness, I did play like an utter (&*% yesterday with Lovejoy, so it's not there every day. But concentrating on the above, just one thing for whichever shot I was playing, put me in a great zone today and the more often I can do that, the more often it will happen on its own.
Monday 21 September 2009
Send It
"A golfer has to train his swing on the practice tee, then trust it on the course." - Dr Bob Rotella
It's not that I've had nothing to write about on here ; more that there's so much that I don't know where to start ! One thing that's hugely important when you're working on your swing is to differentiate between practice and "real play". On the range, or if you're just knocking a few balls around the course, it's fine to think about your swing mechanics, what you're supposed to be doing, and what you're doing wrong. Any time you're trying to record a good score though, you have to forget about it !
It seems paradoxical, but when you're trying to put a score together you really have to forget about improving your swing during this round. Dance with the swing you bring. Trusting the swing you have will work much better on the day than trying to change stuff as soon as you hit one bad shot. When I saw a book called Zen Golf in the bookshop, of course I couldn't resist buying it. It's very good. It talks about using a "key phrase" just before you swing, mentally telling yourself "let it fly" or "it's all yours" to turn off the thinking mind and just let the shot go. I'm trying to use "send it" because it amuses me to say that to myself in the style of a poker player (Action Dave was a great one for "send it"). It's also good because the book talks about sending the ball to the target rather than hitting it, or at least that's how you should think about it. Obviously in reality you do still actually hit it. I played a social round today which was good fun, although a little trying towards the end when the group in front were holding us up. After a break for a sandwich I had two more hours trying to sort my drives out. I just managed to work the change I need before collapsing with exhaustion so we'll work that out some more on the range and have another bash soon.
It's not that I've had nothing to write about on here ; more that there's so much that I don't know where to start ! One thing that's hugely important when you're working on your swing is to differentiate between practice and "real play". On the range, or if you're just knocking a few balls around the course, it's fine to think about your swing mechanics, what you're supposed to be doing, and what you're doing wrong. Any time you're trying to record a good score though, you have to forget about it !
It seems paradoxical, but when you're trying to put a score together you really have to forget about improving your swing during this round. Dance with the swing you bring. Trusting the swing you have will work much better on the day than trying to change stuff as soon as you hit one bad shot. When I saw a book called Zen Golf in the bookshop, of course I couldn't resist buying it. It's very good. It talks about using a "key phrase" just before you swing, mentally telling yourself "let it fly" or "it's all yours" to turn off the thinking mind and just let the shot go. I'm trying to use "send it" because it amuses me to say that to myself in the style of a poker player (Action Dave was a great one for "send it"). It's also good because the book talks about sending the ball to the target rather than hitting it, or at least that's how you should think about it. Obviously in reality you do still actually hit it. I played a social round today which was good fun, although a little trying towards the end when the group in front were holding us up. After a break for a sandwich I had two more hours trying to sort my drives out. I just managed to work the change I need before collapsing with exhaustion so we'll work that out some more on the range and have another bash soon.
Friday 4 September 2009
The Difference Between 91 and 111
20, duh. In golf terms, 20 shots, double duh. But how exactly do I add 20 shots to my score in the space of 9 days ?
First of all the 91. This came as quite a shock after fighting against something of a mental block about breaking 100. I had shot 99 a month previously, after doing my level best to choke by playing the last 3 holes in +8, but since then had been finding creative new ways not to break 100 again twice a week. Looking back to the 91, I don't remember playing many particularly good shots - I just played a lot fewer bad ones. I missed a couple of putts and put a tee shot out of bounds on the 16th [1] which I pretty much always do anyway. That was about it. After going out in 44 (+7 for 9 holes) I was well on course to break 90, but tightened up a little bit in the stretch and ended up with the 91. Still pretty damn good and it's not every day you take 8 shots off your best score.
After trumpeting that on Facebook, Pete B warned me about hubris, and correctly so, but I thought the 103 in the next round wasn't too much of a problem. The interesting thing about the 91 was I left the driver at home and played all the par 4/5 tee shots with a 3-wood. Not surprisingly, this resulted in fewer tee shots out of bounds. In the meantime though I was practising with the driver and thought I was playing it well enough to give it a spin today. That resulted in four tee shots OOB for an immediate +8, and another three sufficiently errant to require a sideways second shot, although I scrambled a shot back on two of those around the green. Chuck in six 3-putts and a 4-putt (I know) and that's 19 shots. And 111 minus 19 would be 92.
When you think about playing golf well you have a mental picture of sending drives 250 yards and crisp fairway irons arcing towards the flag. But that kind of thing is much less important when it comes to scoring than just hitting the fairway and 2-putting the greens. I liken it to poker tournaments (expect much more of that in this blog) ; everyone thinks it's the big bluff and setting up the guy to call when you have the nuts when in fact it's mostly about good fundamentals and knowing how to play a short stack. Here's a quote I found that didn't help me with a blog title but it nails what we're talking about here :
"I just try to put it on the fairway, then the green and not three putt. - Peter Thompson"
And that's to shoot par ! All I have to do to shoot 90 is put it on the fairway, around the green, chip it on and not three putt. Sounds a lot easier than it is. It will, however, be easier if I can manage to leave the driver in the bag when there's any danger (whether due to the layout of the hole or the way I'm playing) of going out of bounds. It's worth giving up 30 yards just to play the second shot off the fairway. Then when I get around 90 every week, instead of once in a blue moon, I can think about hitting it further.
[1] Yes, it looks simple enough, but what that picture leaves out is that the tee is at about half past four looking at a clock face.
First of all the 91. This came as quite a shock after fighting against something of a mental block about breaking 100. I had shot 99 a month previously, after doing my level best to choke by playing the last 3 holes in +8, but since then had been finding creative new ways not to break 100 again twice a week. Looking back to the 91, I don't remember playing many particularly good shots - I just played a lot fewer bad ones. I missed a couple of putts and put a tee shot out of bounds on the 16th [1] which I pretty much always do anyway. That was about it. After going out in 44 (+7 for 9 holes) I was well on course to break 90, but tightened up a little bit in the stretch and ended up with the 91. Still pretty damn good and it's not every day you take 8 shots off your best score.
After trumpeting that on Facebook, Pete B warned me about hubris, and correctly so, but I thought the 103 in the next round wasn't too much of a problem. The interesting thing about the 91 was I left the driver at home and played all the par 4/5 tee shots with a 3-wood. Not surprisingly, this resulted in fewer tee shots out of bounds. In the meantime though I was practising with the driver and thought I was playing it well enough to give it a spin today. That resulted in four tee shots OOB for an immediate +8, and another three sufficiently errant to require a sideways second shot, although I scrambled a shot back on two of those around the green. Chuck in six 3-putts and a 4-putt (I know) and that's 19 shots. And 111 minus 19 would be 92.
When you think about playing golf well you have a mental picture of sending drives 250 yards and crisp fairway irons arcing towards the flag. But that kind of thing is much less important when it comes to scoring than just hitting the fairway and 2-putting the greens. I liken it to poker tournaments (expect much more of that in this blog) ; everyone thinks it's the big bluff and setting up the guy to call when you have the nuts when in fact it's mostly about good fundamentals and knowing how to play a short stack. Here's a quote I found that didn't help me with a blog title but it nails what we're talking about here :
"I just try to put it on the fairway, then the green and not three putt. - Peter Thompson"
And that's to shoot par ! All I have to do to shoot 90 is put it on the fairway, around the green, chip it on and not three putt. Sounds a lot easier than it is. It will, however, be easier if I can manage to leave the driver in the bag when there's any danger (whether due to the layout of the hole or the way I'm playing) of going out of bounds. It's worth giving up 30 yards just to play the second shot off the fairway. Then when I get around 90 every week, instead of once in a blue moon, I can think about hitting it further.
[1] Yes, it looks simple enough, but what that picture leaves out is that the tee is at about half past four looking at a clock face.
A Corrective Against Sinful Pride
I know what my problem is - I just don't have enough blogs. Well, I do, but I'm kind of bored with football so this one is probably going to die a slow death. What I need instead is a golf blog. And this is it. Unfortunately I was unable to find any golf quotes from Kevin Keegan for a title so I decided on this one, from a PG Wodehouse quote :
"Golf acts as a corrective against sinful pride. I attribute the insane arrogance of the later Roman Emperors almost entirely to the fact that, never having played golf, they never knew that strange chastening humility which is engendered by a topped chip shot. If Cleopatra had been ousted in the first round of the Ladies' Singles, we should have heard a lot less of her proud imperiousness."
Damn straight. Straighter than my drives, that's for sure. So, without further ado, let's "tee off" ! My what fun this is going to be.
"Golf acts as a corrective against sinful pride. I attribute the insane arrogance of the later Roman Emperors almost entirely to the fact that, never having played golf, they never knew that strange chastening humility which is engendered by a topped chip shot. If Cleopatra had been ousted in the first round of the Ladies' Singles, we should have heard a lot less of her proud imperiousness."
Damn straight. Straighter than my drives, that's for sure. So, without further ado, let's "tee off" ! My what fun this is going to be.
Thursday 13 August 2009
The Power Of Negative Thinking
[This post originally appeared on Get It Quietly]
I've been meaning to make some golf-related posts so here's a good place to start. I've been practising a lot lately and today I felt ready to burn the course up. First two holes, par par, today's the day ! Now, there was a competition on and the course was unusually busy with people who had waited for all the comp players to tee off. So when I was on the second green, the guy teeing off on the third, who looked vaguely familiar, suggested that I play through. I said there wasn't really any point because there were two foursomes right in front of us but we could play together if he liked. OK, he would wait for me on the 4th.
Third hole, par 3, I hit to the edge of the green and it bounced sideways off the bank and I had to hack out for a five. OK, no problem, unlucky. Then I caught up with the guy and I suddenly realised he was the guy I had referenced in a Facebook update about being happy to play with other people if they didn't constantly talk about negative things ...
Before we were half way up the 4th he was telling me "and one of my other problems is I slice the ball a lot ..." . I held it together, more or less, till the 7th where I managed to 4-putt for a 10. As the third putt rolled 5 feet past the hole the guy was laughing. I stress, not in a malicious way. Just sort of "ha ha, funny old game eh, ha ha". I honestly could have wrapped the club right round his neck. I held it together to play 8 and 9 in one over because he was promising to stop after 9 and then I might get some peace. No such luck though, and after that I played the worst back 9 ever, even after I had made an excuse on the 13th of "having to play these quickly" and left him behind. Which was actually a half truth because it had taken us 2 1/2 hours to play 12 holes, with his insistence on playing two more shots from the same spot every time he shanked one, and going off looking for them all in the bushes. The foursomes actually left us behind.
Now, that sounds like a lot of moaning and of course a good player would tune all this out, but I'm not a good player, I'm still learning (if you ever stop that is) and by the 12th I was on super life tilt listening to this guy. I'm a big fan of Dr Bob, can't recommend him highly enough. And he's a big fan of positive thoughts and words on the golf course. And in life IMO. Now, it's a fine line, you have to be realistic, you don't swagger up to every tee thinking "I'm going to birdie this hole for sure". But you try to put negative thoughts to one side. You play a bad shot, let it go, play the next one. There's a hazard in front of you, just put it out of your mind and swing cleanly through the ball. My golf partner today seemed to go out of his way, at every opportunity, to stress how difficult a hole was, how much he's struggling with a particular shot, even the odd positive thing like when he played a hole well is followed by "I'll never do that again !".
It just seems endemic in our society. There are so many people who seem to think it's impolite to talk about being good at something. Even to be good at something. More than that, that it's impolite not to constantly demean your own ability and success. The main reason I don't play live poker on a regular basis is the negativity of the people you have to play with. Same with watching football. Everyone wants to vent their anger and frustration on people around them, and indeed themselves, instead of actually working to improve themselves and become better at what they're doing. I'm starting to ramble now but if you had told me, at 20 years old, that I could become a professional poker player it would have been like telling me I could be an astronaut. But because I came across the game and loved playing so much I put so much time and effort into improving at the game that, bit by bit, I became better than I ever would have thought possible. The same is starting to happen with golf, I mean lol obviously I'm not going pro and never will, but just through constant practice and thought I am already better than I thought I could ever be.
You might be surprised what you can do if you put your mind to it, that's the bottom line. But I guarantee you that if you constantly run yourself down, and listen to people around you who want to bring everyone else down to their level [1], it won't happen.[1] I should stress that doesn't apply to the golfer today, there was no malice in him whatsoever, he had just, in that English way, taken being self-effacing to a ridiculous extreme.
I've been meaning to make some golf-related posts so here's a good place to start. I've been practising a lot lately and today I felt ready to burn the course up. First two holes, par par, today's the day ! Now, there was a competition on and the course was unusually busy with people who had waited for all the comp players to tee off. So when I was on the second green, the guy teeing off on the third, who looked vaguely familiar, suggested that I play through. I said there wasn't really any point because there were two foursomes right in front of us but we could play together if he liked. OK, he would wait for me on the 4th.
Third hole, par 3, I hit to the edge of the green and it bounced sideways off the bank and I had to hack out for a five. OK, no problem, unlucky. Then I caught up with the guy and I suddenly realised he was the guy I had referenced in a Facebook update about being happy to play with other people if they didn't constantly talk about negative things ...
Before we were half way up the 4th he was telling me "and one of my other problems is I slice the ball a lot ..." . I held it together, more or less, till the 7th where I managed to 4-putt for a 10. As the third putt rolled 5 feet past the hole the guy was laughing. I stress, not in a malicious way. Just sort of "ha ha, funny old game eh, ha ha". I honestly could have wrapped the club right round his neck. I held it together to play 8 and 9 in one over because he was promising to stop after 9 and then I might get some peace. No such luck though, and after that I played the worst back 9 ever, even after I had made an excuse on the 13th of "having to play these quickly" and left him behind. Which was actually a half truth because it had taken us 2 1/2 hours to play 12 holes, with his insistence on playing two more shots from the same spot every time he shanked one, and going off looking for them all in the bushes. The foursomes actually left us behind.
Now, that sounds like a lot of moaning and of course a good player would tune all this out, but I'm not a good player, I'm still learning (if you ever stop that is) and by the 12th I was on super life tilt listening to this guy. I'm a big fan of Dr Bob, can't recommend him highly enough. And he's a big fan of positive thoughts and words on the golf course. And in life IMO. Now, it's a fine line, you have to be realistic, you don't swagger up to every tee thinking "I'm going to birdie this hole for sure". But you try to put negative thoughts to one side. You play a bad shot, let it go, play the next one. There's a hazard in front of you, just put it out of your mind and swing cleanly through the ball. My golf partner today seemed to go out of his way, at every opportunity, to stress how difficult a hole was, how much he's struggling with a particular shot, even the odd positive thing like when he played a hole well is followed by "I'll never do that again !".
It just seems endemic in our society. There are so many people who seem to think it's impolite to talk about being good at something. Even to be good at something. More than that, that it's impolite not to constantly demean your own ability and success. The main reason I don't play live poker on a regular basis is the negativity of the people you have to play with. Same with watching football. Everyone wants to vent their anger and frustration on people around them, and indeed themselves, instead of actually working to improve themselves and become better at what they're doing. I'm starting to ramble now but if you had told me, at 20 years old, that I could become a professional poker player it would have been like telling me I could be an astronaut. But because I came across the game and loved playing so much I put so much time and effort into improving at the game that, bit by bit, I became better than I ever would have thought possible. The same is starting to happen with golf, I mean lol obviously I'm not going pro and never will, but just through constant practice and thought I am already better than I thought I could ever be.
You might be surprised what you can do if you put your mind to it, that's the bottom line. But I guarantee you that if you constantly run yourself down, and listen to people around you who want to bring everyone else down to their level [1], it won't happen.[1] I should stress that doesn't apply to the golfer today, there was no malice in him whatsoever, he had just, in that English way, taken being self-effacing to a ridiculous extreme.
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