Personal rants and reflections on the game you can never win!!!

I played a round of golf last week. It was a tournament for a special cause and so I got to the course an hour early in order to warm up and be ready! I was determined to help my team!

Spent a half hour at the range hitting balls, then went to the putting green to chip and putt. I was super good. On fire. Sending every ball into the cup. I was psyched. The whole team was all fired up, and things were going quite well until we got to the back nine and the fourteenth hole.

The fourteenth hole has always been trouble for me. It’s only 214 yards, but there’s water all along the right hand side of the fairway and then there’s this $#%^@! brook that runs right in front of the green. So you have to lay up to the left side of the fairway close to the edge of the brook. Then with the water running along right in front of you, pitch a perfect shot up to the flag, landing softly inches from the pin. I’ve seen it over and over in my mind. I’ve practiced the shots in my dreams. But somehow it doesn’t translate into reality.

The first of the four of us hit into the stream along the fairway. And though I tried to ignore that result, the sound of her ball “splashing” into the water was still in my head, and my ball went “splat” — and took a dive. The third and fourth golfers did far better, laying up just in front of the stream, but the karma was set. By the time we reached the green, every one of us had lost at least one ball in the wet.

What’s the secret to keeping your mind focused. When everyone else’s ball goes swimming, can you keep your mind on staying dry?

Help! Tell me what I should do? Add your comment in the space below.