This is My Quest

[HighFade]

The ankle is healing nicely. Thanks for the advice, Richard. Aleve, an ankle brace, elevation, and ice seem to be doing the trick.

 

Jmiller, you hit the nail on the head. Not gonna change drivers, but I will put the 60 in the bag. Told my caddy to brain me with a short iron if I try to do something stupid with it.

 

Gonna be spending the next few days putting and chipping. Right now, I'm not even thinking about the full swing. More worried about walking! But I think by Tuesday I'll be 100%. No excuses for me!

[HighFade]

Had to hit the range to day and see how the ankle was gonna hold up. I was pleasantly surprised that it went very well. Hitting it solid, and no pain.

 

I solved my driver problem. Took the old one out. I took a few dozen balls with each, and it was just no comparison.

 

Didn't do too much chipping, but did a lot of putting. I tried a lot of lag putts and two putted all of them. Typical distance was between 20-40 feet. The highlight was draining a 140 footer that had about 25 feet of break. Yes, the green is that big. It was more luck, but was pretty cool to watch it drop.

 

Tomorrow, chipping and bunkers.

 

Sorry for the boring post, but this is the process....

[JMiller]

I was just responding to your other thread about good decisions with the 60* in the bag lol.

 

In short, use a pre-shot routine on EVERY stroke, don't pull a club until after you have analyzed the situation and have picked your shot and landing spot if chipping, pitching, bunkers. Putting pick your line like normal and routine if that is the play you are making. Up until recently I used to do the same thing automatically grab 60* around greens now, I slow down and work through a routine like my full swing and come out with better results.

[HighFade]

4 days to go. Ankle feels 100%

 

Putting is really coming along. Chipping not far behind. Couldn't practice bunkers today. Too wet.

 

Swing is solid. Been practicing a lot with wedges and short irons. Gotta hit 'em close!

 

I'm ready!

[Flv02]

4 days to go. Ankle feels 100%

 

Putting is really coming along. Chipping not far behind. Couldn't practice bunkers today. Too wet.

 

Swing is solid. Been practicing a lot with wedges and short irons. Gotta hit 'em close!

 

I'm ready!

 

Great to hear! Good luck!

[RoverRick]

I have been following this, all along, and wishing you well. On here an another thread, about the driver, there was a discussion about carrying 13 clubs on 60* etc... I am glad to hear about you putting it back in, because it is always better to "have it and not need it, rather than need it and not have it."

 

The flop is a low precentage shot and should only be a last resort but yesterday, I was in a bunker, on the up slope 6 feet below the pin. and could litterally reach out and touch the green that even with the top of my head. The flag was 4 paces away. I had to hit my 64 and after I made the club selection, and was walking to the hole, I really did think about you and the fact you may be going into a tournament with 13 clubs and no 60.

 

Of course, I was playing with buddies, and was stinking up the round anyway. This was a par 5, I hit it perfectly, and it landed 6 inches from the cup like a lawn dart. I had a tap in for double bogey. It was the only good shot the whole hole.

 

But I was sure glad I had that club.

[HighFade]

Today's the day!!!!

 

Very nervous.....

 

I am trying to tell myself to just have fun. 36 holes of it! I'll check back in late this evening.

 

Wish me luck! 76 players for 3 spots.

 

http://www.ghintpp.com/cga/TPPOnlineScoring/StrokeCard.aspx?id=163&pid=9418

[JMiller]

I'll wish you luck to make great decisions in your round, If you make good decisions then the ability will kick in and you'll do well. I'll look for updates on the link you provided.

[HighFade]

What a catastrophe!

 

My caddy was a no show. Had to carry my bag for 36 holes in 100 degrees. And I had a case of the hooks. Put about 6 OB. Actually saved bogey on a couple, but really did horribly overall. The only thing that saved me from going higher was my putter was pretty decent. Lots and lots of hooks!

 

What else can I say? Awful.

[JMiller]

What a catastrophe!

 

My caddy was a no show. Had to carry my bag for 36 holes in 100 degrees. And I had a case of the hooks. Put about 6 OB. Actually saved bogey on a couple, but really did horribly overall. The only thing that saved me from going higher was my putter was pretty decent. Lots and lots of hooks!

 

What else can I say? Awful.

 

HF first I want to say to keep your head high I think that 83 and 84 given the situation are some good scores. Might not been what you were looking for but I want to give a little post round advice.

 

First, I would ask you to reflect on all of the positive things about your round but mostly and espesually on the holes that you might have been OB / LB on or took a PS, saving bogey hitting 3 from the tee is a great accomplishment.

 

Secondly, I would ask you to reflect on your mental state going into the round and espesually just before the bad hooks or shots were made, were you in a claim peaceful relaxed mindset before you pulled the trigger? You might to start to pick up a pattern in what the mental state was when bad shots happened and even good shots if you wanted to reflect on both. This is something positive that you learned about your game under pressure in both cases and you are one step closer to managing your mental state and emotions.

 

Thirdly, I would just say that there is next year and you can learn from this year. It is how you take the disappointments and then move forward rather then the accomplishments that make a great golfer. I would encourage you to hold your head very high and be proud of yourself and use this as motivation to keep working at your game.

 

Lastly, I would suggest that you find a new caddie. If someone that worked for me was a no show and no call in a situation where I really needed them to come to work that day, I would be firing them instantly and replacing them. If you can't count on someone to be reliable this is going to effect your mental state when having to do your job and focus on other things, you hire a team for a reason. I would have found a random 15 year old guy in the crowed and told him I'd give him $60 just to carry my bag that day, I'm sure someone would have taken me up on the offer.

[HighFade]

Thanks guys. My mental state was probably not too good. As they announced my name on the first tee, I was emailing the caddy and telling him to die a slow painful death.

 

But I can't blame it on him. I hit the bad shots. Good learning experience, but I am just disappointed I didn't put up a respectable score.

[JMiller]

Exactly Richard, USGA will make it hurt if you are just a hair off on shots. 18 to 20 feet is a matter of a bounce when it hits that's about 6 yards. Look at the US Open, it came down to about 1 to 3 yards if they had a great opportunity or were struggling to make a par.

 

Where I haven't played in a USGA event directly I did play on the course the day before the US Pub Links Am Local Qualifier, it was late afternoon after they had started to prep the course for the tournament the next day, at time I was a 2.5 I think much like you and shot a 85 on the course, it beat me to death being firm and fast. One bad bounce turned a straight forward easy hole into a struggle for par.

 

I would say anything bellow 85 is a great round espesually given your mental state coming into the day with a no show, you can't blame the caddie on bad shots but I can say the mental state of not being focused probably contributed to it.

[HighFade]

Shoulda had you on my bag!

 

Funny thing is, I actually noticed that on about the 5th hole. I had made the green, about 25 feet away, with a nice easy uphill putt. One of my playing partners hit it about 10 feet short of mine, but had an impossible pitch shot over a mound an ended up bogeying. That is so true..

 

Also, hitting it left all day, i did notice that left was the most punishing miss. But then I came up to a dogleg left par 4. I thought "awesome, left is not a problem today". Blocked it into the water right!!! I'm still pretty upset, but given time, I'll laugh it off and keep trying.

 

Thanks for the moral support! Wish I could have given you all something to cheer about, but I did achieve my goal. I KNOW that my game is good enough. But I also know that the margin between a great round and a lousy one is pretty slim.

[RoverRick]

High Fade, do not be too hard on yourself, if it were easy, they would let women and children play this game. Oh yeah, they do, so never mind.

 

Seriously, you should be commended for 1. having the guts to follow your dreams and 2. telling us about it and sharing your experience. I think that most of us wished we had the dedication and determination that you have shown here in this thread.

[JMiller]

Shoulda had you on my bag!

 

Funny thing is, I actually noticed that on about the 5th hole. I had made the green, about 25 feet away, with a nice easy uphill putt. One of my playing partners hit it about 10 feet short of mine, but had an impossible pitch shot over a mound an ended up bogeying. That is so true..

 

Also, hitting it left all day, i did notice that left was the most punishing miss. But then I came up to a dogleg left par 4. I thought "awesome, left is not a problem today". Blocked it into the water right!!! I'm still pretty upset, but given time, I'll laugh it off and keep trying.

 

Thanks for the moral support! Wish I could have given you all something to cheer about, but I did achieve my goal. I KNOW that my game is good enough. But I also know that the margin between a great round and a lousy one is pretty slim.

 

I think you have a lot to cheer about and we all do as well, you helped a lot of people and got a lot of single digit golfers talking about tournament preparation and dedication to playing well and how they approach it. That information is not that easy to come by at all.

 

Like I was saying learning from this as a "A rookie's path to the 2012 US Amateur Pub links" will only prepare you for next year even more make you want it more next year to crack 80 or even better.

[revkev]

It's very hard to qualify for the championship portion of a USGA event particularly when you don't play in a lot of USGA events. You get huge props for trying and now you know what to expect next time.

 

For me there won't be a next time - trying to be a big fish in a medium pond (a Florida county with 1 million people in it) is plenty enough testing and trial.

 

Good luck going forward.

[HighFade]

Been thinking about it a lot today, and I think my biggest mistake (not counting a bad case of the hooksies) was the approach shots. The fairway rough wasnt bad at all. But they grew up the green side rough and firmed up the greens. My major flaw was using a 150 club for a 150 yard shot. Every single green slopes back to front. All of them. With the hard greens, the ball rolled out a lot. I ended up with quite a few downhill chips out of deep rough. Not ideal for scoring. What I should have been doing was aiming at the front edge and allowing the ball to release to the hole.

 

Not an excuse for bad play, more like a testament to my inexperience. Next time!

[revkev]

TPC Tampa Bay tries to keep the course as close to tournament ready as possible year round - when you play that course you can never shoot for anything but the front 1/3 of the green! Planning on playing there Monday with Rookie Blue

[RoverRick]

Been thinking about it a lot today, and I think my biggest mistake (not counting a bad case of the hooksies) was the approach shots. The fairway rough wasnt bad at all. But they grew up the green side rough and firmed up the greens. My major flaw was using a 150 club for a 150 yard shot. Every single green slopes back to front. All of them. With the hard greens, the ball rolled out a lot. I ended up with quite a few downhill chips out of deep rough. Not ideal for scoring. What I should have been doing was aiming at the front edge and allowing the ball to release to the hole.

 

Not an excuse for bad play, more like a testament to my inexperience. Next time!

 

The US Army call this an After Action Review,(AAR). They believe that the only way to learn from your mistakes is to review everything that goes right, and everything that goes wrong. I have kept this from my military days, and do this for both work and play. I do it after every round. This is good to do.

[HighFade]

In this case, I think post-mortem is a more accurate description! :-)

[Matt Saternus]

Late to the party, but just want to throw a +1 to what Richard and others have said: you should be proud of yourself for getting out there and competing, and thank you for sharing the journey with us.

 

Good luck in your future endeavors. Hopefully you will keep us posted on those as well.

[HighFade]

I definitely will stay. Love the site. But I do have a bit of a hangover. Gotta get motivated for the next big thing. Now if I could just figure out what that is going to be...