I think the mental game is something I’ve overlooked for awhile and something I want to get better at… Max Homa talked about it on his podcast and basically said “I only have control of the shot in front of me, why would it matter what happened before?” and he’s 100% right, but that’s a very difficult head space to be in.
Even if you can let go of the frustration, for me there is the desire to “make up” for the lost shot, which usually ends up costing me more… Not to bring everything back to Chasing Scratch, but it’s funny, Eli was having a banner round and was 1 under through 17… He hit a drive that dribbled through the fairway and was left with a sidehill lie out of the rough, and he tried to force it to the green… when they reflect on it the next week, he still thinks he should have taken the aggressive line… I 100% identify with his thought process, but I think if you take a step back, it fails inspection.
His ball is in the rough and above his feet. What’s the most consistent way to get the ball into the hole from there? Take the safe shot of punching it forward where a miss doesn’t punish you. Hit it to the center of the green. 2 putt for bogey… but we want to be heroes. We want to be rewarded for a good drive…
Honestly, my best rounds are probably my most boring rounds… My best round is a 74, and I don’t remember much of it… I remember missing it right on 17 when I was even and pushing, only to end up with bogey… and then pushing for birdie on 18, a hole that I never birdie… and making a dumb bogey (I don’t remember the details, it was 2004!)…
As Max Homa’s wife says: Forgive quickly.
That’s the sort of mental thing I’m working on… it’s not stuff I can practice on the range… It will probably have a better impact on my score than anything else, though.