the consummate scrambler
Golf is a strange and frustrating game, but I've figured it out for me, for the time being.
I suck on my own, but I'm the consummate scramble player. I don't know why this is, but I'm coming to terms with it.
For those who don't know, a scramble (more formally called Captain's Choice) is the format usually played at charity events and some team competitions. Everyone hits their ball, you pick the best shot. Everyone goes there and hits. You pick the best shot, and everyone hits from there, and you continue that way through the course. It's fun, it makes life less frustrating for people who aren't scratch golfers, and it makes the round go relatively fast.
I've played a few scramble events lately (like 3 in the last 3 weeks, including that 9 holes after work just before watching Kenny Rogers get what he had coming last week), and the story has been consistent. I've been kicking ass. My three partners put their drive in the water (or trees), no problem. I rock...270 and down the middle. Par 3, 150 yards over water with the pin in front about 10 yards from danger, watching the three of them drown balls, no sweat...on the front of the green in range for a birdie putt (which all 4 of us missed, but at least we made par). I didn't have that kind of pressure all day, but when I did, I came through with flying colors. I was Mr. Clutch. I'm doing stuff that never works for me. Second shot on a Par 5, 240 yards out, soaring 3 wood, maybe not on the green, but a chip and putt from the fringe to the hole.
So why is it then when I go out and play my own ball, I can't do the same thing? The pressure isn't much different, but for whatever reason, when I'm playing for my own score, I'm hitting out of the rough half the day and I can't stick it 10 feet from the pin on the Par 3 over the water. I'm lucky to be dry and near the green. If I hit 3 wood from the fairway on a Par 5, I top the ball, watching it roll 50 yards in front of me. In a scramble I'm leaving with the same ball I start with. When on my own, I can waive goodbye to half a dozen or more. I think part of it...maybe all of it, is the head game aspect. (OK, part of it might be the lack of talent, but we don't have to go there.) I have been trying to break 90 this year...it's my golf mission in life, and I don't get to play much, so every time I do, I'm thinking..this is my day, and I go out and mess it up. Maybe I just need to relax. Maybe that ought to be my attitude about my football team, and a lot of other things too.
I suck on my own, but I'm the consummate scramble player. I don't know why this is, but I'm coming to terms with it.
For those who don't know, a scramble (more formally called Captain's Choice) is the format usually played at charity events and some team competitions. Everyone hits their ball, you pick the best shot. Everyone goes there and hits. You pick the best shot, and everyone hits from there, and you continue that way through the course. It's fun, it makes life less frustrating for people who aren't scratch golfers, and it makes the round go relatively fast.
I've played a few scramble events lately (like 3 in the last 3 weeks, including that 9 holes after work just before watching Kenny Rogers get what he had coming last week), and the story has been consistent. I've been kicking ass. My three partners put their drive in the water (or trees), no problem. I rock...270 and down the middle. Par 3, 150 yards over water with the pin in front about 10 yards from danger, watching the three of them drown balls, no sweat...on the front of the green in range for a birdie putt (which all 4 of us missed, but at least we made par). I didn't have that kind of pressure all day, but when I did, I came through with flying colors. I was Mr. Clutch. I'm doing stuff that never works for me. Second shot on a Par 5, 240 yards out, soaring 3 wood, maybe not on the green, but a chip and putt from the fringe to the hole.
So why is it then when I go out and play my own ball, I can't do the same thing? The pressure isn't much different, but for whatever reason, when I'm playing for my own score, I'm hitting out of the rough half the day and I can't stick it 10 feet from the pin on the Par 3 over the water. I'm lucky to be dry and near the green. If I hit 3 wood from the fairway on a Par 5, I top the ball, watching it roll 50 yards in front of me. In a scramble I'm leaving with the same ball I start with. When on my own, I can waive goodbye to half a dozen or more. I think part of it...maybe all of it, is the head game aspect. (OK, part of it might be the lack of talent, but we don't have to go there.) I have been trying to break 90 this year...it's my golf mission in life, and I don't get to play much, so every time I do, I'm thinking..this is my day, and I go out and mess it up. Maybe I just need to relax. Maybe that ought to be my attitude about my football team, and a lot of other things too.
John put this out here at 8:05 AM
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