Competition problems

[Lawrence22]

I have now played in 4 competitions and I have been woeful. Points so far 16,16,24,27. I suppose at least I am improving. My main problem seems to be pressure I am putting on myself, I always start terribly, then when I realise I have no chance of playing to my handicap I seem to improve. Last Sunday I had 3 points for the first 6 holes and then 24 for the last 12. I have tried going to the course earlier and hitting a few balls but I still start terribly. Our first hole is a 320 yd Par 4 which is usually very straight forward, during the rounds I used to play before I had a handicap this was a hole I usually played well on, but since I started in the comps it's been a mare. Then I start trying really hard to make up for it on the next few holes and it all goes totally wrong. I know I am capable of playing to 25 as I have done it in the past even off the whites for one of my handicap cards, but at the moment I'm not even coming close to the buffer.
I have tried different tactics on some holes, eg playing an iron off the tee to make sure I don't go OOB and the I stick it OOB with the iron anyway, playing a wedge from the rough to get it back in play and hit a shank. It seems every time I think a lot about a shot I make a complete horlicks of it.
Anyone got any tips for keeping calm or removing the negative thoughts?

 

[louise_a]

Someone said to me, "use your shots" off 25 you dont need to hit greens in regulation, try to forget bad shots.

Try and relax, as someones signature on here says the hardest 6 inches in golf are between your ears.

 

[duncan mackie]

only you can really work out how to keep yourself calm (remove whatever pressures are heating you up!) or remove negative thoughts.

in general, flooding the mind with positive thoughts has been known to work but it's not a great long term solution as the negative ones are just waiting for their moment!

 

[brendy]

Advice in a kung fu style:
Swing easy and work to your percentages. A 8 iron up the middle is better than a 5 iron in the trees etc.
There is nothing wrong with using the driver from the tee, watch any women club golfers playing, they never lose it left or right and hit it easy. You could try that then build up until you are hitting it a comfortable distance but accuracy is king and dont worry about par, your handicap will sort you out.

 

[Lawrence22]

Thanks folks. I have actually tried swinging slower with the driver but this has tended to see me sky the ball. At least it goes straight but if you didn't see the club in my hand you'd think I used a sand wedge. I've no idea why swinging slower seems to result in me getting under it, I suppose I should tee it lower if I'm going to swing slower.

 

[Tiger]

You are not alone my friend. I just can't seem to do it in a competition either. I think confidence has a lot to do with it and also feeling relaxed. The only thing I've foudn that helps is playing a lot of competitions one after the other. I then get familiar with playing off the whites and feel less pressured. When its one medal a month I place too much emphasis on that round and like you get off to a nightmare start.

Good luck with it all and above all else keep smiling, it's only a game

 

[Curls]

Hi Lawrence, my playing partner started the season off 23 (first handicap), he's now off 20. He has played, by his own standards, appallingly in competition. I've seen him shoot low 84 a couple of times off the yellows and been unlucky not to be lower (I can hear the calls of bandit from here). He had a couple of good-ish rounds at the start of this year (shooting ~90), hence his reduction, but the last 3 comps have been high 90s and this Sunday 103, he lost his head, hacked around and afterwards he was devastated. He even thought about giving it up for a while. He desperately wants to lower his handicap and I think thats part of the problem.

We played in a fourball betterball comp on Monday and he had a mare on the first few holes as is becoming the norm, I was waiting for him to throw in the towel. Then after putting himself behind some trees off a wayward drive he hit a Bubba-esque hooking draw (not his natural shot) about 180 to hit the green and his game transformed. He had only made 1 par on Sunday, he made 8 Monday. To my mind it was the fact that it didn't matter he had blown the first few, I halved two of them and we lost one but there was no huge damage done, had he a medal card in his hand he wouldn't have recovered the way he did.

The moral of the story is that its very possible you're trying too hard. When he relaxed his natural rhythm came back. As you say you're trying to slow down, maybe other times you're trying to speed up cos you feel you have to lash a shot in order to rescue a score, rather than just keeping your natural tempo.

If its at all possible you should go out with the card in your hand and play like its a casual knock about with a few buddies and however you're doing, good or bad, dont add up your scores as you go around, it rarely works in your favour. Just play each shot or hole on its merits, what happened before is irrelevant (though if youre playing well its fine to take that confidence to the next tee with you) and you cant par the easy 10th or triple the difficult 14th when youre standing on the 5th. Itll click, you just need to get out of your own way and let it, youre obviously good enough to play to your h/c or better, otherwise you wouldnt have it, so as much as its possible forget about the score and think only of the shot. Best of luck chap, chin up, happens everyone.

 

[MadAdey]

Just relax mate. You sound like you are putting far too much pressure on yourself. You have got 25 shots in your hand so do not worry if you drop a few shots on the first coupleof holes. Straight boggies from there will still get you round under your handicap.

 

[Bucket92]

Have a chat with your playing partners between shots, that should help you take your mind off things to relax before you reach the ball to play your next shot