Struggling to take the positives.....................Help!!!

[DelB]

Could someone please tell me how I go about not being so hard on myself all the time??

Played in a Society outing at Kings Acre today. 26 of us went out and I finished 5th, with a 91 nett 72, in cold, damp and very windy conditions. I have qualified for the Club Plate Championship (top 8 qualifying players with handicaps of 13 and above) for the first time in four attempts. I won the longest drive on the 7th hole for players with handicaps of 13 and above. I won a smart Mizuno Towel, a bag of pink castle tees, a Sharpie pen and a sleeve of Titleist Pro V's. I should be over the moon.

But......................

I was standing on the 17th tee having only had 76 blows up till then. I somehow managed to dispatch my drive into the cabbage and struggled to a six. OK, not the end of the world. Standing on the 18th tee, water left and OB right. Smacked my drive OB. Three off the tee and proceeded to hit that OB too!!! Carded a nine on 18 and it's somehow all I've managed to think about since.

I really need help to focus on the positives of my game. I putted like a demon today and after an unsteady start of 5, 6, 8, I then went 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 5 for a front 9 of 43 and was going great until the 17th.

Anyone out there able to point me in the right direction/slap some sense into me????

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I think you need to chill out, take a breath and look at all the things you achieved and put that one hole aside. I'm pretty sure Rotella covers it in his books about keeping a catalogue of all the good shots you hit mentally and then next time you go out and need to find something positive just play a mental video of yourself hitting the shot you require.

 

[munro007]

The 17th and 18th at Kingsacre are not the easiest of holes fella. And it was freezing today, which doesn't help. By the time you come to 17 & 18 you are knackered, and your ball doesn't fly the same. So don't beat yourself up.

 

[bigslice]

from past life choices and ****, i always look to the positive. out of 26 you came 5th. think about that. before you went out when there 26 did you think heh i would be happy not come last. bet you didnt. coming 5th is well good. bad shots will always happen to us higher handicaps. so always take the positives not just in golf but in life (and im not a hippy dude):rofl:

 

[Marko77]

Im guessing you wouldn't be feeling the same if the bad holes were at the start of the round. I know that's the case with me anyway.

Positives - you had a good score despite the finish.

You were playing and not rained off.

You have the Club Plate Championship to look forward to

 

[Hendo007]

Could someone please tell me how I go about not being so hard on myself all the time??

I really need help to focus on the positives of my game. I putted like a demon today and after an unsteady start of 5, 6, 8, I then went 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 5 for a front 9 of 43 and was going great until the 17th.

Anyone out there able to point me in the right direction/slap some sense into me????

See this bit DelB you kinda pointed out all the positives yourself. You obviously know what they all are so no need for anyone to tell you. Just acknowledge the last two holes were pants on what was rather a good round in tough conditions.

 

[Tiger]

Del I've started using some of the NLP approach and it does make a difference. After a round write down a detailed description of your three best shots. Use all your senses what was the weather like, how did the shot feel, what did it sound like how did it fly through the air what did it do when it landed? If I hit a great approach to three feet I only mention the putt if it dropped. If not I'll write gave myself a great birdie chance or opportunity to save par. Try to keep all your language positive.

If you want to analyse your round think about it as areas of your game not individual shots i.e. your putting for the whole round as this helps you contextualise rather than pick out one bad hole. I'm finding that my on course mentality is much better now and I reflect on rounds much more positively as my strongest memories are the three shots I wrote down.

One final thing is the OOB on 18. Did you say to yourself I don't want to hit it over there? The brain can't differentiate between negative and positive commands. I've started saying to myself in those situations 'a good shot on this hole will land [specific point] I'm going to hit my shot there'. It's not foolproof but it helps focus my mind.

From your posts over the past months it sounds as though you are making great progress so don't be down on yourself.

 

[One Planer]

I had an absolute mare' in the first medal of the season, shot 6 over my HC. I didn't strike it at all well on the front nine, chipped like I'd never played the game and putted like a knob.

Front 9 I was 16 over

Second 9 I was 1 over par until the 15th, then what was left of the wheels fell off :O and ended up playing to 24.

Even though I played like a total knob, I still took positives from my back 9 (playing the first 5 holes in 1 over) and some of the stirikes and putts I holed. Especially hitting the trickyest green on the course from 175 with a 5 iron.

The front 9 has been erased from memory...... We all have our off days :thup:

 

[Birchy]

You won all that stuff and qualified for that tournament despite having 2 absolute shockers to finish with. Theres two easy places you know you can improve next time and you have proved to yourself that youve got a really low round in you.