Rotella (And My Mom) To the Rescue

A couple of weeks ago, I played in the PA Women’s Amateur hosted by the PA Golf Association at Waynesborough Country Club. The first 27 holes I was +9. The last 27 holes I was -1. So what was the difference?

It had nothing to do with my ball striking or putting or anything else with my physical game. It had everything to do with my mental game.

The first 27 holes I was trying so hard to play well. The course was one of the hardest courses I have ever played, so patience was the key to playing well. It wasn’t that I was impatient the first half of the tournament, because I was playing better and seeing all my hard work from changing my swing pay off. But, I would get a little irritated with myself when I would miss a shot I knew I could make.

The difference maker was a Dr. Bob Rotella quote my mom reminded me of:

“You can always be in control of your thoughts and your emotions, but you cannot always control the times when your game doesn’t fall into place.”

There are days where your game just isn’t coming together, and it isn’t because you are doing anything wrong. It’s because that is how golf works. It can be fun and relaxing at times but feel frustrating and random at other times.

As soon as I started to remind myself of this, I began to play much better. Yes, I still missed some shots. In fact, the final round was my best round, yet it had the most roadblocks I had to overcome. I played almost flawless golf on the front 9, but on the back 9 we were hit with a downpour for 3 holes, and on top of that on the 12th hole I had lost my rangefinder and had to get a yardage the old fashion way. I was successful with it, but my short game let me down. I did get my rangefinder back in time for the next hole.

I remained patient with myself throughout the second half of the tournament, and accepted the fact that this course was difficult, so 3 putts were just going to happen. Bad breaks were happening to everyone. It was just the way this course was designed.

I firmly believe that, especially on difficult courses, what separates the top of the leaderboard from the bottom has little to do with ability level. Those who finish on top are the ones who were the most patient with themselves and the course. They were the ones who accepted before going into the round that things out of their control were going to happen, and there was nothing they could do about it. I was guilty the first half of letting the difficulty of the course get to me, but I turned my head around and accepted the fact that bad bounces were going to happen, but I had control of my reactions and emotions.

Also shoutout to my teammate, Sammie, for being on my bag the first round and to my high school golf coach, Coach Grinwis, for being on my bag the second and third rounds.