It's Saturday, and I'm traveling home. Erratic play in Reno earned me an early exit from the Barracuda Championship and a couple of extra days off before my final regular season event of the 2013-2014 PGA Tour season. It is never fun to miss a cut, and this one certainly adds to my growing frustration, but I am committed to my plan and believe that I am heading in the right direction.
The final results from Reno look pretty ugly. Needing to birdie the final two holes to make the cut on Friday, I finished with consecutive double-bogeys instead. That dropped me into the bottom of the field. My play was certainly inconsistent and at times very sloppy, but I actually showed a lot of positive signs during my two tournament rounds. I hit great drives, and some quality iron shots, and I actually felt really good over the putter for the first time in a while. Unfortunately I could never string together enough good shots consecutively to get anything going. I just haven't been able to capture the sharpness or consistency yet this year that has characterized my past success.
I am definitely back on the right track, however. I have been thoroughly committed to my work routine for the past four weeks, and I show great signs in my practice. I have always been a better player on the course than I am on the practice facilities, but I am clearly fighting some sort of confidence issues during my tournaments right now. I have the next week off and will use it to continue sharpening my physical skills, but I will also think about some strategies for recapturing my mental edge during tournament play.
I am very excited about the progress I feel in my game. My process works, and I can see improvement as I practice. As for my mental game, I have always used my mind as my greatest strength on the golf course, and I have a great resource to help me get the positive thoughts flowing again. Confidence is a choice, and I will make some good choices to ensure that I am feeling great the next time I tee it up.
As I said in multiple posts a couple weeks ago, I need to have a long-term vision of success. This year's golf results have been really lousy so far, but I have learned a tremendous amount and truly believe that my plan has me on a trajectory to be one of the best players in the world. I am going to continue to improve, and I am very excited for the future.
I will be working from home this next week and preparing for the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina. That is the final PGA Tour event of the regular season, and I will go into it in my best form of the year!
Thank you for caring about me and keeping up with me. Stay tuned for updates as I continue moving forward!
*Random side note and cool picture: I think it is important for me to get my mind off of golf every now and then, too. Here is a view from a quick adventure that Alicia and I took before leaving the Reno-Tahoe area on Saturday.
more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.
ReplyDeleteCharles R. Swindoll
Keep your great attitude Peter. The rest will come!