My quick update after round two is this: my hard work is working. I know this because I was not in a great mindset during much of the round on Friday, but I was still able to execute a lot of quality golf shots and shoot a good score. My struggles last year must have left a bit of a scar in my mind. No matter how much I tried to stay focused on one shot a time, I felt some "cut anxiety" all day on Friday despite a fantastic morning practice session prior to my afternoon tee time. I allowed this uncomfortableness to cause a bogey on the first hole and much stress the rest of the day. The good news is that my game held up nicely despite the poor thought pattern. I credit the hard work I put in this off-season for that. For the second consecutive round, I overcame a shaky start--two over par through three holes on Friday--to play solid golf and shoot even par. Level par on this golf course is a pretty good score, so I am thrilled with the state of my game and am confident that I will play great over the weekend.
As for this "cut anxiety" issue, that is a real problem. The only way to play golf successfully is to commit fully to each shot and trust that I will execute it. Fear, anxiety, and doubt are the opposite of trust, and thinking about the cut during a round of golf leads to these types of negative thoughts. I know that I will overcome this issue, but it is definitely a very real thing for me right now.
The answer is to play one shot a time, and it doesn't get any more complicated than that.
I'm very excited that I have two more days of competition here in Panama to climb the leaderboard and practice playing golf one shot at a time. My game is in great shape. I am going to trust it and commit to having a present mindset on the course this weekend. Good stuff is coming! Keep it here for weekend updates from the first Web.com Tour event of 2015. Thank you for following!
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