decisions, decisions

I am planning on learning from the following golf experience (which, by the way, I used as an introduction to my lesson in priesthood this afternoon). I was playing the front nine at Champions, in my Thursday afternoon league. On the first hole, a dogleg left, I pulled my drive into the woods on the left. The best shot from there, if you care about your score (and I do) is to chip it back out, into the fairway and move forward to the green. Often, however, there is the temptation which appears in the form of an opening through which a well directed shot can go, a hero shot if you will. In spite of my self promise to almost always pitch out into the fairway when in the woods, I tried the hero shot. Not surprisingly, it didn't work. At that point, I did pitch out and go for the green. When the ball finally rattled into the hole, I had taken a double bogey. Had I pitched out in the first place, I might have saved a stroke (statistically, a golfer will get a bogey versus a double bogey if they pitch out and move on). The temptation of making a great, hero shot was too much and I went for it, paying the price.

Holes 2-5 were good, with solid tee shots, good approaches and pretty good golf. Number 6 is almost like number 1, only the dogleg goes to the right. I put my tee shot into the trees and had the very same decision, pitch out or try the hero shot. I again tried the hero shot, even though this shot was even more exacting than the hero shot on 1. The results were worse, taking me farther into the woods on the other side of the fairway. Eventually, I ended up saving a double bogey. Had I pitched out and gone forward from there, statistically, I might have ended up with only a bogey.

After the round, which was not a good one with respect to score, I noted that there were three give away strokes because I didn't pitch out when in trouble. There were two give away strokes because my chipping around the green was not good and finally, there were three give away strokes because of badly putted balls on the green. I gave away 8 strokes because of lack of discipline, focus, memory, whatever you want to call it (almost a full stroke a hole). From this point on, I am going to stick with the plan, chip it out when in trouble, work on chipping around the greens (even more than I do) and stay with my plan to putt more aggressively, taking some of the break out of breaking putts (that I have been babying a lot and missing a lot).

Also, I have decided to do a bit more blogging because, while I enjoy Facebook, I don't feel there is much depth nor permanence to it. Blogging seems to be a great way to express feelings, note progress and keep a record of what I am doing with my life in the areas I care most about. I'll even look for appropriate photos should the occasion call for it.

By the way, the lesson, which was about developing good judgment, went well and the HP Group liked it, participated and added good insight.

Finally, I started back to running, with an easy three miler from my house to the bridge on Davidson. I'll work into more and more running as the days and weeks come, building to the point where I can think about doing some longer races (halves and fulls).

Have a good one. KipK