New Post #40 Wise Wednesday

Hi Friends

Its major week ahead, The US Open at the Oakmont Country Club.

Oakmont is actually the name of the borough that the Golf course is situated in. The borough got its name from a landmark tree inscription. The inscription read: “Beginning at a black oak on the bank of the Allegheny River…” hence how Oakmont was born. This was around 1800.

The golf course was founded by Pittsburgh steel magnet Harry Fownes and he actually built and designed it himself. In 1903/04 he set out to build the most difficult course in Pittsburgh. He was a “one hit wonder” as this was the only course he designed.

While it wasnt tree lined when it was built, by the 1994 US Open is was densely tree lined. From the late 90’s onwards the trees started to be removed, this accelerated so that by the 2016 US Open it was back to its original look, nearly treeless, except for one lone American Elm on the far side of the golf course. It then received a full restoration by Gill Hanse in 2023, who amongst other things increased the greens back to their original size. It also has a major highway running through the middle of the course.

Once again I can’t see past Scottie winning. But Dechambeau is also worth looking at. Rory missed the cut last week but I’m hoping he can find some form this week but as I was once told by my CFO “hope isn’t much of a strategy”

We are now in peak golf season with Club Championships, Opens and County Championships coming thick and fast.

Regular readers of this newsletter will know I like a good quote and this one from Mahatma Gandhi seemed quite apt for me after this weekend,

“We may stumble and fall but we shall rise again; it should be enough if we did not run away from the battle”

If you follow me on instagram https://www.instagram.com/a_round_with_jerry/ you will have already seen but I was playing in a Scratch Open at the very pleasant West Kent Golf Club in Biggin Hill, Kent “The Darwin Plate” so called as Charles Darwin lived about 3 mins from this club. A more contemporary local now is a certain Nigel Farage, I’ll leave to decide whether this is a good or bad thing!

Anyway, the last 5 holes of my morning round pretty such sums up golf and my golf in particular (at least in tournaments)

I holed a lovely gap wedge from 100 yards on the 14th for birdie (I had driven it behind a tree first, chipped out then holed the wedge).

High fives all round, Everything is right with the world. Happy days are here again!

15th tee, tough long par 4, OOB all done the right hand side.

Hybrid for safety.

You know what happened without me having to tell you.

Slice way right OOB. Quadruple Bogey.

16th par 3, just miss the green, chip to 6 ft - 3 putt. Double Bogey.

17th Pull my drive 5 yards off the fairway, behind a tree again, try and hit miracle 8 iron with a high fade under branches of the tree and over some more trees about 10 yards in front of me Double Bogey.

18th. Nothing special just a plain Bogey

9 shots lost to par in 4 holes - NINE!!

Again regular readers will remember me telling you about the Surrey Mid Am Championships last year at Tyrrells Wood Golf Club. Where I managed put an 11 on the scorecard.

So………………..

With this in mind I have a question - Are you a tournament golfer or a golfer that plays tournaments?

There is no doubt that having a card in your hand and your scores really counting adds something extra to a round of golf. For many of us, we love the challenge of a tournament and all that goes with it.

I think for our the purposes a tournament is basically any competition where you have a card in your hand. Could be the Club Champs, the Monthly Stableford or even a Scratch Open at say West Kent Golf Club.

So what do I mean by Tournament golfer as opposed to a golfer that plays tournaments?

For this I shall defer to a guy called Mike Booker (He is in the Texas golf hall of fame) He has written a book called the Tournament Golfers Playbook.

Full disclosure haven’t read the book (yet), I have just listened to a few podcasts where he has been the guest and I thought he made a lot of sense. I will certainly be trying to become more of a tournament golfer going forwards.

Here are 5 easy mental game tips from the book,

• Take responsibility

  Stop complaining about bad breaks

  Plugged in the bunker? Well you hit there, get on with the challenge of the next shot.

  Don’t let you mental state become negative.

• Be your own best friend

  Nothing can sap your belief in yourself quicker then YOU

  Have compassion and forgiveness to yourself

• Pre shot routine

  A solid pre-shot routine will anchor familiar feelings while in a stressful situation, Quiets your mind throwing doubts and fears at you.

  Not exactly rocket science and pretty much every sports psych or golf coach will tell you to do this - BUT do YOU actually do this?

  This isn’t about slowing down and taking forever, it’s just about having a nice flowing routine that sets you up to stay in the process and hit great golf shots

• Stop trying to make putts

  When you stop trying to hole the putt you free yourself up

  Focus on the process not the result

  If the result is too important to you, you will tighten up. Do you want to hole the putt? yes of course but focus on the process and not the result and paradoxically you will be more likely to hole the putt

• Importance of staying present

  Don’t think in the future or the past

  If our minds get distracted we lose focus and that will affect your shots

  Learn some basic breathing exercises - like just counting your breaths

  Or what Mike does when those negatives thoughts pop in to his head (like what if I duff this chip, I’ll look like an idiot, I’ll make a double bogey etc etc) he just says to himself or out loud “Cancel” 

  its Just a simple trick to help your mind stop those thought chains

My next tournament is in 2 days - The Surrey Foursomes Championship. 36 holes of scratch foursomes which is quite the test.

Good luck and bonne chance for your next tournament - I really hope you smash it!

Till the next time,

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