With Winning in Mind

After my embarrassing performance in August at the Dos Rios Open, I decided it was time to either become like Pratas, and not give a shit...or by God, get better at golf. I chose the latter. Took my first lesson from Leon Van Rensburg a couple of weeks ago. He videoed the whole lesson, then commenced to tearing my swing apart from the ground up. The bastard nearly killed me, by contorting me into a more "athletic" stance and making me hit what seemed like 10,000 balls. When he showed me the tape, and the difference in the two swings, I had to admit, I had a horrible swing. I looked a lot like Gumby.

Not only am I taking lessons, I have begun reading Lanny Bassham's book "With Winning in Mind" to work on the mental aspect. Lot's of stuff that should be common sense, but there is a lot of emphasis on focusing on the good things you are doing, and forgetting the bad.

I went to the course this morning for my first round since the lesson. A weekend at PK and a trip to Denver had prevented me from picking up a club since the lesson. I arrived 45 minutes before my tee time, and proceeded to knock the crap out of a large bucket of balls.

What with me hitting balls before the round, and my incessant references to good shots, and thinking positively, my playing partners were looking desperately for what had become of Batman. At one point, Shane actually indicated he wanted the old Batman back, because the new one was too annoying.

At any rate, I managed to stumble my way to a dismal 96...however, I did hit a lot of good shots, and my misses were fairly straight. I think the problem lies in the fact that I wore myself out hitting too many balls before the round, and that I had eaten nothing but Slim Jims and Doritos since Thursday evening supper.

I am going out again in the morning, after eating a good meal tonight, and I will only hit 7 or 8 balls before we start. I am POSITIVE I will be able to improve. Let the re-building of Batman continue.