Staying Focused
I played in the U. S. Senior Open qualifier on Tuesday in Hamilton, N. Y. and although I did not play particularly well I enjoyed in very much. I played with two wonderful people and got to see an amazing display of golf. One was a club pro from Rochester named Jim Mrva and he played similar to me but the other fellow Boonchu Ruangkit from Thailand was amazing especially the first nine that we played.
He never missed a shot other that 4 short putts (inside 10 feet) and shot 4 under par 32. He played good on the front although only managing an even par 36, his total of 68 was the best score of the day. He would be in the top three of the best players I have ever played with.
Watching him play so effortlessly on the front nine, I did detect a little nervousness on the back nine as he knew he was in contention to qualify. It is amazing how we let circumstance dictate how we perform. If we could ever master the ability to totally focus on the task at hand regardless on what it means then we could perform our best most of the time. That would be a goal to move closer to staying in the present and hitting the shot with your full attention on what you want to happen with out distracting thoughts about what it means or where it might go that is trouble. Obviously some of the best players in the world have difficulty doing this but everyone should work on this. If you hit bad shots under pressure then you are focusing on the wrong things.
Woody Austin is a marvellous golfer and has won on the PGA tour before but twice he has falter in the last couple of holes when he had the lead. He bogied the last two holes on Sunday to lose by one and under his own admission he got in his own way. The better you get at focusing on the present and treating each shot or task independent of the outcome the better success you will have.
