Headed to the Long Beach Open ready to take on the world, or so I thought…
Rewind 1 week:
After playing some of my best golf at my home course, and making a Hole in 1 on the Par 3 #6. I was very confident about my game and the time I was putting in to purposeful practice. I got locked into a belief that I had finally found the magic recipe to playing great golf. Because of this belief I was subconsciously locked into, I did not take the practice round seriously. I went on to shoot 75 the first day and 82 the second day. Some of the worst golf I have played in a long time. Golf is hard. There is no way to get around this one simple truth, it is arguably one of the hardest sports in the world.
On my drive back to the hotel after the second round I was almost in shock at what had just transpired. I sat down in my hotel room and went shot by shot through my round, processing through each one of my thoughts and the different decisions I had made throughout the round. It took me around 30 minutes to realize that I had approached the tournament completely incorrect. I then proceeded to pull the positives from the two rounds and lock in the steps I would take to better prepare for the next tournament, which was in 2 days.
As I reflected on the Long Beach Open and breathed in what had happened, I was quickly able to breathe out and realize that this was just the learning experience I needed to get my mental game locked in and ready for the upcoming events. Moving forward I am confident that my new found tournament preparation process will help me positivity influence the outcome!