#34 [Journey to Scratch] Trying (Too) Hard to Break 90, A New Low, And A Reality Check

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Hey fellow golfer, welcome back to another episode of the scratch golfers mindset podcast. I’m your host Paul Salter, the golf hypnotherapist and buckle up in today’s episode. I am going to recap an emotional roller coaster of a week filled with incredible highs, confusing lows, strange injuries, incredible putting disastrous putting

and everything in between and I want to pick right back up where we left off last week. I mentioned last week that after shooting my personal low round to date of a 95. I more or less walked into my lesson with my chest puffed out my head held a little higher I was feeling good only to walk into a two hour lesson in which Melvin ripped my swing apart.

The biggest takeaway and focus from that swing lesson was working to get my left shoulder, you know, during my takeaway and rotation at or at the ball, like so behind at or behind the ball, they’re all the way over to my right knee, really emphasizing.

that one piece takeaway all the way back so that that left shoulder can rotate through and inevitably I can then swing down and through the ball. So that was something I was very much shortening in my swing. I had little rotations, still too much arms, not allowing the full body, particularly my core, my lower body to do most of the heavy lifting. So I took all of that feedback to heart and ever since

recording or beginning to record this podcast. I spent more time on the range than I ever have this past week. think I may have been at the range. I want to say every day but one. had a couple fortunate or unfortunate call. Unfortunately had calls that had to reschedule that created gaps in my day and I took advantage of those gaps by

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heading over to the local range and just hitting balls, hitting balls, working on chipping, working on putting. And if I wasn’t at the range doing it, I was setting up the mat outside in my lanai and hitting them there. Every single practice session last week was night and day. After that Sunday lesson, when I hit the range on Monday, it was as if I could not hit a golf ball.

On Tuesday, I was striping them so clean, I was sure as hell that I was going to break 90 in the coming weekend. Come Wednesday, I just could not hit the ball consistently. Come Thursday, I had a good, I had a frustrating range session, excuse me. I came home and like an addict, I couldn’t get enough. I had to go fix something. I had to leave on a high note, a good feel.

So I took that mat, if you’ve seen on Instagram that I use on my Lenaya, I took it out of my backyard. I had about a half bucket of range balls and I just put the mat on my backyard and just started hitting the woods. My backyard just is into complete woods. I felt like I had never hit the ball so pure. I don’t know if I was finally just calmed.

I have finally let go of any expectation of what the day in the practice session would be. But I’ve hit my five wood, my three wood, my nine, eight, seven, six, five iron just smoking them right where I want to every single shot rotation is there. Come it’s Thursday, I’m looking forward to playing back to back rounds on Saturday and Sunday. Again, confidence has peaked or be a peaked up to about a 10 out of 10 that I’m going to break 90. This is going to be the weekend feeling really good.

By Friday, I’m headed to the range again. I blocked out time for about a two hour practice session, 30 minute chipping, 30 minute putting and about 45 to 60 minutes on the range was the goal. Same thing. I felt like I couldn’t fucking hit the ball in the range. I’m hitting the hosel over and over. I am completely topping the ball. I’m rushed. taking a break. I’m in my head. Things are just not going as planned.

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So I inevitably spend a little bit more time chipping and putting that day. And as you’ll learn in a moment, that proved to be a wise decision. But before I get into recapping Saturday and Sunday, I alluded to it in last week’s episode. I alluded to it on Instagram at the Golf Hypnotherapist several times throughout the week.

I felt like this could be the weekend. This would be the weekend. This is the weekend I’m going to break 90. So all along, I’m setting an expectation and I’m doing so humorously. Yet there’s intent there. There is a level of seriousness, a commitment, a desire to break 90 this weekend. And to be frank, part of me like…

There’s probably a little part of me that wants to break 90 just to get it over with, just to have it done with. can more or less relax a little bit. I think a little bit of pressure, a little bit of weight is beginning to accumulate with this goal, and that’s the beauty of it. With awareness, these timeline -sensitive goals that allow a sense of healthy pressure to be created, they’re going to push you. They’re going to weigh you a little bit. And as you saw, I spent

more time than ever before practicing, preparing this past week. And I’ll share with you in just a moment or two the outcome of such a practice rich week. But one observation that I think is worth mentioning is I did a little adjustment on my grip based on my lesson this week prior. And as I am recording this episode, I’m looking down at my hands, I have some nasty

nasty blisters and calluses. In fact, on my left index finger, that top portion of my digit, it’s not numb, but you know that feeling when your foot or your hand falls asleep? Like there’s just minimal sensation there. I feel that in my left index finger, the top portion, my right thumb is incredibly blistered and a little bit low feeling there. And same in my left thumb.

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And my takeaway is twofold. One, more work than I’ve ever done before just gripping a golf club in a given period of time. So many repetitions. Two, I can’t help but feel like maybe there’s a little bit of subconscious pressure coming to I’m trying too hard, I’m gripping the club a little harder than perhaps I should be. And that’s causing some real wear and tear on the digits, the hands, the wrists. And I’m.

feeling a little beat up coming into Saturday. Again, not having just the best sensation, the feel that I believe and feel I need to putt at my best, to hit at my best, to play to my potential. But that’s what we’re working with coming into Saturday morning. And Saturday gets a strong start. We hit a great early morning total body workout. We get some quality time.

walking the dog with the girlfriend outside before heading off to a 2pm tea time and this was around I was supposed to play with one of my best friends who’s never golfed before was going to take him out going to shoot the shit have a great time while I break 90. He can’t make it last second I exhaust my list of local contacts to golf nobody can make it so I’m flying solo this round that I have the opportunity on hole like nine or 10 to join the two some in front of me.

didn’t feel the need, felt fine playing solo. But let’s dive in. It’s Saturday, 2 p T time, 91 degrees at Heritage Isles, and our first drive, you know, one of my observations from past rounds is I start slow. I dig myself a hole. It’s like double, triple, double, and I can’t find a way out of it soon enough to score to where I am capable. So that first drive, that first hole, it’s a slight dog leg left. It’s 307 yards.

I take my five wood, tee it up a quarter and an inch or so. Boom, stripe it down the middle, maybe 210, 215. Easy iron shot on the green, barely miss a birdie putt. We’re tapping in for par. We’re starting strong with par, hitting the fairway, green in regulation, two putts. shit, could this be the day? And I have to pause our story here, only to mention that yet again,

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During my warmup on the range, I got there like 90 minutes early, couldn’t hit the ball in the range to save my life, feeling all out of sorts. So I started chipping, went to the range inconsistent with my gap, my pitching, my nine, go back to chipping, I putt for a while, and then I go back to the range, I hit my five wood, three wood driver, I hit those pretty well, but I can’t hit the irons. I’m just in my head, I’m lost.

So to start that strong on the first hole, it was like night and day. We’re moving on. The second hole is a par five, about 480 yards, a strong dog leg left. And really this requires like a 2 .15 shot. If you can get a little hook on the ball around the hazard and the trees, you could give yourself a look for a long second shot on the green. But ideally it’s 2 .15 to the middle, another 2 .00 and a short.

wedge into the Boom, we’re out of bounds. Take the second shot. We get it in play. We’re in the rough. The third shot, which is really the fourth shot gives us a weird lie and we’ve got some trees in front of us and we are mishitting the ball. We walk away with a missed fairway, a missed green, a three putt.

and a triple bogey with a penalty stroke on a par five, a par five that we should be dominating and eating alive. So we go par triple double. We have another OB penalty on the third hole, a two putt. Then on the fourth, another double with a three putt. And at this point, we’ve gone par triple double double.

And this, my friend, might be the darkest, harshest moment of self -talk I have experienced. And remember, it’s me, myself, and I. I am alone, free from distraction or an escape with a playing partner through conversation and laughter. And I’m not in a good place. I am irritated. I am frustrated. And I know that I have crossed a threshold.

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When a certain, what’s the word, a certain sequence of profanity kinda is my unconscious reaction when I’m incredibly pissed off and that sequence was red, it was hot, it was fresh, and I was not in a good place. Again, we start off par so strong, striping the ball, triple, double, double. We’re on five, which is a par three, 144, easy nine iron, and.

We have to have a moment to calm down. And fortunately, we find a shady spot as we’re waiting for the two some in front of us to finish up. And we just reconnect with our thoughts. We focus on some breathing. If you haven’t heard me mentioned before, I’m a big fan of what I call the one to one, two, three breath in for four, out for four, in for four, out for eight, in for four, out for 12. So I have ample opportunity to calm down.

We end up bogeying with a nice one putt on five. We bogey on six with another one putt. We bogey on seven, starting to hit some fairways. We bogey on the par three, eight, and we bogey on nine with two putts. So we finish, bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey. So does that five bogeys in a row. We card a 48 on the front.

Four fairways hit, only one green in regulation, 18 putts, two penalty shots. All in all, we salvage a good round, a good nine, excuse me, and I believe that is tied for the best score on the front nine that this course I have ever had. We move on to the back, and the back one starts with a really easy par four on 10. It’s only 300 yards with lots of water and a slight dog leg right.

Well, what do you know, we hit it out of bounds, we double on 10, we then tee off on 11. 11 is a 465 par five where you need a really good drive to have an opportunity to hit the green in two, because there’s a massive hazard, probably 400, 410 yards away or so. So I had a decent drive, I hit a little thin, probably poked it out there 225 yards.

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didn’t like my lie and my distance. So I end up making the decision to lay up and I shanked my layup shot. So I’m about 150, a blind shot to the hole. I played the hole enough to know where it is. I go double check about 150, 151 from the hole. I take a nine iron and I blast it. Best shot of the day so far. I know kind of take the cart hurriedly go look to see where it lands. And we are about two and a half, three feet from the cup.

We knock it in for a birdie on 11. Okay, buckle up. Here we go. Here we go. A one put birdie on 11. We bogey on 12. We double bogey on 13. We one put bogey 14. We one put bogey 15. We one put bogey 16. We bogey 17. And on 18, I had no idea where I was, but I knew I had strung together another strong sequence of bogeys.

I have an opportunity to either lay up with like a seven eight iron or I could even have pushed a five wood, you know, two 10, two 15, but I decided to go over the water, which needed about two 35 to safely clear took my three wood piped it over the water. My approach shot landed just into the first cut and I chipped that giving myself about a 12 foot putt.

downhill right to left, sync that for par. Thank you. One putt par on nine or on 18, excuse me. I card a 44 on the back. That’s my best performance at this course to date on the back. I carded eight fairways hit on the back nine, three greens, 14 putts, a new low, three penalty shots. Ultimately ending the day, I carded a 92. I believe I had 12 fairways, four greens.

32 putts, new low and five penalty shots. Absolutely stoked with the performance, especially considering again, holes two, three, four, I was in a dark place. And I felt as a whole really good that day, especially once I mentally got myself out of the gutter, played really well and excitedly came home that evening. Now you have to remember.

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I had a big total body workout that day, golfed 18s, another 10 to 12 ,000 steps maybe, or maybe eight to 10 ,000 out in the hot sun. Lots of steps. I clocked that day about 25 ,000 steps in hindsight. Instead of sitting on my ass and watching football and spending time with the family, I should have done some stretching, some mobility, maybe even a little ice. I was a little beat up, the fingers, the blisters were opened a little bit.

I should have stretched a little bit because when I woke up Sunday morning, my low back was stiff as a board. And while I’m enjoying my morning coffee with my girlfriend, I’ve got the yoga mat out. I’m trying to stretch, trying to loosen things up because we’ve gotten 11 a tea time on Sunday back at the same course, this time with my good buddy Aaron, golfing 18 together. He’s back for revenge. This course kicked his ass last time. He was with me when I shot the 95 and coming off a 92 the day prior.

I’m feeling good. Until I’m not.

I arrived that day about an hour before.

and never really got comfortable. And what I mean by that is in hindsight, there was no intention to my warmup. I kind of just went through the motions. I wasn’t methodical, intentional or present as I was putting, chipping, hitting off the range. And my low back was just tight. My hips, my glutes were all tightly wound.

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And I told myself, I’m just gonna play with the swing I have. I’m gonna loosen up as the round progresses. And at this point, I’ve spent 30 minutes on a yoga mat. We took an extra long walk with the dog the morning of, so I’ve done all I can and I’m gonna trust things are gonna click and resiliency will allow me to play to my potential this day. And as I mentioned, the day prior, I started the day with a par on that first hole, really, really good.

Well, what do you know, I shank the first drive out of bounds and I tell myself, you know what, I’m just going to take a mulligan here. My mulligan also decides it wants to find its friends at the previous ball and go out of bounds. Like the shots looked identical. I wish I had a shot tracker there. They would have mimicked each other. So I start the first hole with not only a penalty and a double bogey. The next hole I start

Again, this is an easy par five. I’ve scored well before. It just has had my number lately. I tripled this hole again. Same thing as yesterday. Another penalty shot. A two putt just duffed a couple shots. Or no, this one I topped the ball. I topped my five wood and it went like 20 yards. That hurt. That hurt. On three, I double with a three putt. So here we are with double, triple, double. A three putt after three holes.

Again, finding myself in a similar position, starting poorly, digging a deep hole. Finally on four, I have a bogey, five, a bogey, six, a bogey, seven, a bogey, eight. Eight to par three here. It’s 136 yards. Very simple, straightforward. Here, a little water to the left. The left and rear ends of the green are surrounded by bunkers. Well, I

hit my tee shot a little to the right and by the grace of the universe I am about a foot from the OB marker and I am probably still 35 -40 yards from the center of the green. So whatever, plenty of opportunity. It’s a unique undulating green here so I chip it and the theme of this day which I failed to mention is I putted incredibly well the day before.

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carded a 32 total putts. The greens today feel five times faster. I could not find any control. And here I am, I chipped the ball, hits the center of the green where I intended, rolls completely off into the bunker. Then I struggled to get out of the bunker. I get out, but I go over the green again. So I card a six on eight and then a double, which a six is a triple on eight, a double on nine with another penalty, carding an ugly 52 on the front.

with, I don’t even know how many I got to find my stats. think 20 putts, three penalties, three fairways, not a single green in regulation. And again, the theme here is twofold on this front nine. I can’t get comfortable. I’m constantly fidgeting, readjusting, standing over the ball and the greens are wicked fast. On the front nine alone, I had one, two, three, three, three putts. We move on to the back nine and sadly it doesn’t get much better.

I start bogey, bogey, bogey, triple, another triple on a par three. The greens kicked my ass. A double, double, bogey, bogey, double, finishing with three, no, excuse me, two, three putts on the back, 19 putts, carded a 50 on the back, a 102 with 39 putts, five, three putts, five penalty shots. And humbly speaking, it just was not my day.

And in hindsight, there were so many things I wish I did differently. More proactive care the night before after the round of 18, slowing down to be more intentional over the ball, recognizing I was struggling to get comfortable.

And in hindsight, I wish I default to just stepping up trusting my process and hitting and instead of just sitting there trying, trying, trying, which was creating time to think, think, think, which was derailing my process, my flow. But when all is said and done, I just couldn’t get things going on Sunday. Pudding, I did not feel confident. I was just so fearful after the first couple holes because how quickly the greens were rolling. I putted the remainder of the day very timidly.

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was uncomfortable, I was struggling to get into a positive headspace. But what I’m very proud of this day is knowing it just wasn’t there. Rather than accepting defeat, even though there were plenty of moments I had to dig deep, find grit, talk myself out of some nasty places. I started finding opportunities to learn being very curious and observant about

different strategies, know, beginning to develop a thorough understanding in my game as to when, why, and where I will use a gap wedge versus a 52. Seeing the need for a 56 when I’m closer around the green, beginning to understand how just new such quick greens are to me and understanding what I could do differently knowing how quickly the greens are rolling. So I learned a lot from this round. What was really interesting though was this was probably

my slowest round to date. The pace of slow, a pace of play was incredibly slow. Took us about 440, which I know is not horrendously slow, but I did notice just a little bit of feeling like I was looking over my shoulder, caring a bit too much about what the Tucson behind us thought. The Tucson behind us, I don’t know, a couple of dudes maybe in their 30s playing from the tips.

And they hit into us not once, not twice, three times. They were on our ass. The group in front of us looked like they had no idea how to efficiently or effectively navigate playing a round of golf together. And the observation I had was, despite all these novel experiences, I began to recognize both in myself and my playing partner, who also didn’t play too well for his standards.

When we’re not playing well, it’s such like an unconscious program response to start putting blame elsewhere, like fuck the foursome in front of us. So those guys behind us are jerks, they’re assholes, how dare they hit into us? And granted, they hit into us while we were on the green and their ball hit the green. So probably not something they should have done, right?

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It was just interesting to see how quickly we are conditioned to want to blame elsewhere because it’s a way to distract us, to numb us or dissociate from some of the negative emotion we might be stewing in that is reflective of how we’re feeling about ourselves and our game in the moment. So it was a really wonderful opportunity for me to observe that from a place of neutrality and curiosity, just to continue to redirect my thoughts.

to gratitude, presence. Like I’m out there on a Sunday afternoon, I’m checking football scores on occasion, having a good time with my friend. And although I’m not playing my best golf, I’m still fucking out on a golf course, beautiful weather, was like 86 sunny, cool breeze consistently throughout. And just reminded me that there are so many things to be grateful for, so many wonderful things in my life, even though I didn’t play my best. So.

That’s the recap from a long golf field weekend and week that is the most number of golf ball shots I have hit in a seven to 10 day period in my entire life. And as I record this episode on Monday morning, the hands are fucking beat up. So gonna take a day or two off from even gripping a club, let those mellow gonna try to pencil in a lesson in the next couple of days or a round on Friday, gonna take the weekend off.

spend some extra family time. I’ve got a keynote presentation on delivering on Saturday that I’ll really make sure I am tip top shape, focused and prepared for. And as we move forward, so many things to be excited about in the golf game. Did I achieve my goal of breaking 90 this weekend? I did not. Did I take some monumental steps in that direction? Absolutely. I mean, there were two separate occasions, maybe three where I strung together more than five or more pars or bogeys in a row.

multiple pars, a birdie, the potential is there. There’s some work I need to do internally. I need to continue to release some of this false state of pressure or urgency or anxiety that begins to sit over me with groups playing right behind us. Focus on my A game, getting into my process. So a lot of good mental and emotional work I can do. And then I am pleased, especially on Saturday, I was so much more consistent.

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and dialed in off the tee. There’s still a lot of work to do on the tee box and consistently hitting my irons. Something just felt a little inconsistent. I had some mental blocks creep in just because of how poorly I performed on the driving range. And I almost am finding a slight trend towards performing better on the course than I do hit the ball on the range, which I know is the opposite.

for most individuals. So I’m going to investigate that through a lens of curiosity. I know more intention and hitting down and through the ball is what I’ve got to work on as one of my cues and just allowing myself to naturally rotate, stay loose, stay limber. And that is where we are at. a pretty in -depth overview after a lot of golf, I look forward to getting again, like I said, another hopeful one round in on Friday this coming week.

and we’ll see where we are at. But the countdown is on. We are about seven weeks or so from away or so from meeting the little guy and breaking 90. The timeframe is there and really it’s about stepping back and enjoying the process for me. Releasing, relinquishing any sense of healthy pressure that is counterproductive and not serving me. Remembering.

I get to play this game for the next 80 plus years. I’m grateful for that. And I am grateful that you are here alongside me sharing in this journey with me. So thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it. means so much to me. And if you continue to find this podcast, especially Tuesday’s journey to scratch or Thursday’s inside the mind where I interview top mindset and psychology based coaches about mental aspects of the game, and you haven’t yet left.

a genuine rating or review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, it would mean the world to me if you just took 30 seconds to do so, it helps myself it helps the show grow. And if you’re finding this content valuable, share it with a fellow golfer to help him or her play to their potential as well. Have a phenomenal week of practice of playing hit them straight, take an extra deep breath, and I’ll catch you in the next episode.