So, I mentioned I popped over to Normandy to play in three 36 hole events on the Marc Farry Tour. It was my first time on Marc’s Tour…..the events were great and punctuated with a warm welcome to all from Marc and his wife Isabelle. I met many new friends and plan to return for future events.
The events and one other at Chantilly at the end of May are part of the Legends Tour’s new Q Series Tour where the top two in the order of merit after the four events each get an invitation to play in the Legends PGA Championship at Trump Aberdeen, with the top three getting direct access to final Tour Q School next January. So, in summary, there’s a lot to play for.
So how did I do? At Golf du Champ de Bataille I was 8 over, then 1 under; Golf de Lery- Poses I was 2 over and 2 over (I got it to 4 under after 12); and at Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil I was 7 over and 8 over. A bit of a mixed bag I hear you say! So this is where it gets really interesting. I bet you’ve all heard people say something like “90% of golf is between the ears”. I certainly have and my usual stock answer is “yeah you’re right”, without really – and I mean really – thinking about what this means.
I thought you might find my experience helpful. I’m being candid, so please don’t think I’ve gone crazy, but I think I might be starting to understand “between the ears”!
Keep in mind my scores, which for me are not the only measures of success or failure – they are an output. I had decided to play with confidence and enjoyment as normal. However, here’s what was in my head each day.
Day 1: I stood over every shot thinking a combination of “what if I top this, duff it or hit this heavy?” Day 2: I forced myself to think “you’re progressing this ball around the big ball (the earth) and you’ve got about 70 shots at it, so stop getting so intense about each shot and expecting perfection”. Day 3: I really focussed on what I wanted the ball to do and where I wanted it to land. Day 4: I was walking on air, playing great shots and getting to 4 under after 12. Then the rain started, I had back-to-back bogeys and my head filled with “I’m going to let this potential 68 slip away” – which is what happened. Day 5: a big long course with no run and quite simply I started trying to hit the ball hard, which resulted in over-swinging on the way back and a loss of timing. Nothing awful but the ball was just not going where I wanted it to. Day 6: the same as day 5….my frustration being that I didn’t work out the over-swinging until after day 6!!
My golf game technically is much better after the work we’ve done and while I do still make the odd poor swing, my technical swing is a lot more consistent. So all this started me thinking about the conundrum we have all battled with: ”why is my golf good one day and off the next?” I’m thinking it has to do a lot with our frame of mind and also how “switched on” we are on the golf course.
We tend to measure success by our score, when perhaps we should be measuring it based on how well we applied ourself on the golf course, and our thoughts.
So I’m off to work on mind and brain health……not sure about it all but I’m sure it involves exercise, diet, mindfulness and goal setting for the brain. All sounds a bit airy fairy but what an opportunity for improvement….especially as we can all work on it. I certainly will be.
Will let you know how things go.
Next tournament is the Paul Lawrie Tartan Pro Tour event at Montrose on the 10th May, the tournaments are now 54 hole with a cut after 36 so looking forward to it.
All the best
Calum