One Shot. One Ball. One Golfer.

Why is it that whenever I golf alone, I shoot where I feel I should be shooting, but when playing with others, I tend to suck horribly?

I shot my best score ever on June 9 - a 93 on a par 72 course. I achieved that by sinking a long birdie putt on the 18th green. I followed that by not cracking the century mark in 4 of my next 5 rounds. I even shot 43 over in one of those rounds. Two were played with my fiercest competitor: my Dad. And one was played with guys from work. In fairness, the 100 I shot was my first time back on the course since a bad ankle sprain ... but ...

Today, after shooting a 106, 103 and 113 in my last recorded rounds, I played High Bridge Hills, my de facto home course. I am leaving for a trip for work today and, before working from home I got out on the course alone at 6:00am. (Still nothing like being the first one out there with the sun coming up and the dew still on the fairways.) The first nine holes (which were the back nine on this course) were atrocious from a scoring standpoint. I shot 52 and was mentally already telling myself that today was going to be another 100+ day. Maybe I am just in a horrible slump. Maybe it's time for lessons. Maybe I'm just too hard on myself.

However, the miracle of this front nine was that I hit 5 out of 7 fairways with my drives. It was because of a couple of sloppy approach shots that I was forced into additional chipping and or penalty strokes.

As I approached the second nine, I just wanted to beat my 7 over 5s (that is 7 strokes above bogey golf). The first hole, a par 5, would have been par if I didn't lose my approach shot. After bogeying 11 as well I then parred 3 of the next four holes. Long story short, I was 2 under 5s on the back and ended up the day at a 95 ... 24 over which is among my top scores. Overall on the day, I hit 69% of fairways, was on the green in regulation a quarter of the time and had more one-putts than three-putts

So, what's the problem?

Golf is a strange game. It is the only game where you benefit by how well your opponent plays against himself. It is the only game where you have no influence over the end result of your opponent's play. You can't defend against him. You can't put him in a less than positive position. He plays himself in an attempt to play himself better than you play yourself.

This can spell disaster for undisciplined competitors like myself.

When I played hockey, I could take out the dissapointment of a missed goal on the poor bastard who ended up with the puck in the corner. In soccer I could slide tackle the guy who scored on me last time and accept this as pennance for his "sin." I could throw a little harder when I pitched to the guy who homered on me last time when I was playing baseball. But when you golf, if you screw up a shot or if your opponent hits a beauty, you have to forget about it. You have to get it out of your head. You can't "use it" to your advantage.

So, the end result; the "key learning" is that when you play an opponent, you actually have to ignore him. You have to ignore your last shot. You can't let it impress you or depress you. More than any other game, golf is about what is happening in the moment. You can't think ahead to the next shot. You can't dwell on the last shot. You can't brood or bask in your opponent's last play. It's one shot at a time.

One shot. One ball. One golfer.