Breathing is always good, carry provisions, and math and the rules are your friends.
These are among the things that I learned during my club championship at Blue Springs GC this weekend:
• Have an extra CR12 battery for your range finder in your bag. This prevents full-scale panic when you finish a round in the dark when the hardware store is closed, and your morning round starts before the hardware store opens.
• Don’t be over-reliant on your range finder.
• Don’t immediately go from an engaging conversation about your kid’s hockey to hitting to a back pin on a plateau without first doing the math (subtraction!). What usually follows is significant addition.
• Learn the concept of lag putting. Yeah, yeah, Bob Rotella says attempt to make every putt, but on slick and sloping tournament greens, I’d suggest barely attempting to topple the ball into the hole on putts longer than your kitchen.
• Ignore being out-driven by 40 yards by competitors young enough to be your kids.
• Convince yourself that you have hard-earned wisdom and you were alive the last time a Toronto sports team won a significant championship.
• Re drives: you don’t need to call mom to get one home
• If your first ball lands in a jungle and your provisional ball lands on the green, abandon first ball even though it may be a family heirloom. You could make bogey or limit the damage to a double rather than ego-depleting triple.
• Know the Rules of Golf, especially (Decision 27-2c/2) that allows you to declare a ball lost, and to yell at your competitors not to look for the jungle ball.
• After ball lands in jungle, breathe. Breathe again. Breathe some more.
• Follow breathing rule when range finder battery dies.
About Tim O'Connor
