{"id":590,"date":"2009-11-24T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-24T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/?p=590"},"modified":"2014-03-10T21:50:06","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T21:50:06","slug":"keep-playing-dont-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/keep-playing-dont-quit\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep Playing, Don\u2019t Quit"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have to admit I have a tendency to quit trying for a bit after I hit a bad shot. Especially when things have going well for a good stretch of holes. But no more. I finally learned my lesson. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In one of the last rounds I played before the autumn rains came, I was cruising. I never pay attention to my score after about the fourth hole, so I didn\u2019t realize until the round was over that I had parred eight holes in a row. All I knew was that I was playing well.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

So on a par 5 hole, with a 9-iron third into the green, I cold topped it, the ball disappearing into a waste area that fronts the green. Words were spoken inside my head. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Now the waste area is marked as a water hazard, but instead of walking up to the hazard and having a 70-yard pitch into the green, I dropped another where I was and hit another 9-iron. By golly, I was going to prove to myself that I could hit that shot.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The ball got over the hazard, but went way left and it took me three to get down from there. That\u2019s an 8 if you\u2019re counting.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

On the next hole, a par 4 that slopes down to the left, I popped up my drive. 150 yards tops. Maybe not even that. Leaves me about 210 from the hole. So I get up to the ball and figure this round has been trashed, and I might as well try hitting my 2-hybrid to see how close I can get it to the green because I\u2019ve been working on that shot and if it doesn\u2019t work out, big deal, since the round has been ruined anyway. But a little voice said, \u201cNo. Take another look. See if you can still get a par from here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Taking a close look, I saw that if I hit 4-hybrid, I could put the ball at the front right of the green in a good position to pitch into a sharply sloping green for a par putt. And since I have both the 4-hybrid shot and the pitch in my bag, my attitude changed just like that. \u201cYes,\u201d I thought to myself, \u201cI can do this,\u201d and I was in attack mode again.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

You know what happened? I put the 4-hybrid on the front right, just where I wanted to, pitched on to three feet and made the putt.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I will never quit on myself again. Promise.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

See more at www.bettergolfbook.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to admit I have a tendency to quit trying for a bit after I hit a bad shot. Especially when things have going well for a good stretch of holes. But no more. I finally learned my lesson. In one of the last rounds I played before the autumn rains came, I was … Continue reading Keep Playing, Don\u2019t Quit<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental-game"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4qtRQ-9w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}