St. Patty's Meltdown

So the traditional first tournament of the season for the past few years here in Colorado has been the St. Patty's Meltdown up at Edora Park in Fort Collins. This year there was no melting snow so go figure.

I finished the tournament in 14th place in Advanced, which was good enough for last cash. I had a grand time and was mostly impressed by the fair but challenging layout, which was a super layout for the course.

Here is what I learned. The mental game is so important and it does not pay to ignore it. See in the first round I played quite well, that is until I got the best of myself and some unlucky bounces and took two 8's close to the end of the round. Yes, I took them on lnger holes. Yes, if I had simply made a 5 on each of them I would have been in second place. A bad or unfortunate tee shot forced me to want to make up for it on the next shot, both of which ended up going out of bounds. Then you are really set back and make more mistakes. But, as the tournament went along, the mental game got stronger and I started to feel better and better about my game.

There really is something to be said for tournamnet head. I think it consists of focus, confidence and pure silliness. Why silliness you ask? Well, let me tell you, if you can simply be silly it is a lot easier to forget about the last shot. You end up having a lot more fun during the round and in the end it matters less. This all helps me get to that goal I have of making sure I am having fun and when I am having fun I found that I play better. See, tournament head requires a degree of silliness and I am sure it will continue to develop the more I allow it to be there right along with the focus and confidence.

In the mean time it is back to practicing my putting as that was quite streaky during the tournamnet, mostly dependent on my confidence. I also need to figure out how to practice my upshots. Perhaps a visit to the local short nine hole course will prove beneficial.

Potential Early Setback

So I had the brilliant idea to ask for every Wednesday in February off from work so that I could go skiing with my parents who so lovingly bought be a five time pass to our favorite ski resort this past fall. One beautiful Wednesday I was forced to ski by myself because my parents had plans. It was a really good day minus one little thing that happened. I fell on my last run before lunch. Falling while skiing happens about once a day normally, but this fall just so happened to be one of the worst I have taken in some time. Not because of how it looked necessarily but because of how my body fell to the ground. Somehow my throwing arm ended up above my head as all my body weight came down. Ouch. I probably have a sprained shoulder. I know that resting it is probably the best thing to do but it is so hard with the tournament season starting so soon and some big tournaments coming up early. It really doesn't hurt too much at this point unless I do something stupid. I wish I were less stupid sometimes. But it does feel rather tight in the shoulder at this point. I have played one round of disc golf since the fall and it really didn't seem to affect the game too much so I am hoping that continues to be the case. Weather is still hit or miss around this part of the country so we shall see what happens between now and St. Patty's Day Meltdown.