So Close @ The CHU One Round Challenge

This past weekend was supposed to be the 303 Open here in Colorado, and boy was there a mess when the TD made a good decision to postpone this tournament which will be fabulous when it happens the second weekend in June. But, in order to appease the complainers the TD made a few phone calls and was able to host a one round C-tier tournament at the incredible Colorado Heights University (CHU) this past Sunday.

CHU is what I refer to as my home course since it is really the only challenging course close to me. Yeah, there are closer courses, but I tend not to play them much anymore because they do not challenge me enough to continue to allow me to improve my game. In addition to this, CHU is probably one of the toughest courses in the greater Denver metro area. Well, for this one round challenge the TD thought it would be fun to lay down some OB lines. These lines really changed several holes and made you think more about your throws.

For me it made me calm down and choose to play smart. I did not think about winning the tournament but simply playing my game and making good shots. I worked hard to stay in bounds and managed to pull this off fairly well minus one hole that I was able to get an easy three after going OB just past the basket. I believe that half of the mental game that I brought into this one round challenge was shaped by my experience in Kansas at the Glass Blown Open. It really is amazing how fast OB strokes add up.

Ultimately, my strategy paid off. I finished in second place, only one throw behind the winner in advanced. If I had chosen to play Open I would have tied for last cash with one of the few pros rated over a thousand. The round was not rated nearly as high as I would have liked, but it was still a solid round.

Since the round I have been replaying the whole round in my head thinking about all the missed opportunities I had and how I should have shot about 6 strokes better. Of course that would have been my first thousand rated round if I was able to do that. I am working my way there and I need to keep that mindset in place. If I let myself go to the would have could have should have, that is when the mental game goes downhill fast. If you don't have the mental game, you will never have a good game. Take time to think, be smart, have fun.