See It, Feel It, Trust It, DEAL WITH IT

In my last post, I talked abut the golf movie Seven Days in Utopia and the message I got out of it. For golf, it was SFT (See, Feel, Trust). It was seeing your shot, feeling the shot in your hands, and then trusting your shot and hitting it with conviction. My old junior college coach likes to add one more thing to it: deal with it. It's accepting the outcome of your shot, regardless. It was about remaining calm in both the good and bad. For life, it was about a relationship with Jesus and knowing that golf is merely a game.
For my first competitive round in 5 months, I didn't know what to expect. Then a text came from my dad just prior to my tee time. It said: S F T. I applied the S F T D to my game.

I won my Houston City Am qualifier with a 69.

I won it by chipping in from 30 yards on the final green. I won it by making 7 birdies on the round. I made it by making putts 20-30 feet...something that rarely happens. I won it by trusting my game. I won it because Jesus gave me a sense of calmness I haven't felt on the course in a long time.

After I chipped in on the last hole, I put my sunglasses on and gave thanks to Jesus while my playing partners finished out the hole.

You can check out my scorecard and results here

It has been a long time since I won a tournament/qualifier on an individual basis. Hopefully this great playing translates over to the Houston City Am Oct. 7-9.


Numerical Summary for the Round of 69:

7 - number of birdies and pars on the day. Like I said: roller coaster.

0 - number times I was concerned about time, checking my phone concerned about the outside world, worried about the pace of play. When you are calm and in a zone, nothing really matters.

10 - minutes spent on my warm up before the round. I hit some perfect iron shots on the range, made a handful of putts and hit 2 great chip shots. My warm up was a stark contrast to the normal 45 minute warm up I normally prepare for.