Beautiful sunny day for a stroll around 18 holes with Laurence, Charlie and Ewan. This round really represented a breakthrough as I finally am beginning to understand what it means to focus on the PROCESS rather than results. Doing so cuased me to swing much more slowly with my practice swing, as it was a true rehearsal swing rather than sopmething you do because everyone else does it. I'm also ensuring my focus is on *sending* the ball to the target rather than hitting the ball. I hit some beautiful shots this round and really enjoyed it to the full
6 iron
On the 5th hit an excellent drive drawn to the left half of the fairway. Had ~150 yards to the flag and had drawn my club before realising that Charlie & Ewan couldn't find their tee shots (Why don't people hit provisionals more often? They knew they might not find them. Perplexing)We hunted for ages, much longer than 5 minutes, then waved through the group behind so it was a long time before I got back to my ball. I'd been determined not to let all of this affect my shot, so I got back over the ball, used my trigger and then visualised, slow (true) rehearsal swing, set up, looked at the target and swung. Hit a high draw that stopped just short of the green.
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Putter
Had hit a good drive on the 8th, then faded a 3/4 9 iron into the pin. The ball was a bit far back inmy stance, so I had a longer putt than I'd planned, from the right hand side of the green half way up to a front right hole. I went through my full routine and hit the putt with my focus on sending the ball to the hole. I nearly holed it, and my 2nd putt was a tap-in as I'd hit it dead. On another day it'd have been holed. A very good putt, for a 2nd consecutive par.
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5 wood
I'd been having some difficulty with my 5 wood, and had a shot on the 15th where I reached for my 6 wood instead, before realising that my problem had come from an over attachment to results, meaing I was lifting my head and thus taking the past and making it the future. I went through my routine, using a clearing breath with eyes closed then open (blinking is my trigger)focusing on swinging calmly to the right and made a slow rehearsal swing before getting over the ball, setting up having a final look at the target then pulling the trigger. I "came to" after this to see a towering draw flying some 190yards, leaving a simple niblick pitch to the green. I found myself saying "that's a fecking brilliant golf shot" almost involuntarily. I *really* enjoyed this shot.
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