My third tournament this summer was a junior club championship. I was really excited for this event as I have played the course a ton and again my game was dialed in. This time, as well, I knew what to expect in tournament play and had mentally prepared myself to stay in the moment, only think of the next shot, and have confidence that I had done everything I could to prepare. Plus, this was a junior club championship, it was all about having fun, wasn’t it?!!
While I was prepared to stay focused and control my own emotions as it relates to my own play, I naively had not anticipated what to do if others tried to interfere with my game! I showed up to the tournament and found out I was playing with two sisters for both days. I automatically knew that these could be tougher rounds and the odds may not be in my favor.
On the first day, I played well and was happy with my score. When I went to the clubhouse to sign my scorecard, I was notified that I would be assessed a two-stroke penalty for talking to my dad on the course. He had walked the back 9 with me for a bit of company given I was playing with sisters who mostly stayed with each other. He didn’t help me with my game, just kept me company between shots.
We had been given a set of rules before the round that I had thoroughly reviewed. The junior pro had encouraged parents to walk the course and said nothing about not interacting with their kids. When I asked where the rule stated that family could walk the course but not interact with the player, they could not show me where that was stated! The junior pro running the tournament, who was not exactly friendly or pleasant in delivery, just sternly said its common knowledge. When I asked how I would know this was a rule for this event, she could not say other than that I should know it’s a rule! Ridiculous but I was nonetheless very rattled! What other rules could pop up tomorrow that are not explicitly written for the tournament?
I was upset. I went home that night, not in a good mindset and questioning whether I even wanted to play the second day. The next morning, I woke up still emotional but knew I had to shake it off to compete in the final round. I went to the driving range and was really focused on a good day. Believe it or not, on the way back from the driving range to the tournament a bee flew into the car and stung me on my left wrist! I had only been stung once before but by the time we parked at the golf course my forearm had started to swell and harden. What luck!
Obviously, I was frustrated but knew that I would have to figure out a way to play through the pain and swelling and not let it affect my round. As I approached the first tee the rules official approached me and accused me of cheating on round one by playing two balls. What? You must be kidding? I knew I did not cheat but after yesterday’s episode of rules without documentation I knew anything was possible!
In the end, thankfully, the official apologized to me. The sisters had accused me of hitting two balls off a tee. What they did not understand was that if you are uncertain as to whether a tee shot landed in bounds, a provisional tee shot was required in case a player could not find the first ball. On round one this happened but, after finding my first ball just in bounds, I picked up my provisional and hit my first ball. This lack of knowledge would come back to haunt them! Later that day they were caught dropping a ball where they went out of bounds instead of going back to the tee box and each assessed a two-stroke penalty themselves!
Walking to the tee box I was really rattled by the accusation and honestly was again not sure that I wanted to compete. I had let my competitors get in my head. No surprise I did not have a good tee shot and the first few holes because I was rattled and was not in a good space mentally. The sisters were also just getting started!
On the second tee, I used my range finder to check the yardage on a par three. They immediately accused me of cheating and that range finders were not allowed. I quickly pointed them to the rules that explicitly stated they were allowed to judge yardage only, not slope and wind, which mine only did. I laughed and ignored their request to give them the exact yardage after they read the rule I referred to and learned they were mistaken!
I did not have a great front nine but on the back nine, I finally let go of the nonsense and really dialed my game in. I ended up winning the tournament and my name will always be on that trophy. Although in the end, I had a successful tournament, I needed to learn earlier to block all the nonsense out of my head to be able to have an even more successful tournament.
I learned that it takes more than being mentally prepared before a competition. The performance can also be negatively impacted by letting the words and actions of other people impact the mental focus of an athlete over the course of an event. Instead of letting everything that happened go and just playing my own game, I let that get to me and stick with me even when I knew it shouldn’t. I needed to learn to ignore what is going on around me and stay in my ZONE.