Golf is Hard; Tournament Golf is Harder

Yesterday, I played in the NJSGA Mid-Am qualifier at Rock Spring. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one only needs four: it didn’t go well. I know “nobody cares what you shot,” but if you want to follow along, here’s some thoughts about my round.

Ahh, the look of angst as my tee shot curves toward a grove of trees. It did not get a favorable bounce.

For me, qualifying is usually a tall ask. There are a lot of great players and, frankly, I’m not one of them. I have flashes of brilliance sometimes, and in an 18-hole qualifier, you never know what can happen.

The round started with my first drive finding a divot in the middle of the fairway. Sick. I played a good wedge out of it to about 16 feet, made the birdie putt. A Mongolian reversal. I was proud of battling that adversity right out of the gates. Hopefully that was something I could build on later in the round.

Some decent golf later, I’m sitting at +1 through six. I was playing well with no major miscues. I was playing golf like I am kind of good at it.

The eighth hole, though, is where it all went downhill.

After a good tee shot, I found myself with a 6-iron approach up the hill. A poor iron shot skirted into a bunker about 15 yards short of the green and left me with a difficult stance. That led to an absolute compounding of errors. Rushed shot after a poor shot, a rushed shot after a poor shot, and a rushed shot after a poor shot. It’s objectively sick to still be away after three consecutive shots, but alas. It was deflating. I felt the wind fly out of my sails.

But, golf is a game of perseverance. You should never quit on a round. You never know what can happen. One bad hole does not a round make. And I kind of did play decently well for a while, discounting the duck hook on the 14th tee on to the road.

I had three consecutive three putts on the last three holes. It was not an ideal finish. Those definitely made the score look way worse than it was.

After 84 strokes, I walked off asking myself why I even bother playing in qualifiers. Golf is hard; tournament golf is harder. But I think it’s the reason I play golf at all. There’s flashes of competence. Moments of greatness. And one day, it will all come together.

And no matter how bad it gets, no matter how much I say this game sucks, and no matter how down I get on myself, I’ll always play golf the next chance I get.

I have another qualifier in two weeks. And you can be sure I’ll have my tee in the ground, trying again.

What an objectively stupid, wonderful, spiritual game.