Golf Is Not A Game Of Pretty

Last week, I went semi-viral. Golf Channel repeatedly featured me. Apparently, ESPN gave me my own segment. Did I know any of this? Absolutely not. I was focused on my debut on the PGA Tour, my first in 18 months.

When I returned home, I found about it. First, from my trainer. Then, from friends at church. Then, I saw it on twitter. Here is what happened.  

The first three holes of the AMEX started off beautifully. Par on hole one. On hole 2, I hit a 7 wood to 15 feet for eagle which I lagged close for birdie. On hole 3, a wedge from the left rough to 10 ft. I was -1 through three.

Cruising. Could even be -3 through 3. As expected, I felt the nerves. Each shot so far had been a slight pull draw, but it was under control. Energy coursed through my veins through me like electricity in water.

As I walked up to hole 13, I felt nervous but confident. On hole 13, water borders the green left with 200 yards of forced carry. A miss right of the green leaves a delicate pitch shot and a likely bogey. “This is what you have prepared for. Middle of the green, committed swing. Challenge the water, don’t fear it,” I told myself.

I struck it flush off the middle of the face. For a split second, I thought it was perfect. Then I looked up and spotted the ball drawing left.

Splash, into the water. Since it did not cover land, I had to re-hit the shot with a 2 shot penalty.

Taking a deep breath, I reset. “Middle of the green, committed swing.” Once again, I made the swing and looked up to see the ball drawing left.

Splash.

Now lying 5, I was frustrated. “Right side of the green, committed swing.” This time I felt it off the face. Hook left into the water.

Splash.

By this point, I could feel my face flush red with anger and embarrassment. All the nerves had turned into horror. No way this was happening. “This is the stuff of nightmares. I might never get off this teebox.”

Now hitting my 7^th shot from the same teebox, I aimed right of the green and bailed right. The ball went 20 yards right of my target, 30 yards right of the green. It was a much uglier shot than the previous three, but on land. I walked up to the green in shock. Regrouping as much as I could, I promised myself to fight for every shot the rest of that day. I pitched it to 8 ft and made the putt for a 9. If I had just done that the first time, I would have made par.

I wish I could write a comeback story about how I fought back to make the cut and play the weekend. That did not happen for me this week. In my first PGA tour event in 18 months, I shot +5 the first round, and followed it up with two poor but respectable rounds of 70 and 72. I gave it my all before missing the three round cut by quite a bit. Scottie Sheffler won the golf tournament at 27 under par through 4 rounds.

What went wrong? Well, to be frank, Golf is not a game of pretty.

Sometimes you have be okay with the ugly shot.

While at the University of Virgina, I had the privilege to sit under renowned sports psychologist, Bob Rotella. He has worked with the best in the world for decades and he likes to teach in stories. To me, all these stories boiled down to one point: the best players in the world play badly best.

On Sunday, I was able to watch TV coverage of Scottie’s win. He shot -6, 66 to win by 4. One might think he played perfect golf. On the contrary, he played aggressively to conservative targets, often missing shots away from trouble. He trusted his short game on those holes, then got aggressive on the comfortable holes. On my infamous 13^th hole, he didn’t try to challenge the pin. He aimed right, bailed right, and still made a par. Earlier in the round on hole 5, he hooked it left and got up and down. He never took on unnecessary risk. He understood what he could do and what he could not do on that day and by doing so better than anyone else, blew away the field.

I walked into this tournament with a poor understanding of what I could and couldn’t do. Rather than accepting my limitations for the day and playing “badly well”, I rigidly tried to pull off shots the best player in the world wouldn’t risk. Could I have hit the perfect shot? Absolutely. Should I be able to hit it to the middle of the green? For sure. Did I need to prove that in round 1 on the 4^th hole. Absolutely not.

All week, rather than trusting my short game, I tried to hit perfect iron shots. Golf is not a game of perfect, it is a game of misses. It's not a game of pretty. It's a game of score. I knew this, but I got caught up in the moment. I’ll learn. Golf is a game of chess, deciphering when to push for checkmate or to live to fight another day.

Stanger’s never give up. While humbled, I know what I need to work on. I will continue to rehab my elbow and work on my game. Ill likely play another Korn Ferry tour event in Bogota, Colombia. After that, I plan to return to the PGA Tour in about a month at the Cognizant classic in South Florida on a more regular basis. By then, I should be ready to make more viral moments, just this time of the positive note.

Sincerely,

Jimmy Stanger

P.S. The American Express Championship is a unique event on the PGA Tour. It’s format is a pro-am format. For the first 3 days, a pro is paired with a different amateur who plays alongside them. However, these are not just any amateurs, these are titans of industry, CEO’s of fortune 500 companies, commissioners of major sport leagues, heads of government, etc.  It was a privilege and honor to meet so many of them this week. I found myself eating breakfast and playing golf with giants this week.

The ancient proverb, “See a man diligent in his business and he shall stand before kings” came to mind.

 God has been so kind to me. The PGA Tour has drawn a lot of controversy recently, but I am so thankful for the opportunities that hitting a little white golf ball into a hole has provided and I am thankful to the PGA tour for facilitating all of this.