Good grief, what a week!
Whatever your persuasion, last week's referendum has certainly stirred things up but, of course, that pales into insignificance compared to the abject failure, again, of our national football team (apologies to all Welsh supporters who may find their numbers swelling in coming days!). Hodgson fell on his sword immediately, rather strangely reading his statement from something that had clearly been prepared quite carefully some time before, leaving the rest of us to dissect where it all went wrong.
The point to me mentioning it at length is that, to me, it is the same problem that I have written about before - the British fear of losing. I have watched English teams in many sports over the years suffer from paralysis, suddenly unable to do the basic things they seem to do so well at club level and last night was one of the greatest examples I can remember. I lost count of how many times I yelled at the tv 'move' as players stood still giving the ball carrier no option but to pass back. Players suddenly lost the ability to stop the ball and then just to pass it to someone close to them. It was embarrassing to watch but when you think of what has happened with the England rugby side recently, it is clear that you can do something about it. Eddie Jones has transformed England's rugby team, with basically the same personnel, into probably the only team in the world who can take on the New Zealanders and he's done it in quick time. So I think we can assume he hasn't changed their techniques or basic skills that quickly, and if that's the case it must be in the organisation and also their mental states.
My argument is that if you fear losing, you will never take risks, and you have to if you want to win
You will be paralysed, always taking the safe option and the stress will eventually get you. Think of your own games of golf. How often do we start incredibly well, shooting a great front nine only for it to go completely the other way on the back nine?
What did you do? Forget how to play golf all of a sudden?
If you can be honest with yourself, and many of you will find that very hard, your mind-set changed. You started to think about your score and how you didn't want to mess it up. The fear of doing so caused you to tense and the result was exactly what you didn't want to happen. The opposite is often true - a bad start frees us up and we play fearlessly thereafter and way under our handicaps for the remaining holes, bewailing our bad start at the end.
So what can we all do?
Well that's the hard bit but I believe firstly you have to understand what is happening to be able to do something about it. If you are just blindly going to moan about your bad back nines or poor starts and not realise and admit that poor mental processes had something to do with it then you're doomed to suffer forever. If I think of my own best performances, I think two things were evident:
I was confident in my swing and my swing thought at the time and it was a single thought every time I've shot a really low round
I had a feeling of 'going for it', and of not worrying if it didn't come off
Don't misunderstand me, that has not always happened - I'm as susceptible as you, but when it went well that was how I felt. So last night we saw no clear game plan (swing thought) or possibly too many thoughts and then a complete collapse of everything as the fear paralysed the team. You can learn from this:
Have a clear thought of how you are going to swing the club that day. If you fade it, fade it and be clear you are going to play that way on every shot
Be positive - pick a target that is realistic. If you're an 18 handicap and have 150 yards to go you are not going to hit the green every time so think about your tendencies and where that might mean you miss the green. Now figure out where you don't want to miss the green and play accordingly. For example, if you're playing the 3rd and you're right handed and move the ball left to right, then you would not want to miss right so aim further left. That's not negative - going for the flag when you'll hardly ever hit it that well is just foolish and the result may be a double or treble
Take pressure of yourself. Remember that although you desperately don't want to mess it up and you'd love to win - no one will die and there will be another game soon. Give it your all until the end and don't worry if shots go wrong or putts miss. It's all part of learning the game and whatever happens you'll learn from it
If I go back to the football for a second, Hodgson has to take the blame. Rooney and co did not suddenly forget how to play but they were overcome with a lack of clarity of a system or game plan and then fell to pieces. Noticeably, an 18-year-old brought on for five minutes was comfortably our man of the match.
I would like to mention the amazing annual event, the Robin Young Charity Day in aid of the British Heart Foundation, that Linda Young and others put on this last Saturday. It was desperately unfortunate that the weather gods decided to unleash rain, hail and thunder storms on us as we tried to get round but the vast majority somehow finished 18 and it clearly didn't spoil the day. I tried to do a 'beat the pro' on the 16th hole but at one point I was sitting on my chair with my umbrella an inch above my head with 7mm hail stones completely covering the ground around me and lightning flashing very nearby. I have to admit, I ran away as soon as I could. I'd just like to say a huge well done to Linda, Andy, Alex, James and all their helpers. We look forward to next year already.
Last week, despite the weather, two of our juniors actually managed to complete the 72-hole challenge also for charity. Kieran Stubbs, our junior captain, and Max Reid somehow managed to dodge the storms on Thursday and got round four times. I don't know about you but the thought of doing 36 is enough to make me sweat so 72 is a complete no-no. Well done to both of them who raised a lot of money for their charities as well.
If you can't play like the pros, at least look like one…
With summer now upon us (we hope), you'll soon be digging through your wardrobe trying to find a respectable polo shirt to wear. Inevitably you'll have a few that you bought 10 years ago which look tatty and old with the colour faded; then there's your favourite shirt from a few years back that you are trying so desperately hard to fit in to; and then you have the shirt with a few stains on but you wear under a jumper anyway as no-one will see.
Sound about right?
We have some lovely looking and great fitting shirts in-store at the moment - just take a look at the photo here. You may have been in to take a look earlier on in the year, but we've recently received a new drop of clothing from all of our apparel brands. Not only that, but we are currently offering:
£10 OFF all full-priced shirts
There's bound to be a shirt or two that's right up your street. So come and see us in-store, take a browse at the numerous collections we have, try on some shirts and look the part on the course this summer. Remember what they say:
Look good, feel great, play well...
This week I heard about the new Motocaddy DHC trolley which has a braking system. This will automatically control the trolley on downhill slopes, like our 15th, so you don't need to hang onto it, and it also has a handbrake for stopping the trolley without having to park it sideways, which doesn't always work. There will be more information about this trolley soon but if you're interested you can pre-order now so come and see me. The DHC is only available with a Lithium battery from £499 but I will of course look after my members. I have no doubt this will be a hugely successful trolley.
