A Tale of Two Sand Shots

"If you want it you got
You just got to believe.
Believe in yourself,
Yeah."
-Lenny Kravitz

At the time of this writing, one of the biggest hurricanes in recent history is crashing down on our fair city.  So since I've got a little time to kill and I clearly won't be playing any golf any time soon, I thought this week's post would delve a little further into the last round I played.

More specifically, I will tell the story of two sand shots with two radically different outcomes.

The first one occurred on the very first hole.  As you may recall, I was in a bit of a rush on the first hole and ended up having to play very quickly.  (If you don't recall, then just read the last post.  Dude, it'll take 3 minutes.)  Despite the circumstances (or maybe due to them), I ended up hitting a pretty good tee shot.  However, my second shot went into the sand.

I don't know if it was the adrenaline or the crystal meth, but I walked up to that sand shot and told myself, "You know how to do this.  Just do it."  And with very little thought I stepped up and hit an excellent shot.  And boy did that feel good.  (The sand shot not the crystal meth.)

Unfortunately, this state of euphoria didn't carry over to the next opportunity.

It was at the Par 4 6th hole.  A short little hole with a small pond in front of the tee box.  I hit an okay tee shot.  Still in play with a good chance to reach the green in two shots.  My second shot however, was beautifully chunked off to the right and into the bunker.  Pure, high-grade, unadulterated shit shot.

But for some reason, I didn't approach this upcoming sand shot with the same elan and joie de vivre as I had on the previous shot.  On this particular shot, I was consumed with doubt.  Sure, I tried to tell myself the same thing that I did on the first hole, but for some reason I wasn't listening to myself.  And let's face it, nothing good happens when you ignore the voices in your head.

As a result, I was unable to get out of the sand on my third shot (Bummer).  On my fourth shot, I was able to get out of the sand but landed in the rough next to the green (Double Bummer).  For my fifth shot, I chose to skull the ball and send it rolling about 30 feet past the hole for a very long putt.  All for a grand total of 7 on the hole.

And if you read my last entry,  (You haven't?  Dude, seriously?! C'mon!) you'd know that I was oh so very close to breaking the coveted plateau of 95 and possibly even 90.  So that poor sand shot really didn't help matters much.

And that whole mess could have been avoided if I simply chose to believe the lie.  That beautiful, beautiful lie that said that I knew what I was doing.  That beautiful lie that said that I was actually good at this.  That beautiful lie that said that I was going to execute successfully.

Sometimes the lie you tell yourself might actually be the truth.  In fact, I think the bullshit that we tell ourselves most of the time are the real lies.

Yeah.  Deal with THAT.

P.S.

I was just kidding.  I haven't smoked crystal meth in years.