Sacrifices pay off at U.S. Senior Open qualifier
30 Aug 2014
by Randy Haag
SHARE:
Golf can be a brutally revealing sport, when its going
good, its bliss, but when your off, its a brutally
difficult sport. For anyone still reading this bizarre
golf blog, I appreciate your patience during my
absence. I have been through quite a roller-coaster
with my game. Many issues have gone into the steep
decline in my performance, but this blog has never
been about my performance, but more my
experiences and preparation for attempting to play
this game at the highest level possible.
Playing well for a long period of time will all
come crashing down, if you do not put the time and
effort into keeping, mentally, physically, and
emotionally sharp. The desire to practice and
compete need to be burning deep inside, and
sacrifices need to be made. I basically just lost all of
these aspects necessary to compete at a level that I
desire to compete at. I started shooting scores in the
80’s on occasion, and didn’t ever grind out rounds,
just wanting to quit and walk off the course.
My recent trip to the UK was a disaster, I only
managed to play 9 holes in the Senior Open (a
tournament that I have qualified for 4 times and
have made the cut three times) My back gave out
after nine holes, which probably was more a result of
the 42 I shot on the front nine holes. During my
three practice rounds I was golden, and anticipated a
good round in the qualifier. But the lack of getting off
to a good start really in any event, has me in a tail
spin. This blunder was followed by another poor
performance in the British Senior Amateur at
Ganton. Although my clubs got lost for three days, I
cannot use that as an excuse to shoot an 84 in the
first round, followed by a 76 for a 160 total. I did
make the cut and had a chance to shoot a final
round 80. Although this may have been the hardest
course I’ve ever played (next to Oakmont in the
2003 US Amateur) I normally like the tougher
venues, and feel they play to my advantage.
Everything about my game has been weak in
competition, poor driving, iron shots, chip shots, and
poor putting. Each putt I am not sure if I will hit it
with my eyes closed or open. Finally I just decided
that this 3 year slide needs to come to and end, and
I should either quit competitive golf and all the
frustration, or get back to what once worked before.
What worked before was simple, I was confident.
A few weeks ago, I played a round with a good
buddy of mine Stan Morrison. We played the Olympic
Club Lake course from the tips, and after nine holes I
decided that I had enough of the sloppy focus, and
pitiful play. On the back I made a purposeful effort to
focus, visualize, and extract the putting issues. I
played solid, and carried it into Monday’s USGA
Senior Amateur qualifier, where standing on the 17th
tee I stood 7-under, a career best in a USGA event. I
didn’t finish strong, but still shot a solid 66, and was
low by 3 shots.
Read full blog post at http://www.randyhaag.com