This afternoon, James was in the parade for Homecoming, and tonight he and Kendra were recognized at halftime at the Homecoming football game as this year’s junior attendants. Belinda and I are both very proud of our son. Danielle started driving this week with her learner’s permit, too, so this has been a busy and eventful week for our family with teenagers. She just drove us home from the (last name's).
Now, I am in bed writing. B is asleep next to me, and I have the most important tournament of the season coming up tomorrow. I should have prepared better this week, especially working out, but I didn’t. I did do some other things to get ready, though, things I normally do when I have a big tournament.
First, I visualized every night before falling off to sleep. When I do this, I see myself shaking hands with the competitors at hole #1, and then I play a stellar round. I make pars and birdies on every hole, and I picture super full swings, chips with a gentle touch that stop right by the hole or go in, and putts that always fall in no matter how far away I am.
I practiced tonight, too. I did my short game stuff on the small practice green directly below the patio there at Hidden Valley. Billie, last year’s champ, sat at one of the tables with his feet up, and watched me every once in a while. I made five out of six three to four foot putts at every hole location. I wish they had real holes, but they have five flags with small cream colored plastic cylinders on the bottom that click and stop my golf balls dead when I putt at them. Then I double-putted ten out of ten times from different locations, a few times from just off the green. Finally, I lined up six golf balls that steadily were placed farther and farther away from one location, and I did my best to get in with only two shots from each spot. I started from around ten to twelve feet for the first putt. On the second to last ball, I had gotten in with only two shots for each ball except the one right before that one. I putted that one too far past the hole and got a three instead. But, right after that I chipped one that hit the stick, and so I was done. I am not sure if it would have fallen in with those silly plastic cylinder things, but it stopped only four to five feet away after it clicked the bottom of the flag, so it might have gone in.
Right when I finished, John, Melanie, and Misty pulled up to hole #9. It’s really name, name, and other name, but I changed their names for my blog to protect the innocent. We played together for holes #1, #2, and #3 two times. I went double, par, par, double par, par, so I hope I play hole #1 better tomorrow and Sunday.
The other thing I did this past week to prepare for tomorrow’s tournament was to do the thing I am doing now, get caught up with my writing. I know this helps me play better. When I played in the scramble last weekend, I realized on hole #10 (I don’t know why it was on that hole) that if my mind is overwhelmed with golf thoughts that have not yet been recorded, it affects my play. I need a fresh start to be fully aware of the round I am playing at the present time.
The only thing I have not written about is the scramble, so check out the next entry.
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