Loose, Not Ready

Tomorrow I play in the Sunset Men’s League Championship. Two days, August 1 and 2, 36 holes total. It’s my first year in the league. I’ve played five or six events this summer, and it’s been a good enough time that I’ll probably do it again next year.

The tournament is flighted and I’m in flight 4. I’m glad to have two full days of 18 holes back to back, which doesn’t happen often. I’m nervous too, not about how it goes but because it’s a competition, and that does something to me that a normal round doesn’t. What I want out of tomorrow is simple: Play to my abilities. Don’t second guess myself, but give myself grace to rethink things on the fly. Come off the course feeling good about how I performed. If I end up at the bottom of the scoresheet, that’s fine. That was never the part I was worried about.

I went to the range today to get some swings in. The one rule I gave myself was to not judge contact. I didn’t want to stand there grading every strike. I ended up watching direction off the face more than I meant to, old habits, but mostly I just wanted to get my body moving and work through my swing thoughts one at a time, on purpose, to understand which ones actually helped my consistency and which ones I was only telling myself mattered.

Overall it felt good. A good range session the day before means nothing. Everyone hits it pure with no card in their hand, and I know the difference between loose and ready. Today felt loose. Whether that holds up when it counts is the only question that matters, and the range can’t answer it.

So I’m writing this down before I know. If you’re reading it after, you already know how it went. I don’t yet.