Back to the Futures: Battling Out of A Slump

Well, this is my fourth missed cut in a row. It doesn’t feel good. I’m frustrated, disappointed and a little mad. But this week is over and so I now have to look on to the next tournament.

That is what you have to do as a professional sometimes. Evaluate your performance and make a plan to move forward. I have been working very hard on many aspects of my game and they are all in pretty good shape. It’s just that my scores are not showing those improvements. At this point, it is mostly mental and I just have to play through this "slump." Easier said than done. The only way to get through times like this is to not let yourself get down and keep playing.

I’m not going to change my grip, or find a new position for the club at the top of my backswing or anything like that. Golfers can always find parts of their game to critique and change. At this point that is not the case for me. I have been working on those things the past two years with my coach and am finally getting to a point where I have accomplished a lot of the technical goals I set.

Now, I just need to play. I have said this a few times now and that’s because its true (and I’m reaffirming this to myself). I have to take the technical aspects from the range and turn them into feel on the course.

The first thing I will do when I get to Harrisburg is putting practice. I work on getting a feel for the speed of the greens. Knowing the speed not only helps my longer putting but also my short game. It allows me to choose what kind of shot I want to hit because I know how far the ball will roll out based on my feel of the speed.