This past weekend I went to TPC Sawgrass to play on the Stadium course for the first time. Unfortunately, the course was in pretty rough shape from the recent aerification, but I was okay with that since I mainly went to learn more about the course layout in preparation for my upcoming tournament there and at the Valley course, also at TPC Sawgrass.
There’s a lot I could say, but the TPC Sawgrass experience all sums up to one word: amazing. The practice facilities are top-notch, and the professional atmosphere makes you feel like you’re playing with the pros.
We had a forecaddie for the round. It was my first experience with a professional caddie, but I have to say I could get used to having one of those every round I play. While being catered to is nice, what I enjoyed most about having a forecaddie was having someone to help me pick targets and the best line for my putts. It’s amazing, albeit not surprising, how much better you can play when you focus on a target instead of worrying about what might go wrong.
As mentioned, the course had been recently aerated, so it wasn’t the best conditions for scoring. The greens were pretty slow and very bumpy. Putting was more luck than skill, and chips would barely roll across the green. Fairways were also aerated, which really made things difficult even if you had a good drive. I can count 5 times I hit a great drive into the fairway, only to find my ball resting in a pile of sand repairing the aerification. Basically, I was hitting out of a bunker in the fairway. Makes it kind of hard to get the ball close.
Even so, I didn’t play particularly well. Since returning from vacation I’ve been struggling with my driver and hooking more irons than usual. I think I know what’s going on, so I just need to work on it, but the erratic shots made for a difficult round. TPC Sawgrass isn’t exactly a course with a large margin of error.
While my score was pretty rough, I was happy with how I played given the conditions – at least until I got to 18, the 3rd most difficult hole on the PGA Tour. (I par’d 17) When we arrived at 18, our caddie said to aim for a certain tree way down the fairway, around where the dogleg left starts to bend. Instead of listening to the caddie and focusing on the target, I started thinking about everything but the target.
Specifically, I eliminated the thought of the water on the left from my mind completely and didn’t even consider it in play for my tee shot. That was good. But as I said, instead of focusing on the target I started thinking, “Hit it at the target, but don’t push it right”, with right being on a hill in rough or in trees. Sure enough, I hook my tee shot left into the water. Three times.
There’s something about the view from the tee box that puts these silly thoughts in your head. I noticed that a lot of the course is that way. I learned from attending THE PLAYERS that the course layout requires you to hit your targets, but what’s not as obvious until you play is that the view from the tee box creates illusions that try to distract your mind from the task at hand. I suppose that’s what the most difficult courses do, though, and it’s also why I’m starting to enjoy and appreciate the mental challenge some courses can provide.
This Friday I’m heading back to TPC Sawgrass to play the Valley course. I’ve looked at it on Google Maps, and it looks like there’s water on just about every hole, if not every hole. What was I just saying about the mental challenge?
As for tournament preparation, I’m continuing to focus on my shoulder turn, hitting all my woods off the tee, shoring up my putting, and getting comfortable again with my greenside short game, especially bunkers and rough with odd lies. I feel like I’m close to where I need to be. All I can do at this point is keep working every day until the tournament and try to put myself in tournament-like practice conditions. The goal by tournament time is to be able to focus on executing my strategy and not worry about mechanics or having other non-competitive thoughts.