and hopefully from my impending recovery.
In the mid 90’s I felt like I was on the cusp of becoming a PGA Tour player…or at the very least, successful enough on the Nationwide Tour to eventually get me to the PGA Tour.
For those of you who haven’t seen the movie Days of Thunder, Tom Cruise had a great line about his driving skill that applied to my golf skill.
His crew chief(Robert Duval) started throwing all of these technical terms about how to setup the car and Cruise had no idea what he was talking about.
“They put me in a car and said drive and I could drive.”
That was my golf game. I knew very little about technical perfection and played by instinct and feel.
Because I was inconsistent, I couldn’t get through q-school and after a few near misses, the people around me convinced me to seek out a more disciplined approach both in management and technique. It started with Dave Pelz and 4 instructors and 2 sports psychologists later, I knew everything about golf, except how to play and shoot low.
Now all these years later, I find that had I just kept doing what I was doing, I would have learned from experience and probably would have made the Tour at around 32 or 33 years of age. Now at 42, I am finding my game again by just keeping it simple and having fun.
I may be deluded to think that I have one more shot, because I was at my worst last year, but the low scores and the fun of the game are returning and I am not deluded to think that all of you can benefit from my experience…which is…
If you simplify things and have fun, you will shoot lower.
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Good luck to you, Monte! The blog is great. Love reading the stories and advice. Thanks! Keep it up!
You are not deluded in thinking you have one more shot. You are courageous for thinking so. I just turned 50. I’ve been a mid to high single digit golfer for the past 35 years (or more). Yet, I will tell you flat out that I am going to qualify for the US Senior Open next year at Sahalee. I trending to a 4.3. I hit shots that are as good as anyone my age, and I mean anyone. I need to cut down on the mistakes. This is what I am certain of. 1) you will excel at golf only if you are having fun. 2) golf is a game of making your misses playable, not hitting better shots (ask Tiger). 3) short game, short game, short game. No, I’m not SacWolf, but might as well be the SacWolf of your golf board. Good luck Monte. I believe in you.