Shooting a personal best round of golf

We’ve all been there… You have the best front 9 of your life, only to be followed by the worst back 9 of your life for an all around average round of golf… Or maybe the opposite… You can’t find the center of the face for 9 holes and put up an all time stinker only to get really hot on the back 9 and again… shoot an average round of golf.

Why does this happen? A lot of it is purely… expectations. If you think of yourself as an ‘80’s shooter… you’ll find a way to shoot somewhere around 80. So how do you break through? How do all the stars align to finally finish off that personal best? I’ve got my personal techniques, but recently I watched it unfold right in front of me playing alongside Bryan Allain of the Bag Chatter Golf Podcast.

Now you can get his full play by play of how the round played out in his recounting of the story on the podcast (Episode 2.17) and I suggest you do. Subscribe to the pod while you are at it, but in the meantime, these are my observations from his epic day.

To set the stage, the hosts of Bag Chatter were having Bag Chatter Day out at Honeybrook Golf Club in Amish country of Pennsylvania. I’ve been listening to the pod for the last couple years and on a whim decided to fly out and participate.

We were playing their home course from the white tees and it was pretty obvious something special was brewing just 6 holes in when Bryan made his 3rd birdie to go to 3 under.

He promptly stated: “I’ve never been three under before.”

Which prompted a quick chiding from me in … ‘don’t go there. Thats not the thought.”

He surprised me with his response when he basically said “i’m ready for it.”

Okay, let’s embrace where we’re at. Let’s not be scared of it.

Now I’m not sure if the sloppy bogey on 7 was a little ‘speed check’ from being uncomfortable, but he did a great job of getting the wheels back on. He cruised through the middle of the round until he eventually made birdie on the 12th to get right back to 3 under.

This is where things get a little bit interesting. The 13th hole is a medium length par 3, but one of special significance to Bryan as he recently made a hole in one on this hole.

So walking up to the tee, he had some good self talk going. I made a hole in one on this hole, this is the hole in one pin, etc. etc… But he hit one of his worst iron shots of the day and cold yanks it into the hazard left leaving a tough up and in and a double bogey.

Rough. Now at this point in the round, I’m more or less distracted from my own game by rooting for Bryan. I’m playing well. I’m 2 under myself and there was at least a part of me that was kind of shocked that up until this point Bryan had been besting my score. That didn’t matter, you want to see someone break through. I’m all in on his round.

The 14th hole is part of the stretch they call Amish Corner at Honeybrook and Bryan hits a good drive on this hole, but then cold shanks a wedge that leads to a bogey and sets him back at even.

Now, I’m not in Bryan’s brain. It’s hard to see if he truly overthought the golf shot, but it wasn’t an extremely difficult golf shot and he had shown no signs up to this point of truly being nervous. But it felt like maybe some of the magic was wearing off. Momentum was going the wrong way.

He plodded through the difficult par 5 15th and then rekindled the magic with a 12 foot birdie on the 16th.

It was at this point I could see in his eyes that this was big. New territory. One under par with two to play.

I wanted so badly to ask him if he’d ever shot under par before. I wanted to ask if this was his career best… but I caught myself. There was no benefit to pointing out the obvious. It felt like the only thing it could do is hurt his chances. So I bit my tongue. I could ask all the questions I wanted… after the round.

On the 17th, Bryan tugged his approach ever so slightly. This ball could have gone anywhere, but on these good days, sometimes you just need the right kick. He got one. The ball took a slight bounce to the right and settled pin-high about 15 feet from the pin.

He took a little longer over this putt. Pacing it off, reading it from both sides, fully digesting the putt before him. Stands over it. Not an easy putt. Downhill. Fast. Can get away from you.

He takes the putter back and the ball is absolutely tracking. Right on line… but 3 inches short. In the heart. As he taps that in and pulls the ball out of the cup he kind of gave me a wide eyed glance that was enough to let me know ‘this is big. This is uncharted territory’.

Just one hole to go. One under par.

When you listen to the pod, you’ll hear Bryan go through his self talk, which was all very good. “You’ll be here again. This is what you prepare for.” But it’s one thing to say it and another to believe it.

He hit a squirrelly drive on 18. A weird low knuckle ball that wasn’t solidly struck, but was also never going very far off line. It squirted down the right side of the hole and into the rough.

As Bryan diagnosed the shot, for the first time all day, he asked for my opinion… The yardage put him between two clubs so he was asking me whether I’d hit the shorter one or the longer one. I suggested the shorter one. Adam (his podcast partner) disagrees with me on the pod, but here was my logic…

• He’s in the rough. Looked like a flyer lie. For sure will have very little spin and should release when it hits the green.

• He is nervous. When I’m nervous, I want to hit something hard. It’s hard to dial back when you’re nervous.

• The pin is back 3rd. His shorter club will make it to the green and have a putt. I don’t know whats over the green, but we want a putter.

Anytime I’ve tried to hit a big club softer when I’m nervous, it brings chunks into play. You want to swing aggressively to a conservative target as Tiger would say, so thats what I walked him through.

It was good enough for him to agree. He pulls the club and flushes it. Middle of the green. By no means a ‘spectacular’ shot, but under the circumstances… certainly a great one. 24 feet from 110 yards.

A two putt and he shoots a one under par 69. A personal best. Which he easily does.

The sense of relief washed over his face. He did it. He kept composure all day and played the best round of his life. In front of listeners. As someone who posts content. This is hard. You want to impress. The last thing you want to do is embarrass yourself around fans.

How did he do it?

He was committed.He had great self talk. Encouraged himself.He was patient. Didn’t force the issue. Let the golf come to him.He focused on the shot in front of him.

The cool thing about Tangent is it keeps track of all this. Not only personal bests, but Tangent course records. That little medal by Bryan’s score highlights that this round was a personal best for him. A score he can beat later.

Similarly, if you shoot the best score on a course, you’ll get a trophy for the course record. Which is a fun way to challenge yourself to play new courses.

It’s stories like this that inspire me to keep developing. Bryan had only been using Tangent for 10 days or so before shooting this score, so while I’m not sure we can take full credit </sarc>, I like to think we played a small part in the story.

Download Tangent and let us be a part of your story… and go subscribe to the Bag Chatter Golf Podcast. It’s great!