Round 1 of State tournament is in the books. It was not his personal best for an 18 hole tournament but it was his personal second best. Solid 15 holes and shaky 3 holes. Nonetheless be beat himself up about it. Really !
I also made a potential breakthrough in the golf psychology aspect of caddying my boy – thanks to Dr Bull! On hole 12 the wheels shook a little. He took 2 out of a bunker – this course is characterized by deep bunkers guarding the greens on most holes, lateral water hazards that require some careful club choices, and abundant wildlife including wild turkeys and stinging insects (thank you mom of playing partner for being prepared with sting-relief cream on hole 3 !) . But I digress from the fascinating titbit I picked up from TV’s favorite jury trial consultant.
In one show Dr Bull was preparing a witness who was prone to panic attacks and the way he helped her focus was to make her repeat 5 random numbers in order. For example, he would throw out : 56, 18, 22, 4, 33 and she would have to repeat them in order. The mind needs to be harnessed and pulled back from panic in order to do this. Rob got a little tearful and things weren’t going quite how he expected so I started spouting out random numbers for him to repeat. It really did the trick !
Tomorrow we will be back out in conditions much the same as today. We will continue our strategy of trying to keep the formidable bunkers out of play by taking a slightly bigger club and aiming more for the back of the greens. Of course the strategy had mixed success but this is why we play junior golf. This is where the learning happens. And sometimes even a little magic.
