I played in one of the 3 important tournaments that I have planned the rest of the year. I have another one this coming weekend and then the biggest one in late October.
I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to play good (or even great!) during practice and then in the tournament some bs happens. I mean.. don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect to play great every tournament, but at the least I expect to play somewhere in between great and “my average skill set”.
So in the McKinney Classic, I’m only playing against 4 other old dudes, but it’s a 3 round tournament spread out over 2 days. So there’s a bit of a physical endurance test going on as well. I handle the physical part of the tournament well, I never feel tired, weak, etc. I feel strong and ready to compete in all 3 rounds! Yes, the old ticker was doing it’s job nicely. 😉
Over the course of 3 rounds I end up losing first place by 16 strokes, that’s over 5 strokes each round I was losing to the winner. The winner played a solid tournament and deserved the win. However…. I missed a bunch of putts from 20ft in. At least 6 (or more) each round. yah… if I made those putts I would have won. I know it sounds so silly… if I would have made those putts I would have won! But it’s 100% true. My putting is still the weakest part of my tournament playing, but not in practice, it just keeps happening in tournament play. Yips? Anxiety? BS? yah….
However, I’m hoping I might have found a pathway to improvement. In my recent practice rounds I realized I don’t take my time when I putt. I just walk up to my mark, and within 5-10 seconds I’m putting. But during tournaments I’m taking deep breaths, counting to 15-20 seconds to make sure I’m calm, etc, etc, and then most of the time… missing. ugh! So unless there’s crazy winds, trees, bushes, etc, getting in my way, the game plan from now is to just putt like I do in practice, don’t give myself time to frickin over think everything! jeesh…..
Finally, what really pissed me off.. I did it fking again! Just like at the Glass Blown Open earlier this year. I do something stupid on the final hole! . On the last hole of the event I’m in 2nd place by 2 strokes. All I need to do is throw a putter 150ft, pitch up, take an easy par and maintain sole 2nd place, which would have been a good accomplishment considering all the problems I was having this event. Actually, in this final round I only had 1 bad hole, and it was this last, final hole of the tournament!
So I get up to the tee and see the basket only about 250ft down the fairway. It’s a simple shot, through a double mando, which is very wide. No big deal.. throw a putter and call it a day. Nope… for some reason I decide I want to birdie the hole, so I take out a fairway driver and proceed to throw it about 50ft into the ground and miss the mando left side. I promise you the players who saw me throw this incredibly stupid shot will be talking about this behind my back for years. It was easily the worse…throw…..of… my entire disc golf career. Why my brain said go for the bird and not the easy par, I’ll never know. But these stupid decisions plague me during tournaments and it’s just insane that it keeps happening. I end up tying for 2nd place. Losing 2 strokes on a 250ft hole. So insanely stupid.
My wife wisely asked me if I get so upset with this game why I do keep putting myself through all this bs, maybe my nervous system just can’t handle the competitive stress? Don’t get me wrong, I have been thinking about this. Maybe I should just play casually and enjoy the sport?
I guess it’s become a personal challenge, both mentally and physically. It’s not about winning or losing for me. Sure I want to win, but more importantly I just want to play at a level I think I can. I want to overcome these bad decisions, the yips, etc.
It definitely has been a roller coaster year on the disc golf course. Let’s see how these next 2 tournaments go. I’m going to do my best to chill out and focus on solid consistent play. If I can’t do that… I’ll probably need to come to a difficult decision.
October 1, 2025
