I'm taking this quote from a longer section in Nancy's book The Education of a Woman Golfer. But it's a great piece of strategy and I just couldn't bear to pass it up.
She's speakme about prevailing and dropping, and about that little bit of verse that asserts: "For while the One Great Scorer comes to put in writing against your call/He marks, not which you received or lost, however how you played the game."
"...the sound way to play such tournaments [stroke play] is not with the idea of beating or losing to someone, as in a match play, but essentially just to do the very best one can over the course. In other words, unless you're down to the final holes in a head-to-head scoring duel with someone, or engaged in a sudden death playoff, your real aim is to do as well against Old Man Par as you can. If you can beat him, you'll do okay, and if somebody else beats him even worse than you do, no one should feel very sorry for you, including yourself."It's very common to hear analysts insist that players should always know exactly where they stand in a tournament, that they should watch the leaderboards and plan their play accordingly. And yet, more and more, we hear the players who are winning say that they never looked at the leaderboards during their round -- they just tried to go as low as they could and take care of their own business.
Nancy Lopez likes that mindset. Focus on beating Old Man Par due to the fact that's all you could do. At the end of a match, if it comes right down to it, that is when you worry about the rest of the field and no longer earlier than.
I know that some players want to know where they are at all times. (Brooks Koepka comes to mind, of course, although it doesn't seem to help him much outside the majors.) But the fact is this: You have absolutely no control over what other players do. All you can control is what YOU do. For the majority of players, knowing where they are actually seems to make them tighten up and make more mistakes.
And endure in thoughts that we are speakme approximately the pros right here, the players who ought to be most capable of address that understanding! If they've problem with it, why ought to a weekend participant reflect onconsideration on what others are doing? Or, to be honest, approximately what Old Man Par is doing?
The exceptional manner to get around the course in fewer strokes is to forget about what your opponent -- be that someone or simply Old Man Par -- is doing and in reality try and play the pleasant you may. One terrible hole might not damage 17 suitable ones, and one terrific hole might not triumph over 17 terrible ones.
Next time you play, why not try ignoring your rating and just try and do the satisfactory you can on each hollow? Just total them all up on the stop and notice what your rating is. You is probably amazed on the end result.
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