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Back to the wishful redo: The tourney I was in last Friday is called the Tucson City Golf Sr. Olympics and was held at the Dell Urich Golf Course. I took third place in my flight and was awarded a bronze medal. I am very happy about that, but, I had a really good chance for silver or gold. Here's what happened.
It was a very close three way race going in to the 17th hole which is a 115 yard par 3 with the pin in the back part of the green. As you may recall, if you have played #17, the green is well protected: half surrounded by a lake with a big sand trap in the back middle portion of the green. I felt good about my pre-swing setup but I made a classic mistake … right before the swing I thought "don't hit it in the water." Well, you could guess what happened next -- I pushed the shot a little and the ball found its way into the lake. I took a drop in the designated area, lobbed over the side portion of the lake on to the green, and two putted for a double bogey. With a par on that hole I would have ended up overall tied for the gold medal. With a bogey I would have tied for silver.
Moral of the story -- be careful what you think! Keep your pre-shot swing thoughts positive (e.g. green in regulation, get it close). If you have doubts or a negative thought before the shot, back off, reset and have a simple positive thought.