The first three are free. These are words to live by. You cannot let the first three holes of the day dictate your round. How many times do you drive an hour to the golf course, get out the car, lace up the spikes, go straight to the tee, and snap hook into the garbage? And then proceed to throw a tantrum.. I have seen it a thousand times looping. My player will get the fourth tee box and declare he is playing the worst round of golf all summer. It’s the fourth hole!!!! It simply cannot be that bad!! You have been on the course for less than an hour. RELAX! The reality is as amateurs, we are not going to play perfect. The key is to be patient and grind it out long enough where we can settle down into the round.

Bobby Jones theory on the first three holes was just to stay afloat. Try not to let the round get away from you. Meaning.. Make your bogies. And run with them. Try to get into a nice place mentally. And find your tempo for the day. Stay patient no matter how it feels. There are days where you will feel like you can’t get the ball in the air or get your hands on the club right. Some days you might just feel flat out awful over the ball. But the longer you can stay positive, patient, and exceptive to the situation, the longer you will have come out of. Let the round progress, good things will happen. And trust me, if you can find a way to keep grinding and playing tough, you will beat your buddies on that back nine. First three are free. It’s the last three holes we need to worry about. If you finish strong, the cocktail at the 19th hole is glorious. If we blow it, we toss and turn all night.

There is of course the yin and yang effect of this. Sometimes we play those first three holes like that of a Greek god. Birdies, pars, and the ball is coming right off the center of the clubface. This is great. I love the days where it feels like you can’t miss. WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! We can always miss, and we will miss. If you get off to a hot start remember, the first three holes don’t mean anything. Stay in the moment. Hit every single shot one shot at a time. Don’t starting trying to figure out if you are on pace to shoot the next best round of your life. Be patient, let the round progress. Stay loose. Too often we get off to these hot starts, and we go into protect mode, thinking we can actually get through the whole day without hitting a bad shot. Or we start the dreaded countdown, just trying to get into that clubhouse with that great score intact. Hit it hard and stay aggressive. One good shot at a time.

As amateurs, we fall into the trap of expecting too much. Do not expect to be perfect. Be patient, enjoy the company you are with, and hit the piss out of the ball. The hell with it, take it deep or go shopping with the wife. You decide..

-ncs