Overly Focused on a Birdie Putt

 I messed up again.  I think every amateur golfer should pay attention to this costly mistake.

I am playing at Plum Creek Golf Course in the Austin Golf Association tournament on Sunday May16.  The weather was a bit ominous and it had rained pretty hard as we arrived, but the tournament was on.

I am honesty playing my best 9 of 2021 despite chunking a couple of 100 yard approach shots.  I think it was hole number 4 or 5 the sky opened up with a very hard rain.  I put on the rain gear.  I have to admit playing in hard rain with rain gear on adds a whole new element to the game of golf.  It is extremely hard.  Fortunately after about a hole and a half the rain let up.

The two players in my group were amazingly nice.  I had never played the course before so that were helpful in pointing out trouble areas.  Well let's just cut to the chase!

Hole number 9, I am putting for a birdie from about 15 ft.  The ball will have a huge break from right to left.  I really want to make this point to potentially win a skin and post my best 9 of 2021, a 41.  Are you ready?

I stroked the putt firmly.  Way to firmly!  The ball went through the break.  What I had not noticed is my playing partners had set the flag stick on the green.  My ball hit the flag stick.  I immediately knew there would be a penalty but I did not know how many strokes.  I confirmed with my playing partners that yes there would be a penalty.  The player who put the flag stick on the green asked if the penalty was on him or me.  I knew it was definitely on me.  Once again my mind blew up.  I was frantic, rushing and I managed to 4-putt, which without penalty would result in a double bogie, 7.  The nine hole score would have been a 44, which would still satisfy me.

We went to the clubhouse.  I asked the person in the pro shop what was the ruling.  He did not really know.  A patron spoke up and stated 1-stroke penalty.   As we got to the number 10 tee, I decided to look it up online with my cell phone.  The rules state a 2-shot penalty.  I am saddened but ask my playing partners to change the score to a 9.  Well the end result is a 46 on the front.

I managed to calm down.  Note it did take a beer.  Number 10 was a Par 3, where I managed to par.

So the lesson here is pay attention to your surrounding on the green.  In hind sight with a big breaking putt like that I should have placed the pin back in the hole.  The new rules permit this and I could hit the pin without penalty.  The other option was to pay close attention and move the pin completely out of the way or behind me.  I was not thinking at all.  My mind was laser focused on making that hard birdie.

I managed to also shoot a 46 on the back-nine.  This has been more normal score in 2021, but I know this could have been a 86.  The club members were so supporting and shared some of their rules stories with me over a cold beer.

Learning the rules and playing by the rules, I believe is helping me to improve my over all game.  My goal is to get back to shooting in the middle 80's.

Stay tuned for the next adventure.  Play on!


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