Final Essay

Nick Davis

5/10/11

Per.1

Mind over Matter

                When it comes to golf, the human brain is more powerful than expected. Many people over estimate what their brain is capable of when they are swinging a golf club at a ball. Most golfers approach a shot with their minds full of thoughts, whether its swing thoughts or telling themselves to avoid a hazard on the course. Believe it or not, this is the exact opposite of what a golfer should do. This happens to amateur's, such as high school golfers and even the professional golfers. In addition to having a positive mind set on the golf course, this is true for everything else that goes on in your life.

                When a golfer approaches a shot with a mind full of thoughts, many things happen. These things could be getting tense, distracted or lack of confidence. A golf swing is all about rhythm and timing, when a golfer gets tense it ruins there rhythm and throws there timing off. This will cause the golfer to miss hit the golf ball and be very inconsistent. In addition to that, it decreases the confidence the golfer has, he/she will not believe in themselves which will lead to the inability to strike the golf ball well. When a golfer loses confidence they will start to analyze every little thing about their swing and what they're doing wrong. This turns into an endless circle of terror for any golfer. Take Rory McIlroy for example, he was in the lead during the Masters for the first three days, he was playing the best golf of his life. Commentators kept repeating how relaxed and in sync he was, then on the fourth day disaster struck. Rory blew up, shanking the ball and miss hitting a lot of shots; this caused him to over think, tense up and lose confidence. People could tell this by his score and how he looked on the course. Rory ended up losing the Masters because of his poor round on the fourth day.

                The ideal goal for golfing is to remain loose, be free minded, and have confidence in every shot you make. This will be the best way for someone to succeed on the golf course. By doing all of these things a golfer will shoot lower scores and have a lot more fun on the course. Take Charl Schwartzel for example, he won the Masters. Many people didn't even know who Charl was until he did win, he came into the tournament not very well known and not expected to win. Watching Charl play was unreal; he was making incredible shots and making lots of putts from many distances. He looked very relaxed the whole time, even when the pressure was on. He remained positive and kept a smile on his face; in result his score showed exactly what he earned at the end of the week. What Charl did at the masters is a perfect example of how any golfer should play during a round.

                Good ways to stay loose on the course is maintaining a positive attitude; this means that if you hit a bad shot you won't let it affect the rest of your game. If you hit a bad shot a golfer needs to shake it off and go up to their next shot with confidence. Another way for golfers to stay loose is to listen to music while they warm up, this allows a golfer to get into their "zone" making them focus more and putting them in the right mindset. This doesn't work for everyone, people have different ways of getting into their zone, so its recommended to do whatever works best for you. Another way to stay loose and relaxed is by observing the scenery at the golf course, just take it all in, this helps keep the mind off of the golf swing. The only thing that should go through a golfers mind when they are standing over the ball is the visualization of exactly how they want their shot to look like. A golfer needs to pick a target to aim at and focus on nothing but putting the ball as close to that target as possible. The less a golfer thinks about swing mechanics, the better off they will be.

                During this project I have noticed similarities to golf and the everyday world. In a classroom grades are very diverse from one another. This tends to be because someone kids are more motivated than others and are willing to work harder. I posted an essay for both classes to fill out in order to help me with my research. Surprisingly I was a little disappointed when I saw that only seven other classmates filled this out. But it also helped me with my data and helped me with getting my point across through this project. I gave everyone the chance to take this survey and reminded them multiple times that that should, the seven that did show me that they are the self motivators and they are the ones who want to get stuff done and succeed. Im not sure about why the others didn't but they knew they were able to, they just chose not to fill out the survey. This goes for a lot of class work that is assigned throughout the year, if something is assigned and a kid does not want to do it then the likeliness of them doing it is very slim. The only reason most students do the work is because they are motivated by grades, but I believe if the grades go away then so does the work of students. Then schools offer electives, in my opinion the grades are more impressive because the students in these classrooms want to be there, they want to learn and they want to succeed in what they are doing.

                After doing all of my research through golf and just in the classrooms I think it is very clear that the mind is much more powerful than anyone believes. If a student is given a simple boring task but they don't want to do it, then they probably won't or the performance level will be low. On the other hand, if a student is given a challenging task, they will want to achieve it and perform to their best. They see a challenge that they want to overcome and they will do whatever it takes because they are motivating themselves. So the next time you are given a task, think about it, are you self motivated and interested by it or are you bored and careless about it? Whichever way you think will determine the result of any task you seek.

Districts

On Monday and Tuesday 5/9, 5/10 we had our districts for golf. On the first day I was very relaxed and had a great round it was a little breezy with a nice overcast, not the best day for golf but definitely not the worst day either. During the first day I was striking the ball very well and I was making good putts to keep my score at a relatively low point. On the second day the team and I decided to wear kilts, this was very funny and we wanted to end our year with a "BANG", and sure enough we did. Everyone was laughing and we even got pictures taken by the professional at Tokatee to put on his facebook. The weather was amazing, it was sunny and in the 70's. Unfortunately I didn't play very well. I hit a couple bad shots early and it affected my game throughout the whole round. I managed to round up a few good holes but sadly it wasn't good enough to qualify for state. I shot an 84 on the first day and a 90 on the second.

Tokatee 5/4/11

On Wednesday May 4th, we had a golf tournament at Tokatee. It was a gorgeous day, the weather couldnt have been better with 75 degrees and a slight breeze. I started the round off with a few pars and a couple bogeys. Sure enough thats what happened the whole round. I was confident with my swing and my driver improved drastically. I went from hitting one or two fairways in a round and on Wednesday I only missed three. I was very happy about this and I ended up shooting an 83 for the day. I shot best for north and tied for second place with a Churchill player. I made quite a few tricky putts as well, I would take my practice swing and visualize the ball going into the hole, and sure enough it did. I believe I played better because my mind was clear and I was confident with my shots.

Equipment

People say that when it comes to golf the equipment doesn't matter. Well it actually does, if you do not have confidence in what you are using then that can dramatically affect your golf game. Its very important be comfortable and confident in the game of golf, because the only person your truly competing against is yourself. If you have a set of clubs that your not comfortable hitting your not going to hit the ball consistent and the best that your know you can. Take the driver for example, this is the hardest club to hit in the bag and if you lack any confidence like I did you will know very quickly that something needs to be changed. I ended up getting rid of my driver and purchasing a different one. I was shocked by how much better I hit it and how much more consistent I was, this was because I was much more confident with the new club compared to the old one.

The Shilling April 26,2011

On April 26th we had a golf tournament at Tokatee Golf Course, this tournament was different than any of our other tournaments. During this tournament we were partnered up with someone from our team and played a best ball styled game against another school for 36 holes. On the first 18 I struggled a little bit with my driver but my close game was on fire, I was super relaxed and was laughing alot. This kept me loose and my mind on ease. On hole 17 I hit a PW to the back of the green and ended up making a challenging 40 foot putt for birdie. On the second time through I hit the same exact shot on 17, the ball was literally within 3 feet of the last one. I walked up to the putt and told myself "I got this, its going in the hole"as I put a confident stroke on the putt I watched it drop into the hole.
This is a perfect example of how golf should be played, I have never laughed so much in my life playing golf. It was by far the funnest round I have played and the best one!

Mission Statement

                I feel that being able to create your own syllabus and course is a great way for students to learn valuable skills that some classes cannot provide. By creating your own course, the student is clearly doing this out of complete interest, not because they were told to by a teacher. This will increase the motivation and interest of the student causing the student to perform much better in class and with their project. If the student is using criteria that classes imply in different assignments then I don’t see any issue with students creating their own assignments. I feel when students have a choice, they will actually decide to do something more challenging because it is something of their interest, this means that they will WANT to learn about it and not be forced by a superior figure in the classroom. This is exactly why I feel that the project I chose is acceptable for any school district. My project is challenging in multiple categories and I will be learning a lot of very important skills and because I chose this, I will be more interested and motivated for this project making me want to learn more and do more work in order to be successful. 

Tiger Woods

                 As many people know Tiger Woods went through quite the rough patch, after his incident his golf game went to crap. Tiger started shanking the ball and ended up not attending PGA tour events. Tiger worked with many therapists and swing coaches to try and clear his mind of the past and focus on what he was good at, the game of golf. Once Tiger returned he still struggled in rounds but that didn’t stop him from trying, if he had a bad round then that meant he would just go home and work harder to improve other mistakes. In the 2011 Masters Tiger started the tournament with a 71, a 66 on the second day, a 74 on the third day, and a 67 on the fourth day resulting in a 10 under finish for the Masters. This was the best round of Tigers career since his return from the chaos he went through, the difference between this tournament and the previous ones is that Tiger seemed so much more relaxed in this one. Tiger had the confidence he lacked before, this made him an overall better golfer and caused him to have the round he did because of his positive attitude. During this tournament viewers could tell he wouldn’t settle for anything less than what he did, he played very well and let everyone know it. 

April 18, 2011

On Monday we had a golf tournament at Shadow Hills Country Club I started the round off very poorly and had a pretty bad attitude. I started the round unfocused and with a negative attitude. During the round I began to clear my mind and start to have a more positive attitude. I started telling myself that putts would go in and that I would make solid contact with every shot I made, surprisingly this worked! I started making a lot of pars and my golf game got much better. Overall I didn’t do very well because I started the round poorly, but if it wasn’t for the attitude change then my score would have been a lot worse than what it was. 

The Masters 2011

Example 1: Rory McIlroy was in the lead throughout the first three days of the masters shooting a 65 on day one, a 69 on day two, and a 70 on day three. He entered the fourth day of the tournament with a 4 shot lead on second place and was almost guaranteed a win if he had another good round. During warm up the commentators noticed that Rory looked a little more tense than he did before, this is probably because he is so young and had alot of pressure on him to win the green jacket. They even said that his swing looked a little different and he didnt seem comfortable. Slowly throughout the round his scorecard showed this, Rory started the round off with a bogey and it only got worse for the young golfer as the round continued. Rory had a few pars and one birdie, but he had many bogies, double bogies, and even a triple bogey. This led to Rory shooting an 80 for the day costing him the whole tournament.

                Example 2: Charl Schwartzel a man most people havent heard of won the masters. Charl was playing decent golf the first three days, not to spectacular but well enough to stay in the top half of the pack. On the first day he shot a 69, a 71 on the second day, and a 68 on the third day. Thats worse than Rory, but what changed the ending result was the final day, Charl shot a 66, he had five birdies, one bogey, and one eagle. The rest were pars, this was one of the best rounds of golf I have witnessed. Watching Charl play was very entertaining, he looked super relaxed and had the same swing every single time he hit the ball. He was constantly smiling and seemed to have a positive attitude for the whole tournament. I believe that he was in such a good mood because he really didn't have anything to lose. He was an underdog in the tournament and no one expected him to win, so when he did everyone was shocked. I think because he was an underdog he didn't need to put any pressure on himself because he has never won a major before so he was just out there having fun and doing the best he could. 

Golf Notes: April 11, 2011

I had a golf tournament at Eugene Country Club I started the round off playing pretty decent golf, my mind my clear and I wasn't really thinking about anything. Once I hit a bad golf shot I started thinking about my golf swing and what was going wrong with it, I kept trying to picture my swing and thinking of ways to fix it. Slowly my game was getting worse and I didn't realize why until now, it was because I wasn't relaxed; I was over thinking my golf swing which made it worse. Towards the end of the round I stopped worrying about my swing and told myself that I was just going to have fun, when I did this I became more relaxed and I started hitting the ball better and was making pars. To me this is a perfect example of how your mentality affects your game, it's not always about physical requirements. I feel that this similar thought process can be used in other sports and in classrooms as well.