As some of you may have seen in the live scoring and for those who didn’t, The 2nd round didn’t go quite according to plan for me on Friday. It is a pain and frustration that we have all come to know well playing this game and I know I certainly have time and time again. It is very easy for me to get extremely frustrated by results and performances like that but it is a stark reality of the game that we play that every now and again, it will happen whether we like it or not.
Something can be learned from every outcome, but as all of the greats will testify to, you only really learn from your failures and defeats. This can be a hard perspective to have after signing for a score that at the time, I could only describe as embarrassing. The game is difficult, the game is a challenge and without doubt, the game is humbling. It doesn’t matter who you are, what car your drive or how big your house is, the game of golf is an equaliser. The true challenge of this game is how well you can rebound from these kind of experiences or take even just one lesson from them use that to drive you forwards.
Whilst I couldn’t describe last Friday as a real confidence boost, it is critical for me to keep my vision in the big picture. If I zoom out and start to analyse myself and my results over the past 6 months, I would say that it is probably something I needed. Something to remind me to not be complacent and not let my expectations exceed where they need to be, to give me a reality check. In the past 6 months (after 3 years without tournament golf) I have played an aggregated total of under par with all the rounds combined together, qualified through 1 stage of Web.Com Qschool, shot a equal career low 63 and only missed 1 tournament cut. The negatives will always be there but I (and we) can’t let these hiccups disrupt our pursuit of our goals. I am still extremely proud and pleased with those achievements but Friday reminded me that it is only just the beginning and that there is still so much more hard work that needs to be done to get me back on track to achieving my vision of playing on the PGA Tour. As such, the work continues… Watch this space.
Tim Stewart Golf 