  OK junior golfers, put yourself
in this scenario:
You are in the summer before your senior
year of high school. You have qualified for
the US Junior Amateur (or US Junior Girls).
You are being recruited by a couple of
schools, and both the head coaches of those
schools are on the first tee as you step up
to play on the first day. Things go
relatively smoothly, as you are even par
after the first three holes of play, with a
relatively straight-forward Par 4 coming up.
You flair your tee shot a little to right,
get a bad kick into some brush and have to
take a penalty stroke. You take your drop
and hit your next shot, which barely catches
the lip of the green side bunker and plugs.
You hit your next shot, but it is thinned
over the green, and about three feet over the
heads of both of the coaches that are
watching, into a water hazard behind the
green. Another drop, and a flop shot to a
tucked pin. Hit it 12 feet past, and two-
putt for the dreaded “snowman”- an 8 on this
Par 4.
How does this scenario sound? Honestly, if
this was you, how do you think you would
respond? There is the potential to be
distracted by the circumstance (huge event),
the outcome (quadruple bogie), and the feared
consequences (“neither coach will want me
now”). What is your reaction to this? The
answer is significant, because in the world
of golf (and life!) how you respond to this
state of affairs is more important that what
is happening to you. And ultimately, the
college coaches with whom I interact are more
interested in how you handle yourself in this
situation than they are interested in what
your score is. With all the work and effort
that you put into your swing and your putting
stroke, the truth is that most players would
do well to work as diligently on how they act
in response to circumstances like the one
above. Recognize that the thing that you can
control in this situation is your reaction,
and understand that the more you control your
reactions, the better it is for your game,
and for your enjoyment of the game.
How about this hypothetical situation above?
It actually happened, and I was caddying for
the young lady for whom this occurred this
summer. She responded by staying calm,
telling herself that she was capable of
playing well from that point forward, and
that no coach is going to make a decision
because of one poorly played hole. She went
on to play well for the rest of that round.
After the round one of the coaches approached
me and told me that among the most impressive
things in the five hour round about this
player’s game was how she behaved herself
when she was struggling on that hole.
Several weeks later this coach offered this
player a full scholarship to attend a fine
university next season. That moment in that
round, which had the potential to be the
beginning of an emotional downward spiral,
actually became the turning point in the
decision that coach was making. A great
example of how you as a junior player can
make the best out of a seemingly stressful
experience- simply by choosing to respond to
it with the best of attitudes.
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