Played with my little buddy, 16 year old phenom, Stephen, yesterday and was completely intimidated by him. After beating him in a putting challenge before the round, I was a little confident I could stick with him on the course, despite his ability to hit it 320+ yards, or his lower than scratch handicap. Wrong. I hit a few bad shots early on and lost, not only my swing tempo and rhythm, but also my confidence. My solid game (up until yesterday) fell apart. Today, out there alone, it took me a bunch of shots to finally get back some sort of decent tempo and timing. Not sure I got much of my confidence back either.
Made a few good shots, but was not comfortable over the ball. Even so, made a nice sand save on 4th, a picture perfect bird on 11th with a PW approach to 3 feet and one of my longer drives of the winter on the 18th.
Still having issues with hooking hybrids, mostly off tees, but even fairways at times too. Did it again today on 17th resulting in penalty and double bogey. Also hit 4 hybrid on par 3, 8th, but saved a bogey there from left of the cart path. Yet, on par 3 6th, hit a perfect little draw with 4 hybrid, 190 yards directly over the pin to the back of the green. No hook there. Go figure. The only other par 3 was playing too short for a hybrid. I hit 6 iron there from 163 into the wind and went over the green.
I've got to play with Stephen more so I can conquer this inadequate feeling I have playing with someone so talented. He's a really good kid, and I enjoy watching him play. It will help my game, for sure. I feel like I have a very good good short game.....until I see his! Then I feel like I have hands of stone. Maybe I try too hard around him. All that does is tense me up. More time playing with him will definitely make me more comfortable.
