A come to Jesus moment

The state junior amateur tournament did NOT go well.

Sean began the event with a one-over par front side. Then proceeded to throw up on the backside with a 9 over par. Finishing the first round with a 10-over 80.

In retrospect, it was telling that he played poorly on the backside during his practice round on the course the week before, joined by three of his buddies from the club also competing in the event.

He dismissed the poor practice round as no big deal, "We just started to goof around and try a bunch of shots."

In hindsight, that was poor preparation. And lesson learned for me. In the future, if we are going through the trouble of taking days off to get him a practice round, he darn well is going to take that seriously.

His second round was only marginally better, he shot a 76, missing the 36 hole cut by a stroke.

His mom and I finally told him that playing like that was not acceptable. No histrionics. No yelling. No beating him down. Just a matter of fact, "If you want the privilege of running around to play in these things, you need to post the sort of scores that prove you belong out there."

I just feel like we tread this fine line. We don't want to steal the fun away or pop holes in his confidence.

On the other hand, we now find it necessary to impose expectations, to make it clear to him this is not a free lunch. If he rises to our challenge, he earns his privilege.

The fact is he is good enough to be out there playing with the best juniors in the state. We've simply insisted that it is now time to prove it.