Sleeping close to a lead

Sean had a great start today in an AJGA tournament. He carded a 3-under par 69 to finish tied for 2nd place, only one stroke back.

Two more rounds and a lot of golf remain to be played.

And lessons to be learned.

I think tonight's lesson will be on how to so close to the lead in an event. He's been there once before in a smaller tournament, and it didn't go so well.

One thing that is different this time is that Sean isn't denying he is nervous. He now understands he will be playing nervous tomorrow. So the question is, how do you play nervous? How do you deal with it.

He made three calls as soon as he got into the car. One was to Bobby, with whom he had a lesson just before heading out of town. He wanted Bobby to know that things are working well. Indeed. I think Bobby just gave him a congrats.

The 2nd call was to his mom. Who no doubt is very excited and happy for him.

The third call was to his mentor at the club, Michael. After Sean told him where he was and what he had accomplished, Michael knew exactly what to say. He told Sean to accept the fact that he'll be nervous, and to focus on his targets and on his tempo.

I guess the idea is that if you need to focus on something other than your nerves, you might as well focus on something important and useful! Duh.

Today's round included a couple of milestones. Sean's first tournament round under par, and his first tournament round in the 60's.

We've seen this day coming for a while and so it really doesn't come as much of a surprise. He's been scoring really well leading up to today's round, even when not really playing well.

And after arriving at the course, he found he really liked it. The course sets up to his eye, and he recognized that some good scoring could be had if he just kept the ball in front of him.

Taken together, he's playing with a lot of confidence. He expects to get his pars and to score some birdies. Today, it was three birdies and an eagle.

When you are playing like that, things can be very, very easy.

We're happy for him because he has worked so hard to get to this point and has dealt with his share of disappointments and setbacks.

Happy Masters weekend!

What a weekend it was!

Beginning on Friday, when Sean learned at his golf team meeting that he had made the eight-boy team that would play in the regional and state tournaments. He still has a bit to go, beginning with a couple of tournaments this week. He needs to continue to score so he gets one of the 6 playing spots in each event. But the bottom line is that these six players and two alternates are the eight boys, about half of the kids on the golf team, who will earn varsity letters.

Earning a varsity letter as a freshman at his school seems to be a pretty big deal. In golf, like in most other sports, the freshmen have a lot of bodies to climb over to get the playing time necessary for the award.

Then on Saturday, Sean and I played a round at the club with Dan, a young kid who plays on the Nationwide tour. I was afflicted with a bad case of double bogeyitis, turning in a round of 82, with five doubles and a bogey to offset my lone birdie. But as poorly as I played it was still fun being in a group with a couple of talented golfers.

Sean had a much better day than I. He turned at -1, had a hiccup on #11, and then another bogey on 13 left him at 1 over. He grinded out birdies on #14 and #15 to get back to -1, but finished #18 with a disappointing bogey, at even par 72. Four bogies and four birdies. Dan, the Qschool grad, shot a 71.

It makes your head spin to watch your young son hold his own, shot for shot, with a Nationwide tour player.

I sensed during the round that I was watching Sean make one of those quantum leaps. His game was just really well under control. His ball striking was crisp. There is a new air of confidence in him. At the turn, he spoke openly of breaking 70. It didn't happen for him, but he was really grinding hard to pull it off. It was a casual round and he was playing with a mission in mind.

Still, the three backside bogeys were inexplicable: one from the middle of the fairway, another a 3 putt from 10 feet, and the last failure to hit the green with a wedge. It should have been a round in the 60's.

And for the first time ever, I think he finally recognized those as mistakes that only he has the power to control.

And what I saw, the change, is that he had finally reached the point where he was honestly setting higher expectations for himself; linking them to things that he could control. It was more than just kid play, that good scoring wasn't just something you wish for, or even just expect to happen, but something you will, something you control.

On the car ride over to Augusta, he said, "I really should be breaking par more, even shooting in the 60's. I've just got to stop thinking 75, 76 or 77 is a good score. If I stop making the mistakes that are causing those bogeys, I would have much better scores. I'm going to focus more on making sure my alignment and aim are right, before taking a shot. I did that today and just need to do it better on all my shots."

That admission was like music to my ears. He finally gets it. Bogeys aren't a conspiracy of the gods. His game is something that he and he alone can control, and if he does it well, the sorts of scores he hopes to be shooting will follow.

And then on Sunday, as we walked onto the Augusta National grounds, just as he seemed to become more mature and more realistic about what he is doing with his game, I couldn't help but go, perhaps in the other direction, and give in to a fantasy, to imagine that he'd compete in the Masters some day.