I've got it!

LSJohn

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Aug 15, 2013
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monett missouri
I forget where I heard this, but it was told as true: Arnold Palmer, at about age 75+, was playing a round with friends. He made a 6-foot putt on the final green, and as he picked his ball out of the hole he said, "I've got it!"

This may not mean much to most of you, but it sure rings a bell with me. Never having been a great putter, and seeing that skill slowly diminish over the years, Palmer had experimented with dozens of combinations of grip, stance, back-stroke, acceleration etc. From time to time one of those combinations would work very well for a little while, and he would think he'd solved the putting riddle. "I've got it (finally.)" No matter how many times he'd gone through this cycle, and eventually seen the most recent "solution" fail him, he never out-grew the self-deception that hope made possible.

Been there, done that.

In both golf and pool I've had dozens of "strokes." They've differed not so much physically as in the kind of mental pictures I was trying to hold as I executed. I've had a 100 "I've got it" moments in both golf and pool. When I stumble onto a formula that's working I'm an entirely different player than otherwise. It's easier to illustrate in golf than pool because of the objectiveness of numbers. I've shot back-to-back 65s, and as high as 85 on the same course; 73 and 92 on a tour-caliber layout. Similar disparity in pool.

It has to be mental, but after 50+ years trying to whip it, you'd think I'd figure out it ain't going away. But no, as a matter of fact, I had an "Ive got it" moment the last time I played, and it feels, even now, as though this one might actually hold.

Good luck with that, Suckah. Know the phrase, "cognitive dissonance"?

One more thing to whine about:

There are two well-known members here whose games are deceptively strong. One has to watch them play for a long time to realize the level of their skills. I have exactly the opposite going on. In both golf and pool -- I have no idea why because I've never watched myself play either game on video -- I look to casual viewers a lot stronger than I am. If I played either of these guys for about 15 minutes without making more than one ugly mistake, half the random railbirds would be likely to think I had the best of it (and I don't want 10-7 from one or 10-6 from the other.) The railbirds will see my mistakes, but until they see enough of them, they'll think they're anomalies. Ahem; they ain't, as much as I keep wanting and thinking I can make them that.

One example: When we played the Senior at Bogies, one of the other players, while we were standing in a group bullshitting, said, "I'll tell you who has the prettiest stroke here: LSJohn." %^&@#$$#^&% !!

Another: When I played Sniper, about the middle of the second game as I was looking over the table, I overheard him ask (quietly, he thought) someone behind me, "Who said this guy couldn't play?" &*$%#$%$# !!

I should have titled this rant: "Deceptively Weak."

Damn I love this game. As long as I can keep having "I've got it" moments now and then, I'm gonna keep battling, and I'm just optimistic enough, and hard-headed enough to keep trying it without psychiatric treatment. :frus
 
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