The Charleston City "Muni"- What I learned from the local skins game

Golf, in the immortal words of Mrs. Gump, “is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.”

Once again, I picked up an interesting and helpful fact about my game in the strangest of places- the Charleston City Municipal Golf Course during the weekly skins game that occurs on Fridays. It’s a modest $12 to walk the course as a city resident, and a $15 entry to play the skins.

Yesterday there was a field of twenty-nine, meaning that the skins, though potentially large, would be difficult to come by, as the Charleston City course is overflowing with birdie holes. There are also half-skin payouts for closest-to-the-pin on all of the par threes, so that adds a nice incentive for those players who are “hard-of-birdie.”

What I learned yesterday is the fact that I play better when I have to make birdies, because I actually concentrate on the shot at hand rather than on the outcome of the hole (It also helps that in this format there is no true penalty for making an 8 because in terms of the bet, making a triple is the exact same as making a par). On the tee I’m forced to keep the ball in play, or else birdie is basically out of the question, so I pick a specific target, focus on the shot, and approve of any result that gives me a chance of getting to the green in regulation. On the approach, I picture the ball flight and work not on hitting an acceptable shot, but on hitting something close. On either my first putt or my chip, my only thought is knocking it in, so when I end up with a tap in for par, I feel like missed an opportunity. After about ten “missed opportunities” on the day, I checked the card and realized that I had played a pretty good round even though I had nothing to show for it.

When I try to avoid big numbers because I’m worried about my overall score, I subconsciously make it acceptable to miss 15-foot putts, as long as I still make par. I don’t pick specific targets on difficult tee shots, because I figure if I can keep the ball in play and leave with bogey I have succeeded. As I realized yesterday, I’ve been playing my entire life with low expectations and a poor pre-shot routine. I thought I had improved my ability to “take dead aim” as Harvey Penick taught, but I now know it is impossible to do this unless I have high expectations with every shot.

****On a side note, I learned another important fact about my game: It is a good thing that with a heat index around 100 in Charleston, I am 25 and slightly out-of-shape rather than a well-trained 17-year-old who makes a living playing golf. Were I the latter, the heat might have gotten to me, rendering me incapable of finishing.

I, however, was also aided by the nourishing and hydrating attributes of Budweiser while I was walking, so surely this was what kept me from quivering with stomach pains.