🧵🧠🧵: Doing some reflecting and I'm finding this video very psychologically interesting... This was my first shot on the PGA Tour. I knew exactly what it would be and could visualize it for a year in advance, and worried about it for that whole year What actually happened?

First point of note, I was amazed by how similar this looks to me playing on a Saturday afternoon with my friends. I thought maybe I'd look nervous or hesitant, or I'd take extra looks or some other tell What was going through my mind was *not* normal, but it looks 100% normal

The only thing out of the ordinary was my tiny wave to the fans. When I got over the ball, what I found was that everything happened passively. I got tunnel vision and the fans disappeared. Half way back, I had the thought "Wait! I wasn't ready! I didn't mean to take it back!"

Then comes the shot. Straight left. It barely got off the ground. It was not pretty. It went 254 lol It was as ugly a tee shot as I'll ever hit, but in the back of the video, you can hear our old friend Scott Fawcett go "ok!" as I just pick up my tee pre-apex as if I striped it

No begging. No panic. No disappointment. I just noted "ok, that's where it went" and started walking. I would not have expected that. Think about it. It's really weird. A moment I had stressed about for a year came and went like it was nothing, and the video shows it...

You would think that, after a year of feeling so anxious about this moment, once I got there, the moment would feel like my entire life. Something really strange happened though. In the process of that year, somehow I had let go of control.

The rest of that first round continued like this. I couldn't get the ball to stop going left, couldn't stop making bogeys, was acutely aware of both, and yet... You can ask anyone there. I didn't slam a single club. I didn't have any episodes of vocal exasperation.

It's like Scott said in the video. "Ok." That's the gospel of giving up control and accepting shot patterns, which funny enough, he was probably the most influential in teaching me. I'm very proud of how that reflected in my behavior, but did it actually help me play better?

I shot a birdie-free 79 that day. Certainly understandable given the circumstances, but it is the worst score I've shot since June 2021. Could a little bit of fire have snapped me out of it? Would I have shot 90 instead? I don't actually know.

What I do know is that there's some incongruence between 1.) the anxiety I had felt and was feeling and 2.) how it actually played out as a "worst-case scenario" came to fruition

Just something to chew on... As I reflect, I have two main questions: 1.) Was this phenomenon a good or a bad thing? 2.) What does this say about the purpose and function of anxiety, both in sports and in our daily lives? I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts!

One final thing: I'd like to shout out @practicalgolf @adamyounggolf and @DrBhrettMcCabe for the Sweet Spot episode that inspired me to think about this a little deeper. Very interesting and very much worth a listen!