Trust is an issue which surfaces throughout the round, and at times on every shot, especially when you first start communicating with the Golfing Angels. Over time, this will diminish with experience. When you ask for their assistance in reading the greens and they provide the sink line and speed spot, it will undeniably push the trust button. With their inside information, they have all the components calculated and all that remains is your faith to execute the shot with conviction. Easy, right?
This concern surfaces especially when I’m in a tournament and standing over a two foot putt, feeling the sink line and/or the speed spot isn’t quite right. Once I told them, “do you know that this putt is important?” At which they fell over in hysterical laughter. When they regained calmness they told me it doesn’t matter if it’s a tournament or a fun day playing with the girls, their guidance is guaranteed to be genuine.
Trust was undoubtedly the most difficult aspect I had to overcome. There would be many times during a round I would dismiss their advice, whether it was help with reading the greens, providing target lines, club selection or shot selection, because I thought it was incorrect. Needless to say, they were
always right, and over the years I’ve learned this arduously with many anecdotes to prove it. Here’s one told from the Angels perspective…
“After an errant drive left into the adjacent fairway’s rough, we convinced Denise to hit a low punch shot under the bushes, back into her fairway, which worked out nicely. On the next shot, we gave an aggressive target line to the pin, which is guarded by water on the left and out-of-bounds on the right. With a slightly downhill lie, physics dictates the ball would go right. We had all the complex concurring components in place and knew this shot was in her bag.
However, she elected to aim ever so slightly right of the target line, feeling uncomfortable with the water left and thinking “what would a minuscule right of the target line do.” This lack of faith caused her ball to hit the cart path and ricochet out-of-bounds. We intuitively knew she would hit a straight shot, otherwise, we would not have given her this aggressive target line.
She immediately realized what she did and thought, “What’s the big deal about going in the water anyway. It would have been better than being OB.” Another triple bogie lesson learned the hard way, which makes them experiences you’ll soon not forget.
All is a day’s play…it’s so much easier to just give way!”