So, caring sucks.

So does a lack of caring.

I think this is my problem. I apparently don’t know when to care, or when to care enough, or how to act on it.

Last weekend, I did not have a standout day in the tournament. It wasn’t particularly bad, but it also was not particularly good. Unfortunately, it didn’t even rise to level of so-so. My playing partner, a 15 handicap (18 course handicap) shot the round of his life (so far) with an 80 – giving him the winning net score of 62. (Which irritated a number of low-handicap players to no end.)

What I observed about his round was that he approached every short game shot like his game was on the line, particularly putting.

I’ve also seen this with my regular playing partners, leastways those that play better than I do.

I don’t approach things that way. And I am not sure I can. I don’t know if it is that it is not that important to me. Or maybe that I can’t take it seriously enough. Or perhaps that I am lazy.

I guess it just seems to me that I just expect things to work for the more I practice and play. For example, I step up to a putt choose my line and speed, and hit it. If it goes in, great, if not, I hope to have left it close. I see no reason to spend time studying all the angles and getting all wound. The same is true for chips.

The fact is, that right now I am not very good at these things. When it comes to chipping, I am still very much working on my touch and commitment to enough of a swing when the ball is buried deep. Putting I consider easy, and am simply not worrying about it much right now. Yes, those are easy strokes to eliminate, but I am so focused on fixing/cleaning up tee and approach shots that everything else falls behind.

I’ve always struggled with figuring out what to care about. Some things are obvious. Others are not. I don’t think I am going to add this until there is adequate evidence that I must.