39→28

What happened

For this second competition, I learned one huge, fundamental mistake: I partied the night before. I'd had quite a bit to drink, I was with my girlfriend, I got home pretty late. I thought I'd be solid enough for the competition. Not at all. In the morning, my body wasn't there, and neither was my head. It took me half the course to get back into it.

I botched my first shot. I pulled a 5-iron, and the ball traveled 5 meters. It's the worst shot I've hit in my entire life as a golfer. The competition had started badly and I had to claw my way back into it. I kept pushing, but I was stringing together bad shots. Mentally, it was very hard to get back into the game — each bad shot made the next one harder.

Until I picked up my driver. There, I hit a very long, straight drive — at least 240 meters. That gave me some confidence back and freed me up for the rest of the competition. The second half went really well. The last holes were a mix of pars and bogeys. I played with some really nice people.

In the end, I walked out with two trophies: gross winner and net winner. The index dropped from 39 to 28. The main lesson, I'm keeping it: no alcohol the night before.