In this video I take you with me to the Regional Championship Tournament. Come with me behind the scenes and follow my progress as I try to qualify for one of 4 spots in the Senior division of the World Long Drive Championships.

Will I make it through?

You have to watch the video …

Pre-Competition

I wanted to share my thoughts and mindset before the competition.

I know it’s too late to worry about my swing. That means the most important thing I can do is trust. Trust my swing. Trust my preparation. Trust my competitive experience.

There are about 60 guys at the tournament. I remind myself that the only thing I can control is myself. I can’t worry about the other guys.

The only thing I can control is the way I compete. And I plan to compete well.

That means establishing a good rhythm, getting my timing and tempo down, and then practicing my pre-shot routine.

That was my focus before the competition got under way.

Rounds 1 & 2

Almost as soon as I finished Round 1, I was back up on the tee again in Round 2 (that’s why there’s no in-between video). So you get the recap of both Round 1 and Round 2.

Whenever I start a tournament I have a goal for my first ball: I want to get it in the grid.

I don’t care how far it goes. It doesn’t have to be a world-beater. It just has to be in. I’ve role-played that scenario so many times (see the post on Simulated Competition Practice) that I know what I need to perform best.

That means getting a ball in.

So my first ball is a golf swing. It’s about a 70% or 80% swing. It’s rarely my farthest ball. But it almost always finds the middle of the grid.

I just know that I swing better when I know I have a ball in play.

The one thing I vowed was to never take myself out of a competition (by posting a zero-for-six set). We call that “putting up a bagel.”

I’ll never just give the other guys the set. They have to earn it.

So my strategy (worked out in advance – See Contingency Practice) is to get my first one in. If not, I slow down the swing on the 2nd, and so on, until I get one in. Then I cut loose.

In the first round I hit my first ball in the grid (hooray!) and proceeded to hit 5 of 6 in.

Chalk up a win.

In the second round I got even better. I went 5 for 6 again, and posted the longest ball thus far in the morning.

Chalk up another win.

Not bad for a guy up against kids 10 years younger.

Round 5: Punching My Ticket to the Worlds

Round 5 turned out to be the decisive round.

This is a double-elimination tournament. There are four guys in a bracket. The top two guys advance, while other two fall to the consolation brackets. They reshuffle the brackets after each round so that winners go against winners, losers go against losers.

Lose twice and your day is done. Win, and the competition gets tougher.

By the time we got to the fifth round there were five hitters still standing who had not yet lost a set.

The five of us went head-to-head.

On the line for the top two finishers was an instant pass to the Worlds. The other three would have one more shot to make it through the consolation bracket.

But I didn’t want to be one of the other three. I really, really wanted to be one of the top two finishers.

This was crunch time. When the clutch players show up.

This is the time when I put in a plug for The 5 Keys To Distance. That’s the training program I put together after winning my first title.

The thing that is responsible for me coming through in the clutch is the way I prepare and train.

The only thing I use is The 5 Keys To Distance. It works. Period.

I posted the longest ball of the day at 342 yards in the fifth round until Lance Reader edged me out by three yards on his last ball.

That meant Lance and I were 1 & 2 in the crunch-time round. We punched our ticket to the Worlds.

Yeah, baby!

There’s nothing like getting it done when you have to.

Now the real work begins. I have to prepare to compete in two different divisions.

Stay with me for the Journey. It’s been great so far.

TAKE AWAYS

1. Have a strategy to deal with the first shot of the day. It doesn’t have to be a world-beater. Just get it in play.
2. Focus only on the things you can control. Namely, yourself.
3. Prepare correctly. Then trust your preparation.
4. Believe in yourself. The rewards are worth the effort.

P.S. Here is a picture of the four qualifiers from the Regionals.

Notice anything?

I’m the smallest guy in the bunch.

My point is this: Technique beats strength.

You don’t have to be big to hit it a mile.

If you want to know the technique for distance, you need The 5 Keys To Distance.