How will the pressure get to you?

Could you par the last hole of your home course in order to keep your job for another year? 

Or two putt from thirty feet, across a downhill slope breaking left to right, on greens running at about eleven or twelve on the stimp? 

How about getting up and in from a greenside bunker, even if you could choose what type of bunker shot it was?

These are just some of the situations that will no doubt face many professional golfers in the weeks ahead as the golfing year comes to a close on the various Tours and players fight to keep their card, and their playing privileges, for another year.  Except, of course, the players won’t be able to choose the bunker shot.

I remember watching our own Michael Sims self destruct on the back nine of the final event of last year’s Nationwide Tour. 

Finish in the Top 60 and you go on to the Nationwide Tour Championship, plus you are fully exempt for the next year. 

Finish outside the Top 60 and you get neither of those prizes. 

Michael had a poor back nine in the final regular event and finished in that lonely 61st spot on the money list. 

No Nationwide Tour Championship for Michael and no exempt playing rights for the next year as a consequence.

Tour golf is a tough way to make a living. 

It’s great if you are in the top level, however, for every one of those players in the top level, there are dozens just limping along.

I remember seeing a player on the second last hole of Q-School watch in total disbelief when his four foot putt hit the back side of the hole-liner and pop back out. 

The hole-liner was just a little higher than it should have been and, because of that, the ball hit the top of it and bounced back out. 

He missed qualifying for the Tour by one shot.

Pressure is a curious beast. 

It releases adrenaline into our systems.

 How we deal with that adrenaline will determine how we cope with pressure. 

Adrenaline can help us lift our games to a higher level and it can also cause us to spray the golf ball all over the countryside.

Self-destruction happens to the best of players. 

Remember Jean van der Velde in the British Open, Phil Michelson in the U.S. Open, and Kenny Perry and Greg Norman in the Masters to cite just a few recent examples of great players succumbing to pressure.

But back to the question at hand, could you par the last to save your job for another year? 

It’s important to finish each competitive round of golf strong, for example, by paring the last four holes. 

So, next time you are playing a competitive round at your club, challenge yourself to playing the last four holes in no worse than even par. 

And play the last as if your job depended on it.