Halftime grades.
Defense: A
No glaring missed assignments, playing with energy and focus.
Offense: D
Same baffling lack of consistency. Same frustrating lack of confidence. Same tendency to do something stupid and derail a drive. Same inability to get a push up front. There's no swagger. No determination.
I love examples, so I will use myself. Over the summer I played the best round of golf in my life in Arizona. Shit came together on the second hole and every shot I took was damn near perfect. Drove two par four greens. Dropped a six-iron second shot on a par five to within four inches. Convinced I'd figured out the game I came home and tried to replicate. Overswung and yanked the first drive into the trees. Sliced another one. Flubbed a third. Tried to adjust. Barely broke 100. Outthought myself. Started going to the range every day trying to figure out what I was doing, why I couldn't play like I did in Arizona. Was I holding the club too tight? Too loose? Was I too tensed up? Too relaxed? Got to where every time i stepped up to the tee I'd try to be positive, but all I could think of was how badly this was about to go. Almost three months of playing like I'd never seen a golf club before I put the sticks down for two weeks, cleared out my brain and just went back to letting my natural instincts take over. Only go to the range if something "feels" weird. Haven't come close to scoring like I did in Arizona, but I've gone back to being consistent. I'm not smashing balls out of bounds. Not chunking three woods or blading irons.
That's what Auburn's offense (and our coaching staff) looks like to me. I spent a lot of time looking at my clubs, looking at my hands and wondering why they betrayed me. The more I tried to fix it, the worse I got. Gus needs to unpucker. Have fun again. The look of befuddlement on his face is the same one I know I had when I rocketed that drive hard left and hit a house.
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