Jeff,

I too had one of those GITK experiences this golfing year.  My game has never been that good (as many posters here have witnessed in person)...but with a little help this year (from a friend and co-worker, no less) I've made some very positive changes in my swing.

Anyways...this same friend takes me out one day after work to play a quick nine at anearby course...it is nothing special, or famous, or highly memorable...just a local course laid out on some land near the Huron River.  So I've never played there before, and Mike is "guiding" me around as we go, kind of like a caddy.

We really did not take any time to warm up, hit balls, putts, and the like...just a few practice swings on the first tee and away we go.  Well I end up striping my first tee shot and it instantly puts me at ease.  We are walking and chatting the whole way around, simply hitting golf shots as we go (we are playing the back-nine BTW).

* I make a nice par on the par-5 10th just missing a birdie putt.

* Scrambled to a double on the par-4 11th after a drive that barely stays in bounds.

*On 12 I hit my tee shot long (a par-3) and fail to get up and down for a so-so bogey.

* 13 is a shortish par-4 that I hit a perfect drive and approach and make the birdie putt.

* 14 follows the same pattern as 13, but on a par-5...miss the green with my second, chip on and make a putt for birdie.

* 15 was my only true "blow up"...took a disasterous 7 on a par-3 without any penalty strokes (don't ask).

* Back on track on the par-4 16th with a great drive and approach again narrowly missing my birdie putt.

* On the 17th tee Mike informs me that the hole is a "mere" 310 yards and that I'm hitting the ball so well I should go for the green.  I normally hit a good drive in the 240-250 range, but what the hell?  I line up along the tree line down the left and figure to draw it over this line up near the green...called my shot, and nailed it.  Down near the green I find my ball about one yard off the putting surface on the left of the green, and pin is somewhyat back right...I nearly drove the green!  A beautiful pitch and run later and a tap in birdie is mine.

* 18 is the #1 handicap hole on the course (which Mike remembers to tell me!) playing 485 yards and a par-4.  I once again hit a seemingly beautiful drive, but it fades a bit left.  When I get to my ball I realize that I hit another 300 yard drive and have about 185 to the green.  I hit a solid 5-iron to a spot similar to the previous hole (just short and left, pin is back and right).  From there I visulaized the chip on the previous hole and let 'er rip.  It comes off clean, rolls across the green like a putt, and drops in the hole from the high side for a final hole birdie.

I never looked at the scorecard till it was over and realized I had shot a 39 with 4 birdies!  I have never had more than 3 birdies in an 18-hole round of golf before that, and ended up with 4 in 9 holes!!!  What a feeling I had that day...like I could do no wrong and simply stepped up and hit golf shots where I wanted them.  I know it was a fleeting moment in time, but it is rounds and experiences like that which keep me coming back to this crazy game...

Jeff:

Despite all the golf I've played I don't believe I've had an experience like you described.

The closest thing to that I can tell you is that at my own course I've shot a 67 and every number on up but never a 66 or 65. But one afternoon late I played the course with some U of Penn golf team player and I sure wasn't playing great, I thought pretty bad in fact but whenever I got near or on a green the ball just sort of wanted to go in even if I thought I missed it. It went on and on like that and I shot a 64, a shot off the course record and a shot off the lowest score my dad ever shot which actually had more meaning to me.

Again, the salient point is I thought i was playing like sh.. and in fact I was but that ball just seemed to have a thing of its own.

I guess that could be considered "Golf in the Kingdom" or some serious NuNuNu kind of stuff.

May 17-18, 1980.
Playing terribly, I mentioned that I would probably go up to Mt St Helens early the next morning to take pictures.
  -16 at Tualatin CC. Nearly hole out for double eagle and tap in for eagle.  17th Four iron approach to 5 feet, birdie. 18th -fairway wood to the back left. Sink a 50 foot putt with 10 feet of break for birdie.
   Decide to play more golf the next morning instead of taking pix. Three under for 5 holes, and about that time St Helens erupted and my game cam back to normal.

Wayne,

Don't give him the satisfaction of posting that in public...delete it right now! He'll never let you play a good round again if he knows he can kill it with one little sentence...

I bumped into Old Tom Morris behind a stand of course in Scotland one time, but I'm not sure that counts.

Jim,

Too late.  He already knows that I have a fragile mental game, basically waiting for the wheels to fall off.  Once in a while on some of the finest courses, I can get into a zone.  Tommy boy knows how to push me off the razor's edge.  It doesn't take much in any case.

Ah, Jeff.  The the golfer's mind is a fickle ally on the golf course.  I also think it is a golf architect's best friend.  Architects that understand this best tend to design the best courses.

After reading the book the first time, I went out the next day and played great.  

I tried it again a year later and it did not work.

Yes...all the time at Bulls Bay, and also the one time I played Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

Yes, to having a round of a lifetime but also as a witness to the spookiest case of ESP ever.

Our usual cadre had just finished holing out at the 15th hole of the Dunes Course at MPCC. Bill Brandt (he of the Black Lab, Cinderella, in Bill Murray's book) turned to me and said something terrible has just happened to someone and I don't know who. We started to play the 16th and he became more agitated but finished the hole. Walking up to the the 17th tee he opined that he had to get off the course as he felt that a family member was in distress. At that moment, the Head Professional came toward us and told Bill that his son had been in a motor-cycle accident.

Later his son's leg was amputated but the grit and gravel in the wound was causing serious complications and only the prompt use of an oxygen compartment saved his life.

I seldom pooh-pooh claims of ESP anymore.

Bob  

Wayne:

Come on, I've never tried to get into your head and wreck a good round by saying I think you're playing well. If that kind of remark makes you nervous, my suggestion would be for you to double your aggression and try to go from -1 on the 13th to about -4 for the round. But just remember few people make birdie with their tee shot. They are generally the result of a putt.

Tom,

Of course it isn't you that deliberately makes me mess up.  It is me.  I am my own worst enemy on the golf course.  I wish I knew how to control my swing better...I am the most inconsistent golfer I've ever seen.  When I do have it going, I talk myself into knowing it will fall apart.  Maybe I better read Golf In the Kingdom again.  I loved the book and could use some escapism.

Your point about making birdie at the green and not the tee is well taken.  I'm not sure I'll ever be able to snatch the pebble from your hand, but hang in there with me.  Someday.
-Grasshopper