Kyle’s Blog: Focus In Florida

His name is indelibly written in as a champion of the Titleist and FootJoy Canadian PGA Club Professionals Championship, but Kyle German will never be forgotten for something he’d prefer to forget – the 10 he took on the 18th hole, his ninth of the day, in the first round at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. He got it back to one-over by the end of the day and went on to win the tournament in a playoff. He recalls that 10 and how he managed to avoid being rattled by it as he prepares to defend that title later this month.

 
I’m looking forward to getting down to Florida to defend the title I won last year, even though I know the infamous 10 will be brought up as it has been since I recorded it on the 18th hole, my ninth of the first round last year.

I was going along pretty well and was at three-under through eight. In the practice round, the wind was going in the exact opposite direction and we played a tee box further back on 18.

 I got up on the tee on 18 and I really didn’t know what line to hit it on, so I picked a line and, maybe I just wasn’t confident enough and I made a bad swing. It turns out that it was the wrong line anyway, but making that bad swing didn’t help.

Then, I hit another one almost in the same spot. The first one ended up being a lost ball. The second one was unplayable and it got worse from there. I was three-under going to 18 and suddenly, I’m three-over in the span of about 20 minutes and actually went to five over at one point.

I was pretty rattled that whole day. After that 10, I was in a bit of a fog, but while hitting some balls afterwards, it started to sink in that it was a pretty good comeback to get back to one-over on the day and I was hitting it well.

I was using a swing thought that I’d never used before. It’s just something that came to me on Sunday night after the practice round.

Normally, I hit the ball with a lot of spin. I hit down on it quite a bit. It’s good for short irons, but it’s a lot of spin. In the wind, I just thought I would shallow it out, make flatter swings for less spin. It worked great and if felt really comfortable, so on Monday, I thought I’d try it and stay with it.

I was really happy and proud of the way of the way I was able to stay focused. Something I usually struggle with is not being concerned with the rest of the field and just playing golf.

I remember seeing a board on the ninth hole on the last day. I think I was one or two behind at that point and it’s didn’t even faze me or bother me. I didn’t know until the 18^th tee what was going on as far as the leaderboard goes.

Even after the playoff, it probably took about 20 minutes or half an hour, waiting for the prize presentation, to get out of that focus. I was so deep into it that I wanted to keep going. It was kind of weird, but hopefully, I can get back into that mindset when I defend later this month.

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