There is an expression in life that says, ‘Control the controllables’. Sometimes things happen that you have no control over and you just have to go with it and make the best of the situation.
I was so looking forward to hitting the 2022 LPGA Tour season running, but unfortunately a number of ‘uncontrollables’ were placed in front of me during the off-season.
I ended up seeing a hand specialist in the United States for the tendinitis that was bothering me towards the end of 2021. I had two cortisone injections in my hand and was ordered not to hit balls for a month. To take the positive from that, you could say that if you are going to have an injury, the off-season is the best time to have it.
So, my husband and I decided to look for the positives. This was an opportunity to recover, get away from the game and push the reset button. We were due to fly back to South Africa for six weeks and we couldn’t wait to see family and friends, but Omicron had other ideas and we had to stay in the US because of the travel ban!
Once the ban was lifted on New Year’s Eve we made our way to SA and I was going to use the three weeks to prep for the start of the season with my coach.
But, in South Africa I picked up a bacterial stomach infection (the doc said it was called H. pylori) which had me down the whole time I was there. I hadn’t hit a ball in four weeks and this setback turned that into seven weeks!
We returned to the US having seen my coach only twice and I had one week to try to get ready for the first two tournaments of the year in Florida.
The first week we played at Boca Raton, which is a 40-minute drive from where we live, so it was great being able to stay at home and sleep in my own bed. But I was still not feeling 100%, my energy was low, and I wasn’t hitting it as far as I usually do which made an already long course even longer.
The second week we played in Fort Myers in Florida. I do love being able to jump in my car and drive to tournaments. I started to feel much better during this week and my energy was back and so too was my ball striking. I was on the cut line with nine holes to play and although I felt I played better than the week before, the inactivity and lack of sharpness was exposed under the pressure. Missing the first two cuts of the year is not the start you want to get off to, but I didn’t have high expectations.
I then had three weeks off to do the off-season prep I had hoped to do before heading to Asia for a fortnight.
– This column first appeared in the March 2022 issue of Compleat Golfer magazine. Subscribe here!
