My wife will say, “You are playing well.”
In my head, I will say, “I was playing well and was certainly well aware of it, but somehow your recognition of that fact will cause me to yip my next 7 gimmees and I’ll have a moral dilemma whether to count them and RUIN MY ROUND or not count them and thus NOT BE ABLE TO BRAG TO ANYONE ABOUT IT.”
(See what I mean about those voices in my head?)
The fact is, the scores are the scores, and if we add them up or if we ignore them, they are still there. It’s why we keep score. It’s one way to justify the time and money spent and judge progress.
I remember going from a double-bogey golfer to a bogey golfer to a sometimes-just-a-tad-better-than-bogey golfer. I remember it well because it meant I could keep score in my head in relation to par, not just a number that required actual calculation. It also meant I had to quickly face my fears of jinxing myself, without actually begging for a three-putt curse.
What I learned … if you are thinking about not jinxing yourself, you just jinxed yourself. So rule out all possible cases of jinxes – in golf and in life – and focus on what must be done next.