So here is how it started: par, birdie and eagle. Already three under par after only three holes. Hard to believe, but it's true ...

I flubbed the next easy par four with a careless bogie, but after that I held on with a string of pars to make the turn at two under par. 4-4-2-5-3-4-5-3-4=34.

If I could just keep playing half-decently, nothing miraculous just an ordinary nine more holes, then I'd have a pretty good score.

There's this mental thing that rears its ugly head in my mind when I'm playing great golf and it always tries to ruin me. I'm thinking that there's only so many holes left and I need to hold on, getting more and more nervous.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity so let's get serious and make the best of it. Or so I thought. The second nine was a disaster and I went into mental meltdown mode. Two double-bogies and only three pars: 6-3-6-4-5-7-4-4-5=44. That's TEN strokes more than the first nine, you must be kidding.

Afterward when the good life was all done and gone, I sat at the table moping, shaking my head and wondering out loud how it is possible to play so well for the first nine holes and then blow it so badly during the second nine holes.

My playing partner Jim (who comes from Ireland) hit the nail right on the head when he said, "You know the more often I see this happening the more convinced I am that it is one hundred percent just a mental thing.

How is it possible that such disasters strike when you least expect it? And why if it's just a mental thing can't I control it better.

(No I did not break a single club, although I was tempted to a couple of times)