Scott Mayer is a PGA-certified teaching professional who works at Nonesuch River Golf Course in Scarborough. He has written two instructional booklets, A Golfing Philosophy to Play A-Round With and Golf is a Concept and produced an instructional video, The Fundamentals of the Mind. In the spring of the 2004 he was named the State of Maine Teacher of the Year by his peers. Throughout the summer he has provided me – a 16-handicapper with a propensity for banana slices – with a weekly golf tip. I have hit the range or practice green to put the tips to practice and written about my experience with them – what worked, what didn’t, etc.

And on the seventh day, Scott created a golfer.

Sort of.

With the summer unofficially winding down and high school sports calling my name, Mayer and I decided to meet one last time for one last test, the seventh in our series.

Hitting balls on the range and putting green is one thing; it was time for Mayer to see, firsthand, how well I could put his tips to practice out on the course. Basically, it was time for me to show him how well he’s been doing his job in front of his boss (Mayer and I were joined by Nonesuch River owner Dan Hourihan for our front-side nine), while also getting showed up by him on his home course.

No pressure on me, though. None at all.

Of course I was given the honors on the first tee. And, of course, with my brain zipping through a last-minute checklist at warp speed – loosen your grip, open your left foot, be sure take the club back parallel to the ground – I sculled my drive about 150 yards off the cart path into the left rough. Mayer and Hourihan were both right down the middle.

Neither of them made birdie, though. I did. And it felt GOOD, especially because I used Mayer’s chipping tip (see: Aug. 3-5) to knock the ball in the hole. I landed my second shot pin high on the fringe with a five iron, then used an eight iron to chip in for a three.

“There’s an old saying: ‘You never know where the right place to be was.’ And that’s why you never, ever want to give up,” said Mayer, who two-putted for a four. “I would tell you now in hindsight that you hit that tee shot in the perfect place for you to make three. I thought I hit mine in a better place and I didn’t make a three, so you never know.”

I made an uneventful bogey on the par 3 second hole after coming up short of the green with my tee shot. But there was plenty for Mayer to pick apart on the par 5 third as I made an ugly seven. I made good contact off the tee, but because I set up facing slightly left my ball ended up just under a lip in one of the fairway bunkers.

“It’s much easier to line up with something close than with something too far away,” said Mayer. “You always want to start on your target line. Pick something directly in front of the ball, within three feet of the ball, set your club down to that first and then build your stance around that.”

Well, I managed to chop out of the bunker and back into the fairway with a nine iron. Unfortunately, I was still about 200 out with trees blocking a clear shot at the green. Mayer suggested punching the ball into the fairway with an eight iron. And while I knew he was right, I wanted to get the ball as close as I could for my fourth shot, so I took a full swing and ended up in the woods through the fairway.

Have I mentioned that Mayer is a professional, and I’m not?

“Instead of assessing the shot for what it was and identifying the exact perfect shot, you hit it generally in the direction without paying attention too much and it cost you,” Mayer said. “Never take a safe shot for granted.

“Your goal is always to hit the green in regulation. If you put yourself out of position to get to a green in regulation you should always reassess at that point and ask yourself, ‘What have I got to do from this particular position to get there in order to get there in one more than regulation. It’s always easier to putt for a bogey than it is to get it up and down.”

With the wheels now completely off – how the #&*! did this happen after my opening hole birdie? – I tripled the par 3 fourth. The only thing worth noting here is, after knocking my tee shot in the woods, I got too aggressive with my third shot, hit a tree and ended up short of the green. Again, horrible course management that easily could’ve been avoided.

Somehow, though, I was able to put the disastrous holes behind me and crush a three wood to within 120 on the 362-yard par 4 fifth.

When my wedge came up just short of the green, Mayer was waiting by the cart with this bit of info: “Ninety-percent of all shots by amateurs come up short.”

The lesson: I’m really not sure. Don’t come up short? Always take one extra club? Don’t hit a bad shot? All of the above?

I didn’t come up short on the par 3 sixth. This time, I let Mayer club me (if you’ve never played with a pro/ caddy, I highly suggest it; it’s quite nice) and I ended up pin high with a 12-footer for birdie. I missed the putt, though, and settled for par.

My brain cramped up again on the seventh. I hit my tee shot to about 120, but I was in the right rough, and there was a branch hanging down near the ball. After taking a few practice swings I realized there was no way the branch was going to play a factor. But the stupid thing was already in my head, so logic didn’t really matter. I pulled up and shanked it right.

“You got anxious and anticipated and you took your eye off the ball, so you didn’t witness your contact,” said Mayer. “Whereas I hit into the trees off the tee and almost made birdie. I had the trees in my way, but I was more task-oriented than you were. You were more result-oriented and more worried about the the potential impacts of the results. I was just task-oriented, trying to hit it solid again, and it worked out.”

That problem manifested itself again on the ninth hole. I was sitting two just short of the green, but I started thinking too much, mishit my chip shot and had to hit another chip to get onto the putting surface.

The final scores: Mayer, 35. Me, 45.

“It’s not that you lack the ability to hit good shots. You lack the ability to consistently hit good shots. I think that your mindset gets out of wack sometimes, and you don’t always see things for what they really are,” said Mayer. “You don’t focus enough on just making that good contact when you get out of position.

“It takes time. Golf is a journey. In the process of getting better you never reach your potential. So, it’s really about the journey and getting there. No matter how good you are you always want to get better and have fun on the way.”

Fun? Golf’s supposed to be fun?

Mayer can be reached at (207) 838-5731 or by email at smayer@megalink.net. He will continue to teach through the summer using an indoor golf simulator in the Nonesuch River clubhouse.