Have you ever had a nightmare in which you were trying to do something that wasn't that difficult, something you had done many times before but for some reason just couldn't do?

It happened to me -- a nightmare of sorts -- on the golf course this afternoon.

I was playing the par four seventh hole, which is a fairly straightforward short par four -- about 300 yards from the white tees, but uphill for the last 100 yards or so. I was playing reasonably well -- one over through six holes -- and my drive was a mediocre but OK 190-yarder, leaving me behind a fairway bunker about 110 yards from the hole.

I'm not a big hitter, so I figured the distance and the fact that it was uphill and took out my seven iron. It has been a long time since I've been psyched out at having to hit over traps, so I lined up my shot, swung and dribbled it right into the trap.

I had lifted my head.

[caption id="attachment_1093" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="No. 7"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20101210_18.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1093" title="20101210_18" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20101210_18-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

I used to do that a lot, but it hasn't been a major problem for a long time.

Since there was no one behind me, I decided to take the opportunity to practice the shot and get it right.

I dropped a ball, lined up my shot and dribbled it into the trap again. And again. And again.

After four times, I figured maybe I wasn't confident in the seven iron and hence was over-swinging. I switched to the six, dropped a ball and did exactly the same thing. Four times.

By now I was wondering what was going on. I changed my stance a little and managed to avoid the trap -- by hitting the ball off the end of the club and sending it completely sideways. Twice.

Ten horrible shots in a row.

I wasn't going to go on to my first ball and complete my round until I hit a decent shot, so I switched to my eight iron, which I have been hitting pretty well, and finally got one into the air. It headed toward the hole, but come up five yards short of even reaching the green.

When I went back to my first ball and hit it out of the bunker, I managed to get up and down after that for a bogey five.

As I said, I had been playing well, but I bogeyed eight and nine to finish four over par. On nine, which is only about 100 yards, I used my eight and wound up pulling my head up and topping the ball. I tried a couple more practice shots after that and did the same thing.

So I left the course feeling like I had completely forgotten how to play golf.

It was a shame, too, because except for that I had a great memory. On the fifth hole, which past about 170 yards is downhill all the way, I had totally creamed a drive that went about 315 yards. When I walked up to my second shot, I was 20 yards from the cup. I chipped with my seven and watched as the ball rolled to within three inches of the hole. I've still never had an eagle, but a three-inch birdie tap-in was a nice substitute.

Sorry, though.

For all that, today's memory is of 10 consecutive shots in which I told myself to keep my damn head down -- and didn't.

It's a hellishly frustrating game at times.

That's why I love it.