I’m not a golfer. But that doesn’t stop me from picking up a club every now and then, heading out to the course and pretending that I am.

It’s a fantasy that usually lasts until the first swing off the first tee.

By the time my sliced drive disappears into the trees on the right side of the fairway, I’ve already got another ball locked and loaded, ready to give it another try.

Thanks to the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff that awards automatic bids to the 5 highest-ranked conference champions, teams suffering an early season loss can now take a similar mulligan.

That’s good news for Florida State, which shanked its opening effort in the birthplace of golf last Saturday.

The Seminoles’ 24-21 loss to Georgia Tech in Ireland didn’t help their chances of winning a 2nd straight ACC championship and earning the Playoff bid they were denied last season by a committee in a conference room rather than an opponent on the field.

But it didn’t hurt that badly, either.

At +350, they still have the 3rd-best odds among ACC teams of making the Playoff this season, according to FanDuel sportsbook.

FanDuel Sportsbook

States: OH, MD, LA, KS, NY, TN, NJ, PA, IN, IA, IL, WV, MI, CO, VA, AZ, CT

GET THE APP

21+ and present in a state with legal sports gaming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.

NO-SWEAT BET: $1,000!

BET NOW

They just don’t have their mulligan to fall back on anymore. And they barely have any time to recover from the jet lag of a trans-Atlantic flight or their disappointing opening performance.

The ACC schedule-makers didn’t do Mike Norvell’s team any favors, other than giving them 48 extra hours to prepare before playing again on Labor Day Monday.

Not only does FSU have to turn around and face a 2nd straight conference opponent, it’s one that based on their most recent meeting is significantly more dangerous than it might otherwise seem.

The Seminoles didn’t beat Boston College last season as much as the Eagles beat themselves.

They committed a school-record 18 penalties for 131 yards, missed an extra point, failed on a 2-point conversion and chose not to kick a field goal before being stopped on 4th down from the FSU 5. And yet, they still came within a couple of fingertips of having a shot at beating a team that went on to finish the regular season undefeated.

Those fingertips grabbed the facemask of running back Lawrance Toafili, negating a 3rd down stop with 1:08 to play and allowing the Seminoles to run out the clock for a 31-29 victory.

Both teams have undergone significant changes since that afternoon in Chestnut Hill last September. BC, in particular, will have a different look with Bill O’Brien taking over as coach after the departure of Jeff Hafley to the NFL.

Most of those differences, however, favor the Eagles.

They’ve had an extra week to prepare while the Seminoles will be scrambling to address the offensive and defensive line issues that contributed greatly to their defeat in Ireland. They have a full game of video to help scout their new personnel while FSU will have to adjust to O’Brien’s new scheme on the fly.

Most of all, they still have Thomas Castellanos.

The Seminoles have already gotten a taste of Haynes King. They still have Cam Ward, Cade Klubnik, Riley Leonard and Graham Mertz, among others, to look forward to. But of the Who’s Who of college quarterbacks dotting their 2024 schedule, Castellanos is the one they’re least looking forward to seeing on the other side of the field.

BC’s dual-threat quarterback is only 5-9 and 196 pounds. But he gave FSU fits last season, passing for 305 yards and a touchdown while running for another 95 and a score.

With offensive coordinator Alex Atkins still serving his 3-game suspension for NCAA recruiting violations and new quarterback DJ Uiagalelei still getting used to his new teammates, containing Castellanos and keeping the score down becomes even more of a priority.

In order to do that, they’ll have to be more physical at the point of attack and do a much better job of setting the edge than they did against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets rushed for 190 yards, averaging better than 5 yards per carry, with most of the damage coming outside the tackles.

“There’s some plays here and there where we’re on the edge of blocks,” Norvell said afterward. “We’ve got to be better and tighter in certain situations.”

There are a lot of reasons why FSU, which is still a 15.5-point favorite, should be “better and tighter” on Monday than it was in Week 0. Among the biggest is the motivation that every ACC game from here on out has become a must-win proposition.

Other than another undefeated season, all the Seminoles’ goals are still realistically reachable despite their opening game stumble. They just need to make sure that all their drives are straight down the middle from here on out.

Because you only get 1 mulligan per round. And they’ve already used theirs.