How do you Shoot bad?

[Stryker908]

I was thinking about how I golf and It occurd to me that I give almost all my shots back on 1-3 holes per round I play par/boggy golf, but a few times a round I end up putting up an 8 or a 9 x 3 holes and were looking at 8-12 strokes per round....

So I'm curious... How do other people give shots back? Is it more consistant? Or do you blow up on a just a few holes?

[mddubya]

I was thinking about how I golf and It occurd to me that I give almost all my shots back on 1-3 holes per round I play par/boggy golf, but a few times a round I end up putting up an 8 or a 9 x 3 holes and were looking at 8-12 strokes per round....

So I'm curious... How do other people give shots back? Is it more consistant? Or do you blow up on a just a few holes?

Same story here. I can play par and bogey golf for 3/4's of the round. Then the wheels fall off for a couple of holes. Today I was even par after 5 holes, then went double, triple, triple bogey, then pretty much finished the round playing bogey golf.

My problem is letting go of a bad hole. I tend to let one bad shot/hole lead to another. :faintthud

[twelvegage]

Mine's short game. I never get time to practice, so that doesn't help. The terrible short game leads to a few of those blow up holes per round.

That and trees!

[mddubya]

Mine's short game. I never get time to practice, so that doesn't help. The terrible short game leads to a few of those blow up holes per round.

That and trees!

Buy some of those foam golf balls and practice on the carpet. Bounce them off your wife, wherever. I bought some and started using them in the living room watching tv and my short game is now the only reason I don't quit this crazy game.

[Stryker908]

I've gotten MUCH better at recovering from 'bad' shots....

Its the Mental Laps for me... I can recover from playing a bad shot, I'll hit a drive into the water, then play a great shot from my drop, but then on the next shot I'll pull my head up and skull the ball over the green...

Its almost like I recover, THEN let my guard down ....

[Fourputt]

I was thinking about how I golf and It occurd to me that I give almost all my shots back on 1-3 holes per round I play par/boggy golf, but a few times a round I end up putting up an 8 or a 9 x 3 holes and were looking at 8-12 strokes per round....

So I'm curious... How do other people give shots back? Is it more consistant? Or do you blow up on a just a few holes?

Most often I just get on a bogey streak that won't let me go. I guess bad is relative to how you normally score, but I'll go on a bogey binge where I just make one poor swing per hole. That results in making a bogey instead of par, or occasionally a double in the mix where there was simply no reason for itto be worse than a bogey. I can start a round with a string of pars, then get on one of those bogey runs and be unable to stop the bleeding until the chance for a good score is history.

[fisher]

My shots are almost all lost to the mental game. I have all the shots needed to break par but I tend to let one miss turn into a double bogey. I have a real hard time settling myself down after a miss. When I am on I feel like I have tunnel vision towards the target and everything is slowed down but when I lose it I'm looking ahead and seeing the entire surroundings and everything is sped up. I know that may sound strange but that is how I feel when things start going down hill. It is a real struggle for me to stay focused.

[halifax_golfer]

Sounds like your rushing a bit fish. Gotta take your time and enjoy shooting well without thinking about it. Try not to think about the next hole, and just enjoy walking from one good shot to another.

If you hit a bad one, Shake it off, and walk to your next shot knowing that you have the consistancy in your game to recover with a par/bogey hole. No sense getting upset, as no matter what were gona all hit bad shots.... Just take it in, and hit your next shot everything will be OK, and there will be no reason for bad thoughts to carry on to the next hole. You know you have the ability to play good golf, but honestly you wont play good golf if your upset with yourself. If you get on a bit of a bad streak, just have confidence in your overall golf ability, and know that golf tends to average out so Pars and Birdies are possibly on the way.

I definitly have experienced the "sped" up sensation that your talking about, the round just kinda wizzes by and you never really feel like you have a chance to recover from say 1 bad shot....

I've personally hit enough bad shots, that I really dont care if I hit a bad one, so that might help me out some.... It feels awsome comming off a terribly played hole with par/bogey though...

I had a par the other day, and I swore it was a birdy as I hit some real quality shots to recover from a missed T shot. Its the bad shots that will show your real character as a golfer, You can really play a mind game with people if you somehow manage to recover from these "bad shots". Just dont let them phase you for more then like 30seconds, and you can play the good golf you want to play!.

Fr. Chris.

P.S. I usually have 2-3 holes blowup holes per round right now, but really they should be easier to get rid of and fix then if I was already shooting near par golf. I usually shoot a bad hole or two when I start adding up my current score in my head, or start thinking about getting a "score" on a certin hole. Short game has saved my ass a bunch of times after catching 3-4 shots in a row thin, its all really about the short game, and anyone has a good chance of developing a wickid short game.

[gwlee7]

I'll mess up by violating what I consider the # 1 rule of playing good golf:

Never follow a bad shot with a worse one.

Here's a case in point from yesterday. The 8th hole at my home course is a severe dogleg right with an elevated tee box that allows a good drive to carry the trees that protect the corner of the dogleg. Being able to carry those trees can literally put you with a short iron or wedge in your hand for your approach instead of having to hit a 3 or 4 iron. I hit a slightly popped up drive that had too much cut on it and did not carry all of the trees. Bad shot. The thing to do was to punch out with a 4 iron and then wedge on to give myself a par save. I took a too aggressive angle, hit a tree, and the ball went dead right into a pond. Worse shot. This left me with having to take a penalty stroke and I am now playing my 4th shot from over 160 yards away. I fly the green, hit a little pitch, and then miss the 12 foot bogey putt.

I made another stupid double bogey later on a par three and just those two holes cost me what would have been a decent around as I ended up shooting 79 where I could have easily shot 76 or 77.

[Fourputt]

I'll mess up by violating what I consider the # 1 rule of playing good golf:

Never follow a bad shot with a worse one.

Or... Never follow up a bad shot with a bad decision!


If you screwed up a shot don't compound the error by trying to make a hero shot on the next swing. Cut your losses and give yourself a chance save the round. Just think about Mickelson on the 72nd hole in the US Open... That's about as good an example as I can think of.

[JEFF4i]

Everywhere.

Honestly, its always something, never anything major but unless I'm playing out of my socks something is always lacking with gives a few back.

[floggerrushmd]

Most of my strokes are given back on what I like to call routine shots. The layup on a par 5 where you don't focus enough on the shot, the iron off of the tee on the par 4 to make sure you hit the fairway. I screw these shots up more often than I care to admit. The other shot that seems to get me is the "easy" chip, where you have a lot of green no break to speak of I tend to leave these outside of gimme range more often than I do with the more difficult chips. It is all about letting the mind wander and a lack of focus.

[halifax_golfer]

I agree, its all in our heads.

[MIKE1218]

When I have a bad round it's usually because of a bogey streak that occured when I was pissed off. Say I bogey an easy hole, I will probably bogey the next because I'm pissed off. Spirals into the high 80's from there...

[bames]

I used to have blowup holes like you mentioned. After I decided to start playing smarter golf instead of heroic golf by cutting my losses after a poor shot the snowmen have yet to visit me again. Now I am more like FourPutt. I will go on a bogey binge that can last up to 4 holes, and it is generally just one poor shot per hole that does me in. It can be playing driver into a narrow fairway, chili-dipping a wedge, or hitting a 20 foot putt all of 10 feet. Sometimes a just say to myself, "Alright, take your bogey and move on. No need to try to pull off a 180 yard 5 iron draw around this tree here - just punch it to 100 and hope you get really close."