Bad shot sandwich..

[GB72]

I would take the par and be happy. Who is to say that a well struck second shot would have resulted in a birdie anyway. The drive was good, the putt was good so I would be happy. At my level, par on any hole is good so happy to walk off with one however achieved. If I were a lower handicap then perhaps my expectations would be greater and I would be disappointed but at my level a par is a good result.

 

[Mungoscorner]

If I hit every shot as I intended, I'd be on telly, but I am not, and I have a handicap that suggests I'm going to truly mess up at least 9 shots a round.

There is never anything wrong with a par.

Spot on Murph.

 

[Tiger]

Murph and Mungo - out of curiosity if you played a round and finished one shot under your personal best would your emotions be the same if you had birdied the last hole compared to if you bogied it? The end result is the same.

In terms of the hole I played the other day, if I'd pitched to ten feet and two putted for par my perception would have been different than with the great escape. Not saying that this is the right way of thinking just that circumstance affects my perception of events immediately after they happen. Something I need to work on.

Hit three consecutive pars on the back nine but when my brother brought my attention to it I followed up with a double and triple on the next two holes

 

[USER1999]

It is all ifs, buts, and maybes.

You can't judge your round til it is over, and every hole carries equal importance. Makes no odds if you birdie the last, or bogey it. Your score is what it is. Yes, it's nice to finish strong, but I'm going to leave shots out there every time I play. Even the best Pro's do.

I would be annoyed if I hit a bad shot by bottling it though. That's different.

 

[Tiger]

It is all ifs, buts, and maybes.

I would be annoyed if I hit a bad shot by bottling it though. That's different.

Thanks for the reply Murph. I know my mental game is my Achilles heel and working hard to focus on one shot at a time: celebrating the good ones and not dwelling on the bad.

The current poll stats makes interesting reading though:

Relieved (thank god I saved par) 10 28%
Elated (a par is a par) 7 19%
Buoyant (putter is hot today) 4 11%
Despondent (wasted birdie opp) 4 11%
Bemused (what the hell happened?) 11 31%

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Proud of myself for being able to put the crap shot behind me and not let it affect the next one. There was a time not so long ago a crap shot would have been compounded with more bad shots as I beat myself up for hitting a crap one.

Take Saturday, 16th hole SI2 6 over gross and playing well. So I hook a ball OB. There are 2 choices at that point. The old me would have probably stuck the 2nd tee shot OB as well and completely messed up the round. The new me split the fairway with the 2nd ball, hit a 5i to 4ft and rolled the putt in for a 5.

My golf has always been held back by my fragile mind, every time I recover from a bad shot or bad hole now I just take immense pleasure from how I dealt with it. Granted I might have a bit of a strop at the time (as Homer will tell you from yesterday) but it doesn't affect the rest of my round.

 

[Smiffy]

I have a handicap that suggests I'm going to truly mess up at least 9 shots a round.

On that basis I should only mess up 13 times.
Have you seen me the past two weeks?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

No pictures at the end of the day I got it round in a medal on Saturday in nett 70 (level) but threw a lot of shots away. At the end of it, that was the first round of a two round comp and so I was happy to be in contention and hadn't played myself out of it. You couldn't win it on Saturday but you could definitely lose it.

OK the 9 on the par 5 15th killed any aspirations yesterday and I limped home in a nett 73 (chucked a nice double in on 17 too) and with 136 (-4) winning I was in with a shout. However I stood on the 16th tee after my errant drive on the previous hole being the culprit of the 9 and split the fairway (and outdrove Hawkeye into the bargain - not for the first time that day). I probably have the most fragile golfing persona on here but I've tried very hard to follow the forum ethos of hit it, find it and hit it again without all the angst and anxiety I use to attach to every round. I'm enjoying it more and do you know what, there are probably more consistant rounds as a result.