Blowing a win by being too cautious.

[bayjon14]

today was the start of proper golf today. Medal No 1.
I had a couple of bad holes on the front 9, putter was behaving and had a 44. Thought ok, keep it steady.
Onto 10, hit a ok drive, miss hit a recovery, hit a good recover, good iron, good putt that lipped, closed a 6.
11/12/13 what a disaster, mishits, etc 6/6/7. really mucked it up. All because I was thinking about steady golf.
back 9 a 49, thus 93, -21, 72, css73 thus a 0.4 cut.
What do you guys do when you know you have the game to win, I was not taking on stupid shots, but was properly too cautious.
Any advice, as I want to get the handicap reduced and my coach reckons a 7 shot cut is very achievable.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I tend not to worry about my score too much. I've started marking my opponents score on every hole but only putting mine down in clusters of three so I don't think too much about where I am score wise. The problem I've found in medal play is that if you become too cautious you don't swing with the same freedom that got you into the position and tend to try and steer the ball too much which means you actually lose more control. You just have to believe in what you were doing and your swing and let go. Have a look at the Rotella books. They may help you

 

[papyt]

i use to card watch but found i was starting to guide the ball instead of hitting it,don't bother looking or worse still adding up till i walk off the 18th lets face it you know if you have had a good knock but you don't know what anyone else has done so just play your best golf and the card will take care of itself.

 

[Achilles]

Same as Homer and papyt - try not to think about the score. Take confidence from what is working and keeping doing that. I find that if I am playing well and try to play conservatively, errors creep in and it's hard to recover. If you've scored well then why change the formula? Be positive, don't worry about it going wrong, and trust in yourself that you WILL score well.

 

[ScienceBoy]

Doesn't sounds like you were too cautious, just thinking too much

 

[duncan mackie]

consistent message appearing!

dear Dr Bob sums it up with 'stay in the present', not the last shot nor the next, and definitely not what you are going to buy with the prize money

my best rounds (and wins) came when my score was a pleasant surprise at the end of the round.

for this reason I don't record my stableford points on the card as marker, nor add up my 9 holes in medal - unfortunately most people will wreck the good intention with phrases such as "wow - you have 40 points already" when standing on the 18th tee (last weeks comp) and I end up with 40 after 18 too.....

 

[bayjon14]

thanks Guys, as a newbie, I still hit an odd poor shot, I ran the diagnostic on it this evening and have pinpointed the areas to work on, putting was not so bad, a couple of non committed / slack chips and long shots.
the errors were on the bag 9. I diffo tried to make sure on the back 9. I prefer the back 9 as it is a nice open links,
Just keep it going is the best approach and looking at the card really is a bad job.
so from now on in it is a case off swing easy and full. Commit, commit, commit.
thanks guys.