Does anyone else get rounds that are full of bad luck?

[Heidi]

today - if there was a bunker - i was in it - and i rarely go in them
bad bounces into them, greens too slick and ball sailing off and into them, wind taking my shot and low and behold - a bunker!

I was in a total of 6 bunkers today - one was my fault with a slight thomas tank - but the others were all a case of bad luck

Am hoping i used up all my bad luck in today's round


BIG SIGH....

 

[FairwayDodger]

Yes!

I had a round recently where I had four putts lip out.... and none drop.

 

[Achilles]

Yep, me too! I can go a few rounds without finding a bunker, then I'll find one on every hole the next time out!

Had some bad luck on Wednesday night. On two seperate holes I hit drives which hit the fairway but must've rolled into the first cut. Not a problem I thought, as I wasn't offline enough to find the really nasty stuff. Lost both balls! What didn't help was grass cuttings all over the place. I wasn't happy!

 

[chris661]

They reckon it all balances out, I that's the case I must be due some pretty spectacular rounds then

Some days/rounds are like that then some go where you feel like nothing can go wrong (allegedly )

 

[Durango]

Must say I've never had a thomas tank on the course, usually leave them for evenings.

 

[Bucket92]

Must say I've never had a thomas tank on the course, usually leave them for evenings.

Quality

 

[palindromicbob]

Must say I've never had a thomas tank on the course, usually leave them for evenings.

Someone needs to learn the difference between the Shermans and the Thomases. :mmm:

 

[chrisd]

Someone needs to learn the difference between the Shermans and the Thomases. :mmm:

........ and the J Arthurs

 

[Smiffy]

........ and the J Arthurs

And the Barclays. Or the Merchants.

 

[ArnoldArmChewer]

Every time I step on the tee lately, if it can go against me it will.

 

[Imurg]

They reckon it all balances out, I that's the case I must be due some pretty spectacular rounds then

We must play a similar game Chris........:thup:

 

[Deleted member 15717]

bad luck is a state of mind...there isn't something in the world that decides whether a putt will drop, or where the ball is going to end up after striking it. The only thing thathas caused the ball to go there is the person holding the club. Yes, you get bounces that decide to go off in different directions, but it isn't "bad luck" I have learnt to accept what happens as my own fault.

 

[USER1999]

I am not worried if a ball lips out. At least I am hitting the hole. If I missed by a foot, then that's worth getting annoyed with.

As to bad luck, I only really get it in medals. That shot that hits the one twig that kills it stone dead, or the shot down the middle that ends up in a divot, or bounces at right angles into a bunker. These never happen on a Friday afternoon.

 

[ScienceBoy]

I prefer to call them "bad breaks". Feels less like there is something going against me, the last thing I want in my mind!

I find I get plenty of good breaks and bad breaks. I have had rounds full of both, one or the other. In the end if it goes in a bunker/lake/OB I probably hit a shot more aggressive than I intended or hit it poorly. Both I can work on and improve.

When I get a good break I play the ball as it lies

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Interesting that you say you went in 6 bunkers but only one was your fault. Who hit it in the other 5?

I sometimes get rounds when I seem to go in every bunker and feel like I was unlucky but if I analyse it afterwards and am really honest with myself, I can usually find a reason why going in them was my fault and not bad luck at all.

 

[MashieNiblick]

I have them all the time.

Intersting to think about the concept of luck on the golf course. There will always be a large amount of chance involved as the playing area is so variable.

However we tend to credit ourselves when it works out but blame bad luck when it doesn't.

Good example at our course. Nearly all the approaches to the greens are subtly cambered with bunkers often left and right front. Any approach short will usually be deflected into the sand but occasionally the ball will sneak by on to the green. We say "bad luck" when the former happens and "good shot" when it's the latter. Only banter, but interesting that in fact it's really the opposite.

It may also be that a bad break costs more shots than a lucky one saves so the bad breaks seem to have more impact.

 

[Ian_S]

I find people are far too willing to take credit for their good luck and blame the fates for bad luck. For instance, you play a wedge into a green a little too strong. If you catch a soft part of the green and the ball stops 3 feet from the cup people think "I did that" yet if they catch a flyer and end up off the back of the green it's "just my luck".

Yeah, you do get runs of good bounces and bad bounces at a time, but I'm sure if you assessed your round objectively you'd see you get far more good luck than you realise.

Even something like holing a 20 foot putt. You sink one of those and take all the credit. But consider that there is luck involved in making the contact (no two putts will bounce off the club exactly the same), then you are rolling over thousands of blades of grades, which must all line up in such a way as to guide your ball down the line you have chosen. Friction is not constant across the green, there are bobbles etc that can take your ball off line or put it on line. When you consider all that, holing a 20 foot putt has far more luck involved than you imagine. A good degree of skill, no doubt, but with a dollop of luck too.

 

[Lawrence22]

I seem to be getting a lot of "bad" luck recently, strange bounces, balls lost that I was sure would be on the fairway, but the ones that annoy me the most are the 2 shots in the last couple of weeks that have hit trees 20 yds in front of me and come straight back at me, They have both been barely more than saplings I could wrap my hand around their trunks. If I were to try all day to hit them from 20 yds I never would, but when you need to avoid them

 

[JezzE]

I find people are far too willing to take credit for their good luck and blame the fates for bad luck. For instance, you play a wedge into a green a little too strong. If you catch a soft part of the green and the ball stops 3 feet from the cup people think "I did that" yet if they catch a flyer and end up off the back of the green it's "just my luck".

Yeah, you do get runs of good bounces and bad bounces at a time, but I'm sure if you assessed your round objectively you'd see you get far more good luck than you realise.

Even something like holing a 20 foot putt. You sink one of those and take all the credit. But consider that there is luck involved in making the contact (no two putts will bounce off the club exactly the same), then you are rolling over thousands of blades of grades, which must all line up in such a way as to guide your ball down the line you have chosen. Friction is not constant across the green, there are bobbles etc that can take your ball off line or put it on line. When you consider all that, holing a 20 foot putt has far more luck involved than you imagine. A good degree of skill, no doubt, but with a dollop of luck too.

... are the wise words of absolute truth!

The problem is we think we have been wronged massively when something goes against us, yet are somehow deserving of all the good luck we get, so tend to forget about it rather more readily.

The reality is that it will be 50/50, whether that's in one round or balancing itself out over a number of rounds

 

[MadAdey]

I had one in the medal the weekend before we played the old farts v whippersnappers at Woodhall. I manged to get round 14 over with 11 lip outs.... Can't remember the last time I hit the ball so well, hit nearly every fairway, hardly missed a green and I could just not get the ball in the hole. Only good thing to come out of it was I got 0.1 back which put my handicap up to 11 so I did not have to give Richart a shot in the singles......