Front 9 is destroying me - mental issue

[Jdb2005]

Fairly common problem to develop a mental block towards certain holes or run of holes at a course you play regularly. Do you put too much pressure on yourself to start a round well and if you lose a couple of shots early allow this to affect your confidence or allow negative thought patterns to creep into the rest of your round? Do you change tactics on later holes to try and gain those shots back by being too aggressive especially if you find trouble instead of taking your medicine and trying to save par?

There is a good article in this months golf monthly regarding a 'screw up allowance' the term is a bit too American for me but the theory is sound and is something I have recommended for some time. Even the best players hit bad shots and make bogey's so don't let this effect the rest of your round just put it down as one of the bad shots you will hit that day and move on. Tiger allows himself 10 seconds to get angry and berate himself after a bad shot and then all of his focus switches to how to play the next shot to the best of his abilities wherever it may have ended up.

One thing you could also be doing is starting to focus on the trouble you have previously found on these holes, bunkers, water, OOB, etc. You can't be thinking of any negative outcome when playing a shot and don't try to stop thinking about it or think don't hit the ball somewhere. You need to replace the negative thought or outcome with a positive image and the correct target.

Hope this helps

Thanks for that, got this months GM so I will give it a read. What you've said will help.

 

[CirenBhoy]

Play the holes on the driving range. For each hole, play the clubs/shots that you would if you were playing holes 1-9