How frustrating - a tale of two halves

[Bratty]

Playing in a mixed match at Westerham today, I felt pretty good standing on the first tee. Striped one down the middle, and made par. Then continued to make pars, two bogies and one birdie to finish the front nine 1 over GROSS! That included a ridiculous punch hook from deepish in the trees 170 yards back to 3 foot!

Then fell to pieces and shot 48 on the back nine and played to handicap.

Really annoyed and a little confused. Why the hell did I suddenly start hooking, slicing, dragging and pulling shots? Will I ever put a solid round together?

The guy I was playing against said, after I put my shot in a bunker off the 9th, that, "at least you can hit bad shots", and then on the same hole, "I've just noticed they've made a mistake with your handicap. They've put a one in front of it!". Wonder if I was feeling embarrassed and guilty for having shot 1 over off 13, hence the meltdown?

 

[ScienceBoy]

Shouldnt be embarrased, a lot of us on here have shot 4-5 under for our handicap on a 9. I did it myself when playing off 15, one birdie, two bogeys and 6 pars. Quite often when a handicap golfer shoots 6 under they have one stunning 9 and one average one.

Its not unheard of and having the mental strength to not be phased by pressure is hard skill to learn. Look at some of the players at the open, some carry the burden of not living up to the hype all their life!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Expectation, adrenalin, state of the match, trying to protect a score and swnging to fast/slow. It happens. Its about learning how to deal with the pressure when the round goes well. The more you do it, the more you get use to it

 

[duncan mackie]

and the front 9 is a bit easier (if you get through 3 and 5 OK )

personally I hate comments on handicap before the end of any round, but there appear rife unfortunately.

 

[Essex_Stu]

I know how you feel. Two of my last 3 rounds Ive had 24 points out 13 back. The round in between I had 26 out 24 back. The difference was I did not know my score after 9 on that round. I didnt even think about it for a second and just stayed focused on the shot I was playing rather than thinking what score I could be on for etc. If I know what score Ive got I start thinking 'if I just play to handicap, Ill come in with 42 points etc'. I then start playing defensive and shots start leaking right.