Is it mental, or to be expected?

[CheltenhamHacker]

I played a quick 9 holes yesterday as part of my "club night", and ended up being fairly happy, but still a little annoyed with my round. I'm yet to get a handicap, but I'm aiming to work down to 18 by the end of the year.

The front 9 of my course isn't the hardest, and I came away with 3 pars, 3 bogeys, and then 3 triple bogeys.

My question therefore, suprisingly relates around the triple bogeys that decimated the scorecard. 2 of them involved really rubbish tee shots, but from there, I did what everyone says on here, I took my medicine. For some reason, the rest of the hole always seems to fall apart though. This isn't the first time, at the weekend, I had a 9 and a 10 when a couple of holes blew up. Again after dodgy drives (not OOB, just not in a brilliant position).

Has anyone got any mental tips to try and shut out a poor drive? Or just to stop the rot at a double, and not have the big +3 on the card?

 

[louise_a]

dont try too hard to recover from a dodgy drive, get it back into play. What do you call a bad position?

I often think my bad scores on holes are down to bad drives, but I played 9 holes the other afternoon, had 2 birdies, 2 pars and a 9, the nine was after a good drive, a nice second and a pitch that hit the green dead on line, sadly it ran off the green, I thinned the chip back, the next chip also ran off the green. and I 3 putted!

 

[CheltenhamHacker]

The bad drives were really bad, as in topped off the tee into the rough 30 yards away. The occasional blip I get when things are going too well and I get a bit confident!

 

[Stuey01]

Trouble is when you take your medicine you are effectively shooting for a bogey, but as a higher handicap you are only a missed green and a 3 putt from a triple, and it's all too easily done. It's still the right approach and you need to be focussing on each shot, put the score for the hole out of your mind, you're putting yourself under pressure trying to save a score, tension creeps in and the next thing is horror hole.

 

[mcbroon]

You can always recover from a bad drive. The best round I ever shot, I hit 1 out of 13 fairways. However, I hit 12 GIR and got up and down 3 times when I missed the green.

So don't attach too much importance to your drive. Wherever it ends up, more often than not you can still make bogey at worst.

 

[duncan mackie]

I suspect you aren't really taking your medicine; this is based on my observation of players in similar situations.

When you approach your ball after a poor tee shot you generally have 2 options available to you

1. where would I like to get it to from here?
2. what club would I be most comfortable playing that ball as it lies with?

The honest order in which you consider these two questions is vital to success for the handicap golfer, because the mind is not an honest tool in these issues!!!

If the answer to Q2 is really a 9 iron, but you let the answer to Q1 sneak in to your thoughts ( if I can get it 150 on that line I will have a shot into the green that I should be able to make.....) you will inevitably compromise your thinking re Q2 and end up having a go with a 7, or 6, and before you know it you are going through the whole process again.

If the answer to Q2 is a 6 iron, and you then find the answer to Q1 is 110 in direction X will give me a reasonable shot at the green then go with the 110 shot!

Basically go with the shorter/more lofted of the clubs that are appropriate to the answers to the 2 questions - and consider them in the order Q2 first ie consider Q2 without any regard for scoring on the hole in the first instance.

Personally I take the answer to Q2 and deduct 2 clubs, but that's just me I find that this results in me putting better swings on more shots and dramatically improves my confidence as I go round. Any possible distance penalty on that shot will get paid back in spades overall.

 

[bladeplayer]

The bad drives were really bad, as in topped off the tee into the rough 30 yards away. The occasional blip I get when things are going too well and I get a bit confident!

If you top one , don't try kill the next one , just pop it out there 180 or so then couple of mid irons you on the green with 2 putts for bogey on a par 4 ..

What I see with some (more noticeably with higher handicaps) is if they top or hit a bad drive , they tense up on the next tee , you can see the knuckles going white the grip is so strong ..

I know its a lot easier said than done , but you cannot change the shot that is gone .so let it go ,
ok ya hit a bad drive , but it came after a good / decent drive on the hole before, so theres no reason bad has to follow bad ..

Tip for driving is to swing smoothly, set up as normal & make sure you swing through the ball , let the club get through the ball and let your right hip get through (if your right handed) .. if there is someone behind you they should be able to see all the grips on the shoe on your back foot ..

 

[Pin-seeker]

If you top one , don't try kill the next one , just pop it out there 180 or so then couple of mid irons you on the green with 2 putts for bogey on a par 4 ..

What I see with some (more noticeably with higher handicaps) is if they top or hit a bad drive , they tense up on the next tee , you can see the knuckles going white the grip is so strong ..

I know its a lot easier said than done , but you cannot change the shot that is gone .so let it go ,
ok ya hit a bad drive , but it came after a good / decent drive on the hole before, so theres no reason bad has to follow bad ..

Tip for driving is to swing smoothly, set up as normal & make sure you swing through the ball , let the club get through the ball and let your right hip get through (if your right handed) .. if there is someone behind you they should be able to see all the grips on the shoe on your back foot ..

Good advice,I've learnt not to beat myself up after a bad shot & play the next as if the previous didn't happen. I'm also a high handicapper & it's inevitable that were goin to hit a few bad shots.

 

[Curls]

Oh very dear, I feel like a broken record, I think if I was to look back through my posts I'd see a variation on this every 3 or 4! But then new people join the forum and I just want to help, so play the record curls!

Ever read any books on the mental side of the game? It constantly amazes me how folk will spend £1000s on equipment and practice but not £5 on a part of the game that is arguably as important as being able to hit a ball. Some folk have a natural temperament for the game, just as some folk don't need lessons and have brilliant natural swings. For everyone else, there's help in the form of books, cheap practice you can do from the comfort of your chair.

Zen Golf - Joseph Parent
Going Low and/or Peak Performance - Patrick Cohn
Not a game of perfect/Putting out of your mind - Bob Rotella (all Rotellas books amount to the same thing and while I don't rate him as highly as the two above lots of folk click with him).

There's plenty more but the first would be the one that would help most with the "blowing up" problem. Golf not a game of perfect similarly. It's about learning mental control and if you put it into practice I guarantee you that will save you more strokes than any shiney.

 

[JustOne]

The best round I ever shot, I hit 1 out of 13 fairways.

That's some good scrambling! :thup:

I think I hit 5 fairways when I shot 4 under par.... although most drives were no more than 10ft from the fairway so were all pretty much 'up there' in distance terms.

 

[pbrown7582]

its a mental thing trying too hard, (1st club night new partners) trying to hit it too far, (were triples on 2,4,6,8 ??) it'll come with practice. Learn from it. 9 over after rounding is half way to your 18 handicap too.

 

[CheltenhamHacker]

Thanks pb, I did take that from it about the 18 handicap, just a pity that a medal card wouldn't have looked so good!

Actually, no to most of those! First triple was 5, duffed the tee shot. The other 2 were 8 and 9. The most annoying of which is 9, as my last 2 scored rounds on there have been a 7 and a 10! And yet when I played 2 balls on it by myself the other day, I took 2 fours! Frustrating! But yeh, I'm hoping practice does make it better, and I guess it will get me used to playing with new people! I think I need to stop counting score, as on the 8th I was already thinking "I'm only 6 over!"

Thanks to all the other feedback, sorry Curls for making you repeat yourself! I have flicked through Bobs book a while back, think I will get studying it closer now! I will definitely try and take all these tips on board. I am starting to think that I get in my head way to much re: score. Is it frowned upon, if I'm marking someone elses card to just fill in the markers score column at the turn, or the end?

 

[Jumboross]

I'd like to reiterate what Curls said. I'm very new around here too. Your golf sounds like my golf, until a few months ago. I changed a few things.

Started taking the game seriously and had a series of lessons with a pro - not my club pro, but one I was comfortable with. He changed a lot on my swing and I worked very hard at it. Consequently I'm in play a lot more off the tee - most of the time in fact and that didn't used to be the case. Since then I have been tracking my rounds (recording fairways, greens, up & downs, sand saves putts, gross scores) and also had a playing lesson - 9 holes with the pro.

This has shown that when I have a bad hole I tend to have two or three more on the bounce and wreck what could still have been an OK round. I have read Rotella extensively recently and also spoken to my pro about this and I'm now managing not to have the series of bad holes by managing my emotions better. I think I will now order Zen Golf on Curls recommendation.

The other thing it has shown is my short game is crap. Lots of people - me included - seem to think they have a good short game. I don't. Measure it. Put 10 or 20 balls around the green - fairway, rough, heavy rough and sand. Now try and get up and down and work out a percentage success rate. Mine was 10%. All of my lessons and practice time are now on short game. I will occasionally hit 50 balls on the range, but everything else is short game.

It's starting to work. I now look forward to the challenge of getting up and down rather than dread sculling one over the back. I'm scoring better.

Anyway, that's my 2p worth! Good luck!

 

[Curls]

sorry Curls

Is it frowned upon, if I'm marking someone elses card to just fill in the markers score column at the turn, or the end?

No apology needed! Like I say it's something I think a lot about and some folk don't at all, whatever works works. It might seem a bit "eastern philosophy" but there are great practical lessons in Zen Golf and it definitely helps me stay focussed.

Its not frowned upon but I don't think there's any need for it either, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to write down your score at the end of a hole, you should be able to do this, the trick is to then forget about it. Whether its a 3 or a 10 there's absolutely nothing you can do about it once its written down, and it doesnt affect the score you are about to make on the next hole. If it is affecting your next score, or the hole 3 holes later, then you really should pick up one of these books as they may help you stay in the present and do the best you can with the shot in front of you without the interference of the shots past or future.

There's also a school of thought that says you shouldnt add up as you go around. This works for some, not for others, so again its trial and error. What definitely doesnt help is saying "I just took a triple bogey on the first, that means I only have 20 shots left". Counting down your handicap is the quickest way to accumulate that number before the round is finished - or, if its going well, jeopardising yourself with a bad finish which invariable will end up at that number.

When you're standing on the 7th you can't change the putt you missed on the 4th. Neither can you count on the easy par on the 12th. All that matters is teeing up the ball and sending it to where you want it to go. If you can accept that, you'll find when you add up your score at the end it might pleasantly surprise you.

 

[Curls]

Cool, if you work on your short game and the lessons in Zen Golf you can't help but play better golf (and as a result score better!).

 

[beggsy]

You say you have not got a handicap yet but your wanting to get to 18 before the end of the year, how about just get your hcp first then try a little each week rather than jumping in putting loads of pressure on yourself

 

[Sharktooth]

dont try too hard to recover from a dodgy drive, get it back into play. What do you call a bad position?

I often think my bad scores on holes are down to bad drives, but I played 9 holes the other afternoon, had 2 birdies, 2 pars and a 9, the nine was after a good drive, a nice second and a pitch that hit the green dead on line, sadly it ran off the green, I thinned the chip back, the next chip also ran off the green. and I 3 putted!

This is when my wheels fall off as well. One minute your on top of the world, the next your feeling like throwing yourself and clubs in the lake!