Jump to content
IGNORED

How to eliminate blowup holes


stealthhwk
Note: This thread is 2955 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Recommended Posts

I know your pain, somewhat. I, unlike you, can usually pin it on a club. My 4 iron can get me into trouble. For whatever reason, I tend to ground it more than any other club, to the point I deliberately stand a bit more upright to counter it. Something about that 4, it just makes me want to drop my lower body a little more or something. So, just to use my example, I changed my stance to counter a bad habit because it got to the point that I made that move consistently, and the countering stance change has mostly fixed my problem.

Now, my problem is the sub-50 game, especially in the range of 1-10 yards from the green. My short-range chipping just needs work. I've started treating it more like a wedge putt, but that light push doesn't fit well with an uneven surface (clipping a small hill that kills the speed and gets the ball nowhere).

It'll mostly come down to recognizing what kinds of things you screw up. Like people said, those "hero shots" can be a killer because they usually require perfection, and when you don't get it, you're in a position that can add 2 more to the score to get out of those woods or that sand trap. Damage control's a big thing to recognize and strive for.

Anyone here can only help you so much, especially with a general "how do I do better?" question like this. If your screw-ups aren't a consistent problem, a solution is hard to find beyond "play more, get better." You kind of have to eat the occasional bad hole because you're not striving for perfection and putting in the hours many have over the years. It's not to suggest an inability to improve, just to say that if you can't identify where you're making mistakes most, there's no way anyone here can.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


8 hours ago, alleztom said:

Another thing is sometimes to 'give up' on par. For example, as a bogey golfer, if I hit a bad tee shot and end up say 220yds from the hold on a par 4 rather than the usual 130yds, play the hole as if bogey is the new par. You've made the hole more difficult for yourself and rather than trying to hit the green with a 3 wood (a green designed to be hit with a mid/short iron), take 2 shots to get on the green and 2 shots to get down. 1 220yd par 4 is an easy hole (could even make birdie (which becomes par and a great save) whereas a 220 yd par 3, not off the tee, is asking for trouble. Not always the best way to play golf (read Lowest Score Wins) but the best way to avoid blowing up.

Havnt read lsw yet but its on my list. And while I agree thats not ALWAYS the best strategy, I think thats a great piece of advice. I think I know when Im in trouble and I get discouraged thinking its too late to save my score on that hole. Your strategy changes my mind set and gives me more reason to focus on the next shot so I can limit the damage by not making another mistake. Its between the ears as they say! GREAT tip, thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

10 hours ago, Rip62 said:

Never try to hit through trees, always just get back to the fairway.

I was watching a Euro Tour event yesterday, and the commentator said, "When you get in trouble, get out of trouble."   I thought that was a very good way to put it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Skip the "Hero" shot. Either the 200 yard through the 15 inch opening 60 yards ahead type of thing or the 290 yard carry to cut a corner off the tee.

Work on putting. Taking a 2 putt for a 7 will seem MILES better than a 3 putt for an 8.

Next thing is to NOT play (1) 18 hole course, but play (18) 1 hole courses. Each hole is it's own challenge. Blow up holes result from scorecard watching such as "Oh, all I need is (such and such) and I can break whatever..." KABOOM! there's your 9 because you're thinking about it. 

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites


For me, my blow up holes always come from the short game. Even if your off the green on your 3rd shot, a solid short game can minimize the blow up. Just my take 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

1 hour ago, RayG said:

Skip the "Hero" shot. Either the 200 yard through the 15 inch opening 60 yards ahead type of thing or the 290 yard carry to cut a corner off the tee.

Work on putting. Taking a 2 putt for a 7 will seem MILES better than a 3 putt for an 8.

Next thing is to NOT play (1) 18 hole course, but play (18) 1 hole courses. Each hole is it's own challenge. Blow up holes result from scorecard watching such as "Oh, all I need is (such and such) and I can break whatever..." KABOOM! there's your 9 because you're thinking about it. 

Love it!!! Score watching is def a problem of mine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

I think this question is really hard to answer generally. It really depends on what causes your blow up holes. My blow up holes are normally caused by a wayward tee shot. So to eliminate my blow up holes, I will be conservative off the tee when there's trouble to the right. That's my miss. If I get the ball in play off the tee, it's extremely rare for me to get worse than a double bogey.

Without a specific area to point to, the answer is to work on your full swing mechanics. Your short game can also help cover up the mistakes a little bit, but realize that's probably only one stroke at the end of the hole, unless your short game is really bad.

-- Daniel

In my bag: :callaway: Paradym :callaway: Epic Flash 3.5W (16 degrees)

:callaway: Rogue Pro 3-PW :edel: SMS Wedges - V-Grind (48, 54, 58):edel: Putter

 :aimpoint:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

On 8/2/2016 at 11:28 AM, alleztom said:

Another thing is sometimes to 'give up' on par. For example, as a bogey golfer, if I hit a bad tee shot and end up say 220yds from the hold on a par 4 rather than the usual 130yds, play the hole as if bogey is the new par. You've made the hole more difficult for yourself and rather than trying to hit the green with a 3 wood (a green designed to be hit with a mid/short iron), take 2 shots to get on the green and 2 shots to get down. 1 220yd par 4 is an easy hole (could even make birdie (which becomes par and a great save) whereas a 220 yd par 3, not off the tee, is asking for trouble. Not always the best way to play golf (read Lowest Score Wins) but the best way to avoid blowing up.

Haha - I get a couple of reputation points for a post and then go and have a blow up hole. Good drive, left myself 145 in down hill (8i), aimed #deadcenter, pulled 2 shots 25 yards left out of bounds, made 9 (+5) in a 9 hole round of (+11).

A better way to avoid blow up holes - play stableford!

D: Ping G25 Stock S Shaft
3W: Titleist 915F 16.5* Diamana S70 Blue Stiff
3H, 4H: Callaway XR Project X LZ 6.0
5i-PW: Mizuno MP54 Project X 5.5 Shafts
52*, 58*: Mizuno JPX Wedge TT Dynalite Gold AP
Putter: Mizuno MP A306

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

5 hours ago, alleztom said:

Haha - I get a couple of reputation points for a post and then go and have a blow up hole. Good drive, left myself 145 in down hill (8i), aimed #deadcenter, pulled 2 shots 25 yards left out of bounds, made 9 (+5) in a 9 hole round of (+11).

A better way to avoid blow up holes - play stableford!

Golf- sometimes its euphoria, sometimes it just plain sucks! If it helps, I had a blowup round and shot 69 in 12 holes. Needless to say Im throwing that out the window. If I would have kept score The rest of the way, I think I could have shot a 115.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

I've been through what you are suffering from and the tough answer is that your golf swing as a whole probably just needs to improve. I was banging my head on a brick wall the same way you are shooting 85 one week and 97 the next.

In the end I realised that with my swing the way it was I would hit one in 5 shots 'poorly'. If that poor shot was a top which bumped along the fairway to the front edge of the green, I've got away with it and lost no shots, and that bad shot is soon forgotten if i scramble for par. However, that very same bad shot could cut and fade into the trees and all of a sudden it's the blowup hole. In all reality it's still just a bad shot, in striking and predictability terms no better or worse than the one which led to a par. Its just that one result left me at par the other at a 7 or 8 potentially. You need to be starkly honest with yourself and work out how many bad shots you hit per round, no matter where they end up and then if you are like me you will realise that its time to get some tutoring and hit the range, rather than attach it to some sort of course management myth that you aren't actually struggling with.

You can get through this problem and as my handicap dropped the bad shots get less, and more importantly less destructive and in an odd way more predictable. I hit too thin and occasionally push or block the ball now, Having a miss 'pattern' makes it easier to keep the ball in play. 

Good luck :)

 

Hi, My name is Matt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Pre-shot routine.

Try to become automatic about your pre-shot routine. If you can focus purely on that one shot, and go though the same motions of making a decision, lining up, address, waggle, whatever, then your results will become much more consistent.

Just for that short moment in time, you are not concerned with what you want to score on that whole, what mistakes have been made, what your overall score is etc. Just be that stupid monkey for that 30 seconds each shot.

If you commit to doing that each shot, for an entire round, then you should notice that although you will of course hit some bad shots, they will not be grouped together like they are now, and less overall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

I'm horrible when it comes to 'stopping the leak' during a round.  I tend to try to fix the leak and end up completely bursting the pipe.  

One thing that helped me last year, especially when I was playing in tournaments, was to have a smaller focus.  I would go in to a round with a number goal.  For example, I'd look back at the 'history' of the tournaments played at the course and try to figure out where I'd need to be if I wanted to be in the top four (which are the 'money' spots).  I'd figure out that if I could shoot about a 90... I'd have a decent chance at being there at the end of the day.  

I'd go to the course knowing that +18 was my target for the day... and then I'd have a quadruple bogey and it would completely throw me off my game.  I'd be trying to 'make up' those shots all day, resulting in more trouble.

One of my buddies, who is a low single digit player, told me to continue with setting a goal, but to break it down in to smaller goals.  So... he said to play a round as a series of 3 hole mini-rounds.  Take my +18... break it down into those 3 hole mini-rounds... and my new target was now +3 for each of those mini-rounds.

If I had a par, a double and a bogey... I was 'on par' for my target.  If I had a hiccup and finished a mini-round at +5 or something... that 'round' was over and I was back to trying for +3 in my next segment.  

This kept me focused.  I almost always looked at the front and the back as separate rounds.  I guess because in high school, we only played 9 hole rounds... so, getting to 18 holes, I just broke it up that way anyway.  Too many times, I'd shoot 54 on the front and then 42 on the back or something like that.  It was because I 'reset' my game on the 10th tee... after I had already spent the last few holes wallowing in my self pity.  

I've seen others say to play 18 single hole rounds... and I think that's great advice!  I wish I could wrap my head around that, but I have never been able to.  For me... the 3 hole rounds make sense... they give me a target... and they allow me to reset and refocus after only a few holes.

As for blowup holes... they happen.  I'm notorious for stringing together 5 or 6 really good holes and then posting a +5 on the next hole... compounding it with a triple... and then having something 'click' and I can get back to pars and bogeys.  

Lots of good advice here, as always.  

Good luck going forward!

CY

  • Upvote 1

Career Bests
- 18 Holes - 72 (+1) - Par 71 - Pine Island Country Club - 6/25/2022
- 9 Holes - 36 (E) - Par 36 - Pine Island Country Club - 6/25/2022

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

4 minutes ago, Fairway_CY said:

If I had a par, a double and a bogey... I was 'on par' for my target.  If I had a hiccup and finished a mini-round at +5 or something... that 'round' was over and I was back to trying for +3 in my next segment.  

This kept me focused.

I think the idea that you're +5 for the mini round, you're going for +3 again rather than +1 is key here.

D: Ping G25 Stock S Shaft
3W: Titleist 915F 16.5* Diamana S70 Blue Stiff
3H, 4H: Callaway XR Project X LZ 6.0
5i-PW: Mizuno MP54 Project X 5.5 Shafts
52*, 58*: Mizuno JPX Wedge TT Dynalite Gold AP
Putter: Mizuno MP A306

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

My blow up holes come from the fact that I am a bogey golfer, on average. This means that over the course of a round my shots are good (or poor) enough to take me one more than par get it in the cup. 

One shot is not that much. One chip that leaves too much to save par, a drive that misses in a bunker, a missed 4 footer, etc. I make all of these mistakes all of the time. 

Usually I only make one of these on each hole, again, on average. Bogey. 

Sometimes I don't make any of these mistakes and get a par, or rarely even a birdie. 

My "blow up" holes occur when I have several of these on the same hole, leading to a triple or worse. 

The one compounding factor is penalties. A bad shot can cost you far more than a good shot can save you. An OB will cost you 2 strokes, that means it'll take 2 stiff iron shots to a couple of feet for birdie to make up for this. Unfortunately, for guys at our skill level, the OB is much more likely than the stiff iron shot, on average. 

So, that being said, I don't consider any hole a "blow up" hole, rather it is a cluster of my worst shots during an otherwise uneventful round of 90. 

- Mark

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

 

On ‎2‎/‎6‎/‎2016 at 6:48 PM, stealthhwk said:

Par 3s seem to be kicking my butt and small greens with water bearby. Hit green where I want, ball rolls off and goes into water anyway.

My questions would be what golf ball(s) are you playing and how firm are the greens?

On ‎2‎/‎7‎/‎2016 at 7:16 PM, stealthhwk said:

My bad shots are getting much less...well...bad. They do tend to pile on top of each other tho. seems like Ill have one poor swing and then all of a sudden I hit four more poor shots. Ie: bad tee shot, punch out to fairway, then hit one slightly to the right and miss the green. Then duff one or two chips and three putt.

Sometimes you need to take your medicine when you haven't hit a bad shot... yet. On some chips I forget about where the pin is and my only goal is to get the ball to a point where I have a chance to make a putt. Sometimes that means hitting to the safest spot on a green (for that given chip) and leaving myself a 10 to even 20 foot putt. I think if you put your mind to it you could reduce the number of duffed chips and 3 putts.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites


8 minutes ago, Grumpter said:

 

My questions would be what golf ball(s) are you playing and how firm are the greens?

Sometimes you need to take your medicine when you haven't hit a bad shot... yet. On some chips I forget about where the pin is and my only goal is to get the ball to a point where I have a chance to make a putt. Sometimes that means hitting to the safest spot on a green (for that given chip) and leaving myself a 10 to even 20 foot putt. I think if you put your mind to it you could reduce the number of duffed chips and 3 putts.

Ball is def an issue. Been playing callaway supersoft on very dry firm greens. Greens are also smallish at my home courses. Switched from pd soft to cally ss and liked results. But apparently, I need even more spin. The duffed chips are usually a result of my fear of hitting it too far in the first place. Tried chrome soft this week and couldnt get it airborne. Also tried prov1x thinking it was the urethane keeping me from hitting it high but oddly the v1x was great and helped me score on my three best holes of that miserable last round. Two pars and a bogey. Need easy to launch and as affordable as possible in urethane. If you got ideas on that, Im listening.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

I've been playing the Hex Chrome+ and Chrome Soft, and last summer still had balls just bounce off the rock hard greens. I watched an 8 iron hit the front of the green and bounce off the back into the water hazard. Usually my shots leave a crater but not last summer. I typically hit a high spin 8 iron.

Julia

:callaway:  :cobra:    :seemore:  :bushnell:  :clicgear:  :adidas:  :footjoy:

Spoiler

Driver: Callaway Big Bertha w/ Fubuki Z50 R 44.5"
FW: Cobra BiO CELL 14.5 degree; 
Hybrids: Cobra BiO CELL 22.5 degree Project X R-flex
Irons: Cobra BiO CELL 5 - GW Project X R-Flex
Wedges: Cobra BiO CELL SW, Fly-Z LW, 64* Callaway PM Grind.
Putter: 48" Odyssey Dart

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Note: This thread is 2955 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Want to join this community?

    We'd love to have you!

    Sign Up
  • TST Partners

    TourStriker PlaneMate
    Golfer's Journal
    ShotScope
    The Stack System
    FlightScope Mevo
    Direct: Mevo, Mevo+, and Pro Package.

    Coupon Codes (save 10-15%): "IACAS" for Mevo/Stack, "IACASPLUS" for Mevo+/Pro Package, and "THESANDTRAP" for ShotScope.
  • Posts

    • Day 76 - Pretty sore today, so I opted for putting over my Stack session. Primary focus was on starting line, as my putting has been pretty poor this year. 
    • Been a bit of delay in updates but I needed to come back east as my mom's health has taken a serious turn for the worse. In a 3 day span we learned she had a tumor to she has stage 4 cancer and stopped eating and drinking for the most part. She has had a rough 3 months but certainly didn't think we'd be at the point of setting up hospice for her. My mom was never into any sports really other than following the Red Sox because my dad was a big fan. She always cared about what we were involved in including asking about how golf went.  I have kept up with my 5 minutes of daily practice and will go to the gym here in NH tomorrow morning. Despite the somber nature of this trip my family has commented more than a few times about my weight loss so it's important to me to keep it up. I know my mom always wanted us happy in whatever we did so I'll continue with my fitness journey keeping that in mind. 
    • Day 109- Putting drills on a putting green for 20 minutes. 
    • Day 252: did a stack session. Did some slow rehearsal swings during breaks. 
    • Day 82: 3/18/24 Tried a Stack session but could not certify my warmup. Finished with indoor chips and putting. 
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Welcome to TST! Signing up is free, and you'll see fewer ads and can talk with fellow golf enthusiasts! By using TST, you agree to our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy, and our Guidelines.

The popup will be closed in 10 seconds...