Random blow up holes

Hi everyone,

Over the past few years I have improved my game tremendously. I have the technique to hit all the shots I require but I am having real trouble with the odd terrible hole in my rounds. I seem to rack up round destroying scores on at least one hole, although often two holes per round and I have no idea what I can do to prevent this. It normally begins with an ob shot or a lost ball which normally leads to at least an 8. The annoying thing is that I will get maybe 4-5 pars in a round, a couple of bogeys and maybe a double bogey, but end up with a terrible score due to an 8 on my scorecard. I am not sure what to practice to prevent these as a bad shot seems to come out of nowhere.

What advice would you give to try and get over this? Has anyone been successful in taking the majority of these out of their game? Obviously the odd bad hole is to be expected, but not twice a round! Without these holes my handicap would be around 12!  Cheers

I will invoke Jack Nicklaus -

When you hit a bad shot, you have to follow it up with a smart shot.

So the next time you knock it in the woods or whatever, make your next shot one that gets the ball back into play, punch it out. No heroics. Play for bogey.

If it's an OB, don't reload with driver. Try 3-wood. Use your head, not your ego.

The best way to avoid high score holes is to keep your focus on the game, or in the immediate mode, on the swing you're about to make.  I know that when I get tired my concentration tends to waver a bit.  I can avoid the bad drives that lead to high scores when I can maintain focus.  Good luck.

When there is out of bounds on the left but another fairway on the right then aim to the right and yelp out a nice hearty "FORE"? I'd rather hit 2 from 2 fairways over rather than tee up 3 on the tee box.

Ah good, some other golfers that share the same school of thought! Definitely agree!

Yeah... so did some other golfers a few weeks ago... Came pretty close to us, but they did yell Fore...! hehehe

Someone recently gave me some advice on this subject I'm dying to try:  "Play like it's the last golf ball in your bag."

Not sure if I have the discipline to play like that, but if I do, I can certainly see how it would have a positive impact on my scoring.

Some great advice here already although I know some of the great instructors would disagree with the advice of playing like it's the last golf ball in your bag. That's focusing on the negative and putting too much emphasis on NOT screwing up. I see what the premise is but it's like focusing on the water on a hole.

An article I just read in Golf Digest had a great line in it and seemed to help me staying positive on the course. It was from a caddie that worked for Tom Watson and Greg Norman and the interviewer asked what that was like caddying for two great yet different golfers. He said something along the lines of when Greg would split the fairway and find his ball resting in a divot, he'd say something like 'can you believe my luck?!!' whereas Tom Watson would see the lie and say 'watch this'. We all can't be so enthusiastic about poor lies or bad breaks but you can approach trouble shots with a better attitude.

As zipazoid said about Nicklaus..........follow up a bad shot with a smart decision. Golf is about percentages and you've got to know your limitations (great Dirty Harry line there). Accept your mistakes and stop the bleeding.

I, too suffer from having a bad hole or three during a round. My mistakes are usually off the tee or shortsiding myself on the green on my approaches. Then instead of playing smart and putting my next shot on the putting surface, I try to get too cute with the shot and wind up in a bunker.

I agree, follow up bad with something that puts you back in play and aim for a bogey...two bad shots limit it to a double.

Sometimes though you just have to channel your inner Bubba and believe in yourself, but be truthful about the results and know where you can miss.

I get the point but I think you're taking it to the extreme.  The advice is simply to say, don't hit shots you don't have a high chance of executing.  Sure, I can pure a 3-wood 240 on occasion  and might get myself an eagle putt on a par-5, but I'd guess the chances are less than 30%.  So, why not play 3-wood, 3-wood, 9-iron, instead of driver into trees, punch out (or worse), 3 wood miss to short side of green, duffed chip due to short-side difficulty, chip.

If you hit a really bad tee shot on a par 4, why not hit a club to lay up in front of the green for an easy pitch on, rather than pulling out the 3-wood and trying to make it all up in one sot.  Personally, I think our ego gets in the way.  We think, "man...it's a par 4...I can't let my buddy see me layup on a second shot."  Instead, if you concentrate on not doing dumb things with your "last ball," you'll maximize your chances of making bogey at worst.

Average golfers don't get many birdies in a round, if any.  A pro can make up for a double or a triple by firing 2 or 3 birdies.  An average golfer can't.  So, the average golfer is FAR better served by staying out of trouble and keeping those big numbers from getting on his scorecard, even if it means playing some "unmanly" shots.  In short, don't play in fear, but play smart.

Ask yourself why the out of bounds shot happened. Was it just another example of poor driving that follows you round the course or was it an isolated poor shot amongst many good drives. I think you get better by isolating reasons why a bad shot happens. For example if I hit 1 bad drive out of 10 and on that particular drives I've stepped up to the ball with the intention of driving it 400 yards...well then it's pretty obvious what caused the poor shot.

Okay; I get what you're saying now. Thanks for clarifying and that does seem like sound advice.

My worst is a 9 on a par 3.

Tee off in water. Drop hit behind a tree, layup to get to hole, chip and i dig the ground and ball goes 2 feet, chip again and the ball skids across the green, I 3-putt.

This is my biggest issue right now.  I'm shooting scores in the 91-95 range but that includes about two 7's or 8's on the card.  My problem is that once I start feeling like it's becoming a disaster hole, I tense up and even though I try to be smart and put it back in play, it winds up a worse shot that the first.

I think that's just the way it is. I have a similar issue with a lower handicap in the sense that last time out I was 7 over with 2 double bogeys. The day I shoot a really good round is that day I eradicate those doubles and from time to time it happens.

I would agree whole heartly.  I can honestly say, my handicap dropped and has stayed down because I have been able to avoid the blow up hole.  I would suggest going over the holes that you would deem a blow up hole and determine the root cause of the blow up.  Did you slice a ball OB, next time be sure to line up on the right side of the tee box and aim well left, so a slice won't end up OB.  What ever the cause, work on that part of your game to improve.

I do think the 100-yard-in game is crucial not only to avoid blow up holes, but lowering your handicap in general.

I see guys posting videos on golf forums all the time that have HORRIBLE swings.  They claim to be a 9 handicap.  Now, of course they could be lying, but I'm guessing in a lot of cases, they're not.

You see guys with horrible swings like that, and you think "how can they possibly be better than me?  My swing is so smooth.  I look like Ben Hogan compared to that guy."  Well, they're better than me because they've figured out the long game doesn't matter as much until you start getting into really low handicaps.  So you're on the first tee of a par-4 and the guy takes his ugly swing and slices it into the rough.  You're all smiles thinking, "Oh...I've got this guy."  You take your beautiful swing and smack a drive 260, right down the heart.

The guy takes his ugly swing and hacks his ball out but yanks it left into the rough again, leaving about 140 in.  But you're sitting pretty at 95 yards in the dead center of the fairway.  He then hits a good 8-iron, leaving 25 feet.

You pull out your gap wedge and proceed to thin the shot, on the short side.  You try to make a perfect pitch up, but since you have no green to work with and are trying for perfection on a really difficult shot, you leave it short.  In frustration, you chip on, but run it 15 feet past.

Bad-swing-guy calmly puts a great roll on his putt, and flirts with a par, but ends up tapping in for a bogey.  Your first putt is a bad effort, breaking off way more to the right than you thought, and also short.  You've got a 4 footer left.  You roll it up there, but you miss low side with it never really having a chance to go in.  Finally you nervously tap in your 1-footer for your triple.

The scenario I describe is exactly why I'm still a high-handicapper, and it's something I've got to improve if I ever want to move beyond "hacker with a good swing."