Tracking Mental Mistakes - Scorecard

The last few rounds I have started tracking my mental mistakes (after the fact of course).  You know the kind, "What was I thinking trying that shot!".  I know we track penalties and a whole bunch of other stats, but I was wondering if any of you track these kind of mistakes as well.  Examples are terrible lies that you try to hit a long iron with instead of just pitching out to a safe place.  Or trying to hit between a small gap instead of punching back on the fairway.

I would be a nice feature on ScoreCard if we could track that.  I really want to cut down on these because it will definitely reduce strokes.

MEfree, good point.  But at an 11 HC, the dumb shots are greater than the really good hard shots.

I do mark up my scorecard with Fairways, GIR, Putts and distance of first putt.  I also add up and downs and sand.  Maybe I will just add a big "D" for mistake.

Excellent.  I will start doing that!

Ben,

I am not talking about bad shots, but shots that had low success probability that resulted in putting myself in a worse position.  I get over bad shots very quickly especially when I know why the ball didn't fly they way it was supposed to.

I like the advice above about asking myself the question before the shot.  But sometimes in the heat of the moment you try things.  I tend to go over the round in my head afterward to figure out what I did well, what I need to improve upon and "what was I thinking!".  I want to eliminate the last one.  I thought by tracking it, I may see a pattern and eliminate it.

I have considered adding that, but instead what I typically do is put it in the notes for that hole. If I have a particularly bad round with lots of stupid mistakes I'll note that in the notes for the entire round.

But as with any stats, we tend to exclude them from Scorecard because each added stat adds "time" or "weight" to the app that may turn people off. Yes, you can say "but people won't enter them if they don't want to" and while true, it's also true that some people (a lot, perhaps not the majority, but a lot) feel compelled to fill in every stat, and then they find it to be a chore, and they stop using it.

I'd rather people use the software because entering five stats but getting 35+ stats out of it is a good "return on investment." Adding a sixth stat for "mental mistakes" wouldn't net us 45 stats, it'd net us something more like two additional stats: average score per mental mistake, and maybe compared against holes where you make no mental mistake, and then the virtually useless ones like "average mental mistakes per 18" or something.

I add a * to my scorecard when I make a mental mistake and just look at them at the end. If I have more than two I note it. Otherwise I just move on.

Thanks Erik.  I rarely use the notes feature unless there is something odd or weird, but this would be a good use as well.  I do go through the round in my head after and make note of mistakes and good shots.