After a bad break, I just lost it.

I was playing in a tournament this weekend. I started off great, par'd the first 3 holes. Was hitting my driver good (recently not so good).

On the 4th hole is par 5. My drive was just in the right rough. I smoked a 3WD right at the green. My playing partner said wow good shot man.

As we drive up, I see there's some thick rough that jagged into the fairway. We searched for 10min trying to find my ball. GONE!

So now I'm flustered. I drive back to the original spot. And the the group behind us is sitting there, I apologize, and hastely wack away at it.

I didn't even finish the hole. I picked up for a courtesy triple. Tournament rules for our flight.

After that it was just really ugly. Couldn't hit my driver, was looking up on short wedge shots, 3 putting every green. It was aweful.

I know we all get bad breaks, and just deal with it. But I just can't seem to focus after that.

Do I need a shrink? LOL

I don't know about a shrink but a Rule book would be helpful.  Once you hit 5 minutes in searching for the ball, it was "Lost".

We have all had situations where a bad break interrupts a nice start.  You were only 3 over after 4 holes so there was lots of time to re-group.  A few years ago in a tournament I was 4 over after 4 holes and finished +2.  You most have had some times where you put aside a disasterous start and made a nice score by the end of the day.  My advice would be to:

1. Vow to keep grinding no matter what happens;

2. Have some "comeback memories" to pull out when things don't go well initially; and

3. Go to the range or play a practice round to get your confidence back in your swing.

Good luck.

Didn't really need the comment about how long I searched for the ball. It was probably closer to 5 min.

I just don't know what it is, it never really bothered me before. Its something started happening last year.

It's tough to regain focus but I'd try to remember your regular swing thoughts and focus on them. Write them down if you need because under stress it's hard to do this. I played a few weeks ago, in a corporate outing and took 8 on the first hole with 2 balls in the water. I was able to remember to swing easy and keep my head still and ended up with my best round of the year.

I just won my golf league and the day's dogfight after a Triple, Bogey, Double start. I birdied 2 holes and shot my version of a good score (88).

It would have been easy to 3 jack every green and lose focus. I just tried to remain calm, swing easy, remember MY swing keys and have a good time.

You need some mental queues to help you in these spots.

You have to maintain focus.  I was playing in a net event recently where you have to be in the top 32 of 84 guys after the first round to qualify for the match play portion.  I was a 9 handicap on the course and figured I needed to get in at net 74 (Par was 71, so gross 83) to qualify based on the other times I've played this tournament.  I start out:

• Three putt bogey (shotgun start, started on #7)
• Three putt bogey
• Par
• 140 to the green, yank it left, Double bogey
• Par
• OB off the tee - Double bogey
• Par
• Par
• Quadruple bogey
• Par
• Bogey
• Bogey

So I'm making the turn back to #1 at 12 over knowing that I'm already sitting on an 83 and basically need to par out the last 6 holes to hit my number and 3 putt to be at 13 over with 5 to play.  I was super ticked and figured I was out of it, but set in my mind to grind it out and finished the last 5 holes as follow:

• Ended up left of the green, chili-dipped my chip, slick down hill chip left.  Could have mailed it in, but switched clubs and chipped it in - par save.
• Par
• Hit it to 10 feet on a par 3, made a slick downhill putt for birdie
• Par
• Came up 10 yards short on a Par 3, chipped it to 12 feet, drained the putt for par to hit my number of 83, net 74.

75 was the cut number with an 8 man playoff for 3 spots.  Bottom line - grind it out!

Thanks for all the comments. At least I'm not the only one!

My biggest problem now. I tend to look up at impact. If I keep my head down focused on the ball at impact, I hit a great shot. Its weird, I've never had this problem before. And if I don't actively think about it before each shot.

I try to take one hole at a time. Some of my best scores were after starting with two doubles. Everyone has bad days, sometimes it's just the way it goes. I recently shot a 9 hole 50 and I felt like I played pretty good. Really just came down to a couple of penalties, a lost ball that hit a cart path and disappeared and 6 on par 3 after hitting in in the water and missing the green with the next shot. The other 8 holes I played good. I figure I picked up 5-6 strokes due to just two bad hits and one was really bad luck. As bad as it feels it doesn't last long, I rarely play bad the next time out. Part of the deal when you are a mediocre golfer. When I look back at my scores I'm surprised how inconsistent they are. I play a lot of 9 hole golf so I get some funky combined scores. I can put up and 38 one day and a 49 the next and have nearly identical stats other than a few penalties that led to inflated scores.

Yes, along with everyone else who plays golf.

Seriously, I hope you get it back soon. It sounds like you know what to work on. I'm still going through the meltdown with my irons - I've completely lost the swing. Saturday was the closest I'd ever come to quitting a round but I just couldn't. I even kept score, lol. Been to the range twice and nothing doing. Ironically, my longer clubs are as good as they've ever been. It's kind of weird how that works.

Good luck.

You just need to learn how to let go.  You were likely so upset about that 1 bad shot that it destroyed your mental game and the rest of your round.  Let go.  Once you hit the shot, analyze it for a moment and then move on to the next one.

think shot by shot, hole by hole. sounds easy but after 4 holes it's just way to early to give up on a round.

I can work with it pretty easy, but i get those blow up holes pretty often.

Tournament or not, it's still just a game.  If one bad hole bothers you enough to ruin the whole round, then you need to find a way to put things in their proper perspective.  You allowed one stroke and distance penalty to blow up way out of proportion.  Your posted handicap shows you as only marginally better than a bogey golfer.  Bad holes are part of your repertoire.

Even when I was playing tournaments with a 10 handicap, bad holes were part of my game.  I once started at 6 over through 3 with a quad bogey on the 3rd and still finished at just 8 over par.  A bad hole or a bad break is part of the game of golf, it's not the end of the world.

I had this happen just last week. The day prior I had played a great game, so I came out the next day confident thinking I would do better. Did great on the first tee and awful on the second. After that I just kind of mentally "checked out".

I seem to have this happen more and more as I get older (66 now).  My handicap has crept up toward a 12 or 13 depending upon the course I play.  If I can keep focused, I can play decent golf.  In my golf league last weekend, I shot 34 on the front 9 with 4 birdies and a double bogey.  Got to 10 and right in the middle of starting my downswing, one of the guys releases the brake on the cart.  I flinch, hook it big time and it went down hill from that point on.  I could just never regain the focus that I lost on 10.  Ended up shooting 43 on the back 9 for 77.  Still, all in all, a great score for me but not what it should have been.  I should be wearing ear plugs or something.

i had a junior tourney back when i was 18.  was playing awesome.  was -1 thru 8.  one of the guys i was playing with said "dang dude, you are playing pretty good.  what college are you going to play for?"

after that was said, i went from -1 to +13 in 10 holes, LOL!

everything that could happen, did.  hit the wrong ball.  water.  OB.  you name it.  was embarrassing.