Dealing with a Horrible Round

[Garnet Haze]

I had a terrible round yesterday which is still stuck in my head. My handicap is just below 14, but I shot a 97 yesterday. Now I haven't played in a couple weeks, but I have been practicing some during that time so it wasn't like I hadn't picked up a club in 2 weeks. Also, it was on a fairly difficult course that I've never played before. Just very frustrated with the round. Not even sure what to take from it. I was curious as to how everyone else deals with a bad round?

[srjorion]

Everyone has a bad round every now and then. You hit some big issues with a new course, never played. Chalk it up to a learning experience and then move on.

Oh, and how many times have you done terrible, only to exceed your best the next time you were out? Happened to me plenty of times! Learn and move on. That's what I do. I bet you shoot a around that either matches or tops your best ever within the next week.

[Crafty]

Many times when I practice for a while, I have trouble applying it my first time out on the course. You have to shake off rounds like that, and be confident in the fact that it will come around, because it will.

[Big_M]

a little story...

My wife has an uncle that is a huge golf nut (she has always told me how good he was). Anyway, his wife also golfs so we had been planning on getting out with them for a long time. Turns out his handicap was just a couple strokes below mine, he's an 8. My wife is still fairly new to the game so she didn't want to play with them until she was "good enough". Well last summer we finally got out and I shot a 96, he shot an 89, his wife played poorly, and my wife had one of the best rounds of her summer. Nothing beats shooting a 96 after having talked extensively with him about golf and telling him how my handicap had been comming down. The only saving grace was that my good shots (all six or seven) were great, and my bad shots were just stupid misses that added up. It helped that he didn't play great either. The next round I was back on track with an 83 wondering what the hell had gone wrong. I don't think it was the pressure of wanting to play well, because I have played league, with large groups, with club pros, and JV in hs... so I don't get jitters too bad. It was just one of those days that I couldn't find my swing or short game. It seems like every 20-30 round I have a super blow-up round in the mid 90's. I always rebound well, but it still makes you mad. At least in the above instance I was watching my wife tear it up and have a lot of fun.

I think the only thing to take from these rounds is that we can never beat "golf". We just have to move on, forget it, take a week off and go play better next time.

[DirtCheap]

When I have a horrible round, I tend to go back to the driving range and hammer on a bucket and think about the basics.

After about half a bucket, my confidence is back and I am ready to face the beast again!

[DirtCheap]

Oh, and how many times have you done terrible, only to exceed your best the next time you were out? Happened to me plenty of times! Learn and move on. That's what I do. I bet you shoot a around that either matches or tops your best ever within the next week.

Have you ever had that round you "felt" was just aweful, but at he end you tallied up the score and it was actually pretty good??

I've had two of those!

[golf_junkie27]

I had this happen to me last summer. I went to Arizona to visit my brother and we played four rounds of golf. The ball really flies out there and it took a while to get adjusted. I also had not played ANY of the courses. First day, I shot a 113. Balls in the water, OB, etc. Never got comfortable. I was hitting the ball, well, but could not control distance. Taking a 9I from 155YD and sailing the green? Yup, that happened. Just not good. Next day, we played the same course. I shot a 97.

What did I learn? Take your medicine. On a course that you've never played on, use the yardage marker handbook. Don't rely on others as no two golfers are the same.

[joseywales]

In the immortal words Animal House's John Belushi....."My advice to you...Start drinking heavily".
Seriously, it's the bad rounds that keep you coming back as much as the good ones. If every round was great, you would have nothing to motivate you to keep getting better. Just chalk it up to a bad day. Slow things down next time out and focus on your basic fundamentals.

[Dent]

I had the 2 worst rounds of my life back to back in tournament play.

I didn't play for a couple days but then tried again and still did bad. You just gotta clear your mind, and keep playing till you wear it off.

[ks8829]

I just played my worse round last week at a difficult golf course. I tried to learn from the bad experience by determining what I need to practice to improve my golf game and become more consistant.

I came away knowing that I need to spend more time around the green on the short game.

1) Chipping around the green
2) within 60 yards from the green

During the every round of golf I tried to keep track on the following:

fairways hit
greens hit
number of putts

Golf is a humbling game, but hopefully we can learn from our mistakes or bad rounds.

[Shindig]

I just played my worse round last week at a difficult golf course. I tried to learn from the bad experience by determining what I need to practice to improve my golf game and become more consistant.

I just played my worst round in recent memory at a top course in Orange County yesterday. Worst thing is, unpredictable sand. The course was gorgeous and challenging, and I loved the experience, except I couldn't deal with the greenside bunkers. I have no trouble getting out and on at the courses in L.A., but somehow I kept hitting the ball there.

[popey]

L A U G H !

[BritBoy]

I was curious as to how everyone else deals with a bad round?

Breath in, breath out, move on.... not much else we can do. No matter how bad the round it’s sad to say that none of us has had our worse round yet; we still have that to look forward to

[Eore]

i complain and moan or a bit, then forget about it....like in florida when i ran out of balls.....damn water/swamp......

[DirtCheap]

Golf is a humbling game, but hopefully we can learn from our mistakes or bad rounds.

As my karate instructor used to say...

If it was easy, everyone would be a master and it wouldn't be any fun or worth anything.

[marpr]

dont get too worked-up about it.

just try to hit out at the range and relax a bit (thats why i do after a dissatifying round)

practice makes perfect.

[MasterOfTheBogey]

Whenever you play a course for the first time you cant approach it like you do the one you play every week. You really have to think about your shots and play smart, and once you gain some knowledge of the course then you can attack it with some shots.

New courses are always fun to play for the change of scenery but the first few times I play a new one I always play conservative.

[Raidermatt]

I try to think about what made things go so bad.

Was my swing just out of kilter?

Did I try to do too much?

Did my score suffer because I didn't know the course, and hit shots I shouldn't have?

Was the putter ice cold?

Did I lose myself mentally?

If it's swing thing, relax and hit the range, and as joseywales posted, focus on the basics. Not only should this get the confidence right back up, it might also reveal what was going wrong on the course, and maybe give you some ideas for addressing it on the fly next time.

If it was not knowing the course, I file that away and try to remind myself that I probably should play a little more conservatively when I play unknown courses.

Bad decisions? For me, this usually means not being smart about staying away from the potential trouble, or not getting the info I needed from the yardage book.

And then did I let all of the above get me frustrated and out of focus? If so, again, I need to learn from that and keep my cool when making decisions and making my shots.

So I try to put the bad feelings from the round behind me, but at the same time I do try to use it constructively.