What Do You Do When You Have a Bad Round?

[The Flush]

The only time I would quit is if I run out of balls or am injured.

I was down to my last ball with 3 holes the last time I played, but managed to finish. I had more than enough balls, but gave some to my son who lost a few that day and he failed to adequately stock his bag.

[Jeremie Boop]

The only times I've ever quit a round before it was finished was for weather or the one time I ran out of golf balls. When I ran out of golf balls, it was after more than 18 holes on an all you can golf deal. That said, I don't think I've ever had a good enough string of holes, let alone rounds to justify getting so upset about doing bad to quit.

[DennisMiller]

I thought I had responded to this thread... Hmmm...

Where i used to play, I tried to do what pros do, go to the range after a bad round and work out something, hoping to go home feeling I had fixed whatever it was that I did badly on the course. Back then, I was often playing with a couple pros, so they would usually take a few minutes to help me. I was playing 3-4 times a week during the summer, so there might have been some benefit to doing that.

There's no range where I play most now, so all I can do is drive home and do some minor analysis, with hopes to prepare better for the next round. Being diabetic, I wish I could drink to excess...

[Yukari]

One of the best rounds I had (shot 76) when I started with a triple and a double!  Never know when your game can turn around.

[TN94z]

14 hours ago, Vinsk said:

Sadly, no.

Maybe that doesn't go for everyone. I love my job 100%, but I'd still have much more fun at the golf course instead.

[Sandy Divot]

A guy once told me that if I don't want to play bad, don't play. I don't do this for a living, and bad rounds happen. I seems like, if I hang in there, I can usually get something out of a bad round.

[Vinsk]

16 minutes ago, Sandy Divot said:

A guy once told me that if I don't want to play bad, don't play.

I haven’t met anyone who wants to play bad. Had I chose to stop on one particularly bad round I had in the past, I would’ve spared a car window and a cyclist. The cyclist wasn’t injured as it hit is back wheel, but the humiliation was quite painful. ‘Bad round’ is subjective. 

[CarlSpackler]

OK. This is what I really do in a bad round.

[Groucho Valentine]

Ive never walked off the course when im playing a bad round. Ive never been that meta about results. The only thing that has caused me to walk off a golf course is slow play.

What has changed is what i do afterwords. When i was playing by best golf, i used to go immediately to the practice tee for an hour or so if i thought the cause of the bad round was poor ball striking, putting, etc. Now i just put my shit in my trunk, head home and hope i do better next time. 

And now I'm a scratch player instead of a +3 👍

[Jeremie Boop]

13 minutes ago, Groucho Valentine said:

What has changed is what i do afterwords. When i was playing by best golf, i used to go immediately to the practice tee for an hour or so if i thought the cause of the bad round was poor ball striking, putting, etc. Now i just put my shit in my trunk, head home and hope i do better next time. 

And now I'm a scratch player instead of a +3 👍

1 hour ago, DennisMiller said:

 

Where i used to play, I tried to do what pros do, go to the range after a bad round and work out something, hoping to go home feeling I had fixed whatever it was that I did badly on the course.

This is interesting to me. So many people focus on the range prior to a round but I have never heard anyone talk about going after the round to fix issues....

[TN94z]

3 minutes ago, Jeremie Boop said:

This is interesting to me. So many people focus on the range prior to a round but I have never heard anyone talk about going after the round to fix issues....

I know several that do just because they know some tour players do it. The main thing I do on the range prior to is just get loose and see what kind of ball flight i have to deal with that day. I never stay after....maybe I should??

Edited August 7, 2019 by TN94z

[rehmwa]

12 hours ago, David in FL said:

Quit?

Good grief, it’s just a round of golf...!

now I don't have to post the same thing.....keep playing, enjoy the day, have a cocktail.

[Groucho Valentine]

6 minutes ago, Jeremie Boop said:

This is interesting to me. So many people focus on the range prior to a round but I have never heard anyone talk about going after the round to fix issues....

If you understand your swing and your game, post round is the best time to go. Everything is still fresh in your mind and muscle memory. You can feel your way through changes you make a little better i always thought if you went strait to the practice tee after the round. 

[Slice of Life]

I have never once stopped a round due to bad play. If I did, I'd rarely ever make the turn 😂

[gbogey]

I've only left a round early once because of bad play and that was driven more by crazy pace of play issues.  My normal course of response is to set a goal for the rest of the round and try to improve how I'm doing one hole at a time.  For example, I usually set a target score before I start a round.  At my home course it's +7/+8 to par.  If I'm +5 after 7 as I was a few weeks ago, I'll look at the holes coming up and focus on trying to get to +6 after 12 (which is realistic at this course).  I would say that there are two normal outcomes: I pull it off and up something like +6 or I get a hot streak and think I'm going to pull it off only to come undone near the end.  But it really helps to focus on one hole at a time.  And a birdie or a par on a hard hole really changes the math quickly.

Funny thing, but when I analyze my bad rounds post round, which I always do, I'm usually only 2-3 shots from having a good round.  Hard to remember that when one is play though.

[p1n9183]

I wait all week to play golf on the weekend. It doesn´t matter my score I will play and enjoy every single hole of the round.  

[Sandy Divot]

I did quit after nine earlier this year because of the guys I was playing with. Two guys were very slow, and they never shut up, even when it was someone's turn to hit. I kept stepping away, and it was no fun waiting for these guys to stay still, and be quiet. I could feel my frustration growing, and I really didn't want to blow up, and say something I might regret, so I made an excuse, and left. 

[NJpatbee]

I have never quit a round due to bad play.  However, about 15 years ago I had a 2 month stretch that was horrible and even lessons did not help.  I was not enjoying myself so I picked up the fly rod and did not play golf for almost a year.  When I got the golf bug again, my swing (such as it is for a 16 hcp) came back very quickly and l have been at it ever since.  And I did get in some great fly fishing for trout.