The Most Demoralizing Shot in Golf

[mcanadiens]

4 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Topping a driver.

There is a bit of embarrassment there, but unless you got a forced carry, the results are usually better than a lot of more common misses you might have.

Put it this way, I'm still hitting two when I top one.

 

 

[Double Mocha Man]

31 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Topping a driver sucks. However, it is soon forgotten. Sliding right under the ball and skying it straight up with the driver is far worse. It leaves an idiot mark on your driver crown as a constant reminder to your own futility. Which you are forced to look at every time you address the ball with your driver from that moment forward. 

I will send you a can of matching spray paint.  Black or grey?  Matte or glossy?

[ChetlovesMer]

9 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

I will send you a can of matching spray paint.  Black or grey?  Matte or glossy?

Matte Blue - Truthfully one thing I love about Cobra drivers is the infinity face blends over the crown a bit and protects the crown from idiots like me. 

[Esox]

9 hole Tuesday league. Lots of chit talk going on at the first tee. First tee is off a hill, crosses a river to a fairway about 30' below tee. Water in front, water up the left, water up the right. My usual first tee miss is anywhere from over drawn to a nasty snap hook. So I decide I'll hit a fade, which at the worst would go straight. Unless you jam it off the toe, off a stone wall, and nail someone at the back of the tee box square in the stones.

They weren't buying my argument that it didn't count because it never left the teeing ground, and therefore was never in play either. LOL

[TL308]

On 12/31/2019 at 7:44 AM, boogielicious said:

Hitting a wedge heavy really irks me. You are in a zone to get it close with a 3/4 SW and hit it fat. 😫

I'll have to go with this.  Nothing worse than being about 60y out and having a nice little SW and you end up chunking it.  Total face palm.

[StuM]

On 8/26/2021 at 5:24 AM, boogielicious said:

Topping a driver.

I did this yesterday, advanced the ball a whopping 12 feet.  Did not even make it to the yellow tees where the older people on our league play from.  Of course, I was told "You're still away".

[Never3putt]

For me, it's a toss between the dribbled driver and the chunked chip/pitch that falls short of the green.  I do more of the latter, but both are equally frustrating.

[Esox]

Lately my most demoralizing shot has been the well struck lob wedge that I misjudged and left short. Did it four times on 9 holes the other day, twice on par 5's when I was right next to the green in two. Dumped one in a bunker and saved a bird, dumped the other in the frog hair and proceeded to 3 putt for a bogie after I finally got on........... Did it a few times last Sunday as well.

[mattm16]

For me it’s either dubbing a chip shot 3 feet into a bunker, hitting a shot out of a bunker, it hits a rake and comes back in; putting off the green into the water; or hitting an object and the ball comes back and it hits you.

And, yes, I’ve did all of them

Edited September 4, 2021 by mattm16

[gerald463]

The biggest for me would have to be the skulled approach shot into the weeds after a nice drive into the fairway. Nothing has made me want to break a club more than that. 

[Big Lex]

I can think of many...and how demoralizing they are depends on the situation, how you're playing that day, etc. Push sliced drive w OB right...pulled or shanked short iron after a great drive...stubbed chip...stubbed short putt...bladed bunker shot...safe lay up club chosen to play smart which you hit horribly OB or into woods or penalty area...topped drive when there is gunge right off the tee...smother hooks, oh do I HATE smother hooks....any shot where the feeling of contact is just horrible and you know without looking up that the result will suck...ball flying toward the willow tree (ball vacuum)...hitting a solid shot to a green that caroms off the fan drying the green into the woods...why do I know so many of these?   Hmmmmm

[Double Mocha Man]

49 minutes ago, Big Lex said:

I can think of many...and how demoralizing they are depends on the situation, how you're playing that day, etc. Push sliced drive w OB right...pulled or shanked short iron after a great drive...stubbed chip...stubbed short putt...bladed bunker shot...safe lay up club chosen to play smart which you hit horribly OB or into woods or penalty area...topped drive when there is gunge right off the tee...smother hooks, oh do I HATE smother hooks....any shot where the feeling of contact is just horrible and you know without looking up that the result will suck...ball flying toward the willow tree (ball vacuum)...hitting a solid shot to a green that caroms off the fan drying the green into the woods...why do I know so many of these?   Hmmmmm

I can't believe all those things could happen to the same man... 😉

[DrvFrShow]

Hitting a good tee shot and due to the cold, it doesn't quite make it to where you need and lands in a tough lie - steep side hill. You're standing with the ball at your waist. You execute the sidehill lie like a baus. Your ball ends up in the middle of the fairway. You need a 40 yd pitch onto the green. You pull your 54 and nip just slightly behind the ball but the ground is so soft that instead of the bounce gliding under the ball, the club digs in and takes a foot long divot and the ball goes about 10 yds. Next shot leaves a 60 foot bogey putt. You make DB. 

Next hole you hit a toey dipper of a tee shot, hit a tree with your 2nd shot. Duff your next two shots. Still 240 yds out. 

I play a high fade around a tree. It looks nice... but there a single branch sticking out at the apex of the shot that the ball catches the end of and drops straight down. 

[cdh79]

currently this one, as it seems to happen too often at the moment: I blade my chip from just off the green so it shoots over the green and lands in the bunker and much further away than where it initially was (happened last time just yesterday). 

I need to practice those lies where there's a bit of turf behind the ball so you don't have good access to the ball (and bare lies on mud and similar)

[TourSpoon]

Just to add a new shot I have honed during practice, the thinned out greenside bunker shank. I hit 3 at the practice bunker the other day which is adjacent to the first tee box. Nothing like seeing a yellow range ball shoot down the fairway 20 yards in front of the first tee when the groups are all lined up ready to go. 

[Troy Ocker]

A varying number of shanks have sneaked it's way into my rounds lately. With them I feel a lot more insecurity when I stand over the ball. 

It can be on any type of shot, from tee, from rough, from fairway, full swing, half swing, a short pitch etc. In my round on Saturday I had a stretch of tripple, tripple, double on three par 4 holes in row where I found myself in the middle of the fairway between 50-90 yards out after a great drive..... Ended up shooting 93 after going 20 over on the last 11 holes. Parking lots, houses next to the course etc. nothing was safe. It was like the connection I usually feel between eyes, hands and clubface was none existing for 2,5 hours....and it repeated itself yesterday, when I counted 12 pure shanks and shot 89..... there were some positives too, but with 3 tripples and 2 doubles on the scorecard I hardly feel comfortable standing over the ball now.

Hopefully the curse will be lifted soon and I'll give it another go today.  

Edited June 20, 2022 by Troy Ocker

[woodzie264]

I am torn between a flubbed/chunked pitch/chip and a shot that equates to Scotty Scheffler’s shot yesterday where you think you hit a pretty good pitch/chip only to have it land on a false front or slope on the green which rolls the ball back to your feet. 

In the first instance, it’s frustrating to mishit a ball that cost you a stroke when you rarely chunk a ball practicing.  In the second instance, it sucks to lose a stroke when you feel you’ve hit a good shot. I mean GOLF IS HARD ™️ as it is, but to lose a stroke when you hit it well is crushing. At least if you chunk one, you’ve earned that extra stroke. 

[WillieT]

Had somewhat similar experience at #8 at Harbour Pointe last week - short par 4, hard dogleg left, 3w off the tee gets me about 90yds out.  Gap wedge with the pin at the front.  Instead of getting the ball clean, I plow the field and it goes about 10yds.  Immediate thought “That’s what you get for trying to hard and chunking it! Shake it off!”  Opt for the Lob wedge and promptly put it about 8’ from the flag.  What should have been birdie look, sure par became par look, bogie score.  Demoralized yes, as I really wanted to have a shot at birdie.  Good thing is that I was able to come right back with an up and down par on the 9th, a par 3.  

Edited June 20, 2022 by WillieT