Play With 10 Mulligans

[boil3rmak3r]

I saw a YouTuber (Rick Shiels) post a video where he played a round using 10 mulligans.  I think his goal was to break 65.

In my area, we got about an inch of rain overnight, but the rain ended at 9:00 this morning.  No one I play with came out to the course because they were not letting carts out.  So, I decided to play solo and try the 10 mulligan thing (I can’t post a score playing solo, so who cares).  I was the first person on the course, so I had a wide open course.

Results?  I used 4 of my mulligans on makeable putts that I missed initially.  That gained me 3 strokes (I still missed one).  I used 1 mulligan on a par 3 tee shot, which probably saved me a shot as my initial shot was pulled and I would have been short-sided pitching over a bunker.  I parred the hole with my mulligan.  3 mulligans on drives (two of those were used on the same hole).  The last 2 mulligans were on approach shots.  I shot an even par 72.  Looking at the round, I’m guessing it would have been at least a 79 with no mulligans.  
 

Having an open course, it was kind of fun to do.  It also showed me that if I could just eliminate some bad shots, I could score well.  Kind of fun! 
 

Obviously, you couldn’t do this on a packed course, but I recommend trying it.

[billchao]

I’d probably use up half of them on the same tee 😉

But seriously I don’t think I’d shoot anything spectacular. Probably wouldn’t even be a PR.

[ChetlovesMer]

I would think that the place to use them would be on putts and anytime you go OB. 

The last time I played I only hit one ball OB. So a mulligan there would have saved 2 strokes. But otherwise, I'm not sure how much it would help my score. If I miss a "makable" putt. It would give me another chance at it. But I'm not sure I'd be %100 sure I'd make the second chance. 

 

[boil3rmak3r]

4 hours ago, billchao said:

I’d probably use up half of them on the same tee 😉

But seriously I don’t think I’d shoot anything spectacular. Probably wouldn’t even be a PR.

You might be surprised.  Even par is one off of my personal best.  

3 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I would think that the place to use them would be on putts and anytime you go OB. 

The last time I played I only hit one ball OB. So a mulligan there would have saved 2 strokes. But otherwise, I'm not sure how much it would help my score. If I miss a "makable" putt. It would give me another chance at it. But I'm not sure I'd be %100 sure I'd make the second chance. 

 

I’m sure I could do this 10 rounds and have scores all over the place (anywhere from a 70 to an 80).  It is kind of about being lucky.  For example, on one par 5, I hit a good drive, had about 280 to the green, and proceeded to block a 3 wood lay-up into the trees right.  I would have had to punch out sideways from there.  I used a mulligan, hit the fairway, had 60 yds left to the flag, and birdied the hole.  I figure that was at least a 1 or 2 shot gain.

I know a lot of guys wouldn’t enjoy trying this because it’s “not real golf”, but to me it just felt good to see what could have been.

[bkuehn1952]

I mentally will walk through a round and count shots I might have made given another chance. 10 do overs seems like a lot. If I tried this “game” I might limit it to 4-5 mulligans.

[billchao]

1 hour ago, boil3rmak3r said:

You might be surprised.  Even par is one off of my personal best.  

It’s not out of the realm of possibility but the odds are it wouldn’t be for me. I hit some putts today that I missed after I holed out and made them, so that’s three strokes right there. Lost a couple of balls, hit into two penalty areas, oh and I carded an 11 on the 5th hole. I don’t think ten mulligans would have been enough today.

It’s not like every mulligan averages out to a stroke saved. I won’t make every putt I attempt again and I’m fully capable of losing the ball twice in a row (which is why I tend to just play E-5 instead of hitting provisionals even though that puts me farther away from the hole than I would be on a good shot). But let’s say it does and I shoot 10 strokes lower today than I did, I’d still shoot 82 which is good for me but still four strokes shy of my personal best. 

Its just a bit of a thought exercise anyway since I’m unlikely to be in a situation to attempt it in the first place.

[ChetlovesMer]

19 hours ago, billchao said:

It’s not like every mulligan averages out to a stroke saved. I won’t make every putt I attempt again

I think this about sums it up. 

[boil3rmak3r]

On 7/8/2023 at 8:57 PM, billchao said:

Its just a bit of a thought exercise anyway since I’m unlikely to be in a situation to attempt it in the first place.

Exactly.  It is really hard to have the opportunity to do this, but since we can’t post a score while playing solo, I thought it was a good exercise.  Kind of like when folks recommend playing from the most forward tees if you can, just to get the feel of scoring lower.  

[p1n9183]

The strategy is to use them were you are loosing the most SG shots.
OB (2 strokes) , water hazard (1 or 2 shots), unplayable (normally 1 shot). This are the most easy ones. 
Beside them, you can re-tee shots that make you to chip out (0.8 strokes), or hitting and approach shot shortsided that could be a lost between 0.5 to 1. Not hitting the green in a chip/pitch shot is always going to cost you from 0.5 to 1 stroke.
On the green 8 feet is 50% on tour, us mortals can have that % at about 6 feet. You could also re-putt from inside 6 feet. Of course definitevely re-put inside 3 or 4 feet where the % goes up to 80%/90%. 

Fun experiment, it shows you how much you can improve if you avoid the big misses. 
  

[CarlSpackler]

What’s a mulligan? 😝

[Shindig]

2 hours ago, CarlSpackler said:

What’s a mulligan? 😝

You're probably more familiar with the version of the phrase they use in Scotland, "hitting three."