Is It Possible To Stop a Disaster Hole While it's Happening?

[dave s]

A typical 9-hole card for me looks like this:

3 Pars
4 Bogies
1 double
1 Total Disaster

A "disaster hole" usually begins with a pull hook into trouble off the tee. Deep rough, trees, hazard--possibly all three.

My next thought is always rational: Get out of trouble and back into the ball game. Limit the damage and get back on track.

It's after the successful recovery shot that sets the table for the real disaster to unfold. The next swing is usually rolled, finds the trees on the right, or right back into jail in some other fashion. Trying to do too much or get it all back in one shot.

Lately, I've been thinking that after putting the FIRST mistake behind me, I'd be better off hitting 7-iron; 7-iron; chip, putt (or 2) and get out with a double-bogey rather than a double par or WORSE.

How do you good shooters limit those disaster holes (when you don't put the ball in play from the tee) to say a double-bogey rather than a double par or worse?

thanks for your thoughts and insights.

dave

[FlopShotArtist]

I just simply try not to do too much. If I know a disaster hole is happening and I'm in the trees, just chip it back in the fairway. Don't go for the green!

[joshtpa]

One reason that I have not had any really bad disasters in a while is because I believe that each shot is independent of itself. You have to block that lost shot out and focus on the task at hand which is the shot in front of you. I think one of the reasons you might be struggling with that, is you are getting ahead of yourself. You are already thinking about 2 putting and what the score will look like. You have to forget about all of that and just focus on the next shot.

[ks8829]

When I miss my drive on a par 4, I have to remember that I am now playing for a boogie and not the miracle par. Once, I learn to do this the double and triple boogies are eliminated most of the times.

[Puttwizard]

It is difficult but you must always keep in your mind that you will recover and save the hole no matter how deep you are in to that point.

[dave s]

UPDATE: It happened AGAIN last night! Hole #2 is the 2 hdcp hole on the front nine of our league course. 240 to a fairway bunker and a dogleg left another 140 into a well-bunkered green that falls off to a deep swale left. Large greenside traps right.

Tee ball is hooked badly into the trees on left. It's a forest. Ball is 'lost.' Our league rules say drop anywhere along line of flight (back to tee) one-stroke penalty.

I went back far enough to clear trees and dropped in 3" rough. Pulled out sand wedge with intent of landing ball about 10 yards behind 150 fairway marker. Ball didn't reach intended target and I still have the trees on left blocking any view of green, still only 200 from tee box and laying 3.

Next shot was a really nice 8-iron to the right of the green with just enough left turn on it to catch fairway ... maybe. Because of the crowning countour toward the slightly elevated green, my ball rolled right, off fairway and back into the 2" rough near the cart path.

Between my ball and the stick are the two enormous bunkers--one directly in my line, the other guards the deep half of the green where the pin was placed last night. The 'safe' shot was to the front half of the green, taking most of the bunker out of play.

Hit lob wedge successfully onto front half of green. One reason this hole is the #2 handicap hole is the contrours of the green. Everything falls off to the left side and down towoard the deep swale left. With the pin place deep in the green and slightly left, missing left meant ball rolls off green and possibly down into the swale where an 'up-and-down' is pretty impossible for me.

Lag putt (40' or so) stays safely right of hole, gets a little left turn, but still have 8-10' downhill to hole to save a triple at this point. Missed it--and even my very delicate putt rolled past by about 4'. Was lucky to make that one coming back.

Let's recount:

1 into the trees; 2 out, three muffed, 4 close and right of green, 5 on with a nice lob wedge and 3 putts for an EIGHT!!!

The rest of my round included: 4 pars, 3 bogies, a three-putt double, (on a 198 yard par-3) and the EIGHT!!! 9-over 45.

If I could STOP, or limit the damage on my 'disaster hole' each nine, (2 on every 18 hole round!) my game would certainly be acceptable to me.

Man, this is getting OLD!!!

dave

[MunkeyGolfer]

Like ks8829 does, I adjust my mindset and play for what my ability is. I know if I miss even one hit that I no longer will be playing for par. But really, I still don't stop the disaster, I just control the bleeding.

[dave s]

One reason that I have not had any really bad disasters in a while is because I believe that each shot is independent of itself. You have to block that lost shot out and focus on the task at hand which is the shot in front of you. I think one of the reasons you might be struggling with that, is you are getting ahead of yourself. You are already thinking about 2 putting and what the score will look like. You have to forget about all of that and just focus on the next shot.

Great points. You pretty much hit the nail on the head. When things go bad, all I think about is how to 'limit the damage' all the way to the hole while losing focus on the task at hand which is hitting THIS shot.

I'm getting better at putting behind me what has already happened and not being overly frustrated by it. I know the next course of action is to get back into the ball game. For some reason, it's not happening for me. Total crash and burn on one hole out of every nine anymore. It didn't used to be that way, either! dave

[Bourbon and Coke]

I get out of trouble and go to my most confident club. 7 iron from 230? No problem. I focus on straight shots for the rest of the hole and ignore distance.

You'll save strokes on the current hole and set yourself mentally to avoid similar mistakes on the next.

When the hole is that unapproachable for you, play ego-free. Your score will end up lower and you'll take more away from success playing within your game than you will from failure trying to make miracles happen.

[DJYoshi]

I'm still learning how to set each shot independent of each other. I'm usually heated after a bad drive that's difficult to recover from. My best rounds when I mishit a drive, I say to myself, oh well, I'll be on in 3 instead of 2. That mentality really helps. I had a blow up round the other day too.
I was -1 thru 6. I doubled a par 5 after a terrible tee shot that went 100 yards straight and duck hooked a good 60 b/c I tried to kill the ball.
2nd shot was a 2 hybrid out of the thick rough to 220 out. I said ok cool I'll take the hybrid out again and get on. no trouble to the right, and lots on the left. i said i'll play a baby draw to get onto the green. it went more left than i had played for. i was FUMING. in the bunker shooting 4. out of the bunker to the back of the green sloping down. misread putt 5. 2 putt from there for a 7. i let the rest of the round go and shot an 88.

i've found the following help when i don't let myself get down
1. say oh well i'll get out of there
2. don't try to do too much
3. even if your 3rd shot leaves you with 210 left to the green, if you're not confident that you can swing your club to stick the green, f*** it, play that trusty 5 iron so you're left with a 20 - 30 yard chip/pitch onto the green
and be confident you can at least get out with a bogey.
4. i still can't do it..but forget the rest of your holes and shots till the shot you're on.
5. it's just a game. yeah i get heated when i don't score well...but oh well..it's just a game...it gets the best of you sometimes.

[whip_it_out]

I like to weigh the situation.
How much of a risk would it be to go for the green after the bad shot? How many opportunities are there for trouble? How successful have i been in the past at the shot i would have to hit?

If i choose to play safe(more often then not) i pick the shot that leaves me at my most comfortable yardage, with the best approach to the green. i.e if the green runs hard left, i want to be as far left as i can safely be, so the next shot is landing more on an up slope than a slop going dead left. Or, if im not feeling so confident with any of the shots, i put it at the easiest part of the green to get to, then rely on my putting.

[CPHoya]

1. You've gotta get the thought that you're having another inevitable disaster hole out of your head. That's first priority.

2. Course management can save you a lot of these strokes. For instance, I'm betting you hit driver off that tee and snapped it left, since you knew your landing area before the dogleg was small and the fairway bunkers were in play. Look for a good landing area somewhere that leaves you an easy shot. Maybe with a 3-wood or an iron you can aim at the right side of that fairway, leaving yourself a slightly long but a straight, unhindered shot at the green. No disasters off the tee with a hybrid, right?

3. Being a confident putter makes all the difference in the world; no disasters when you know you can make the putt.

Answer to your question: You can, indeed, stop a disaster hole. Last weekend I played a hole where I shank-pulled my 3-wood about 165 yards, into a "fairway bunker" that isn't in play for anyone . Ever. The hole is a 320ish par 4 and not parring this hole drives me nuts. So that was just an abysmal shot. So I get to the bunker and I'm directly behind the lip so the only shot I have is a lateral wedge shot to put myself about 120 out laying 2 (where I should be laying 1).

I blade that shot about 45 yards longer than I had intended, sending it sailing into a tree on the other side of the fairway and probably 90 yards from the green, and on the 17th hole tee box. Things are not going well. From here, my angle is impossible because of that same tree, but I think "just put this stupid thing on the green somewhere ," and I proceed to hit a mediocre approach that's supposed to hit once and check, but does not. I have now hit two awful shots in a row and one half-ass wedge, and this is turning into a disaster.

I drain the putt from 25 feet for par, and the scorecard will never tell you how incompetent I was until that happened.

Sometimes you can't get the strokes back , like when your first drive goes OB, but you can play the hole for "par" from there and get away with a double bogey, or maybe "birdie" it for bogey. That's the way I like to think about it.

[mellojoe]

Remember: Once you get into trouble, you have to reset your view of "PAR" for that hole.

Let's say you are on a Par 4. Your drive shot goes into the deep rough. Now, Par for you is 5. The rest of the hole has to be played with this mentality. Lose a stroke to get back to the fairway. Don't think "Ok, I'm hitting 3, and I have to get to the green in 1 and 1 putt to save par." Not going to happen. You need to say, "I'm hitting 3, so I can get it onto the green and still 2 putt for par. Or I can put it close to the green, chip close to the pin, and still 1 putt for par."

Add to Par for each bit of trouble you get into. That way you can manage the disaster. If you Birdie that hole (relative to the new Par), then you are in great shape. If you Bogey, then its still not that bad. Put that mind set and it will keep you from trying to subconsiously do too much on your next shot.


OH! Also:
I saw this at the LPGA from the near-winner (she was leading until the last day when another lady had a phenomenal finish). Sometimes sideways is the fastest way foward. She had a bad drive right behind a tree. Instead of trying to do too much, she just popped it directly sideways (maybe 10 feet forward) back to a good position in the fairway. She ended up PAR for the hole (4) which kept her going right to the finish. Sometimes, sideways is the fastest way to the pin.