Horrible Finish to a Round...How To Keep Your Cool?

[Big Padrigo]

I had a similar experience yesterday. I was playing in my bi-monthly club tournament and was playing very nicely, heading for a good score. Anyways come the last hole, which is a 450 yard par 4 I hooked my drive into some heavy gunch, though recovered to be short of a greenside bunker in 3. Chunked two chips and two putted for an 8. I was in a 6 way tie for first and lost on the scorecard playoff, as you guessed it, the last hole was the first playoff hole. I was pretty gutted, I was only 2 over on the back 9 until the last hole. I need to stop keeping score and play every shot!!

[underparnv]

Good advice everyone. I think I may try the not adding up my score portion, but I normally don't do that. I did last Saturday (the round this post is about), so I guess it may have played a role in my melt down on the last.

I think another contributing factor to my blow up would be my putting on the back nine. I had three or four short putts for birdies/pars that didn't even touch the hole. I would be willing to bet that I lose more strokes over being frustrated with my putter than anything else...that is something I'm constantly working on. I find that when I'm confident with the putter in my hands, I putt better. Go figure...

Oh well. One more practice round (Saturday) before I go on my tournament spree. Hopefully I can figure out this mental stuff before the Mid-Am!!

Thanks again everyone!

[Mithrandir]

i used to lose my cool quite often. But a few years ago i realized that if you hit one bad shot, that's all it is, ONE BAD SHOT. move on to the next one. it's not really as hard as you might think to just move on.

Example: i was playing pretty good last Friday. On hole number 16 i hit a drive that faded right under a tree..low hanging limbs force me to hit a 4 -iron like a worm-burner. did ok with that shot. was left with a pitch over a bunker to a flag on the extreme short side (about 8 feet past the bunker and about 3 feet on the green) so what do i do? of course i hit it too easy and right into the bunker. i could have gotten steamed, but went into the bunker hit a really good shot to about 18 inches from the hole, made the putt for my bogey.

i hit two really poor shots but "salvaged" a bogey and saved my round.