How do you recover from a blown up round?

[soloredd]

And I don't mean with alcohol

So, today I go out for the first time in two weeks. Afternoon tee time on a Saturday which I never do, always play morning weekdays. Anyhow, I join up with another single who is just beginning. Not a big deal, I'm not great and I've been there before. All of a sudden I find myself at the turn +4 of a par 36 front 9. Best 9 holes of my life. Problem is, up until the turn, I didn't think about my score I just wrote it down. The single I'm playing with mentions I'm 4 over. I tell him "Wow, I've never done that before." All of a sudden things start zipping through my head. How low can I go? Maybe I will reach my goal of
Point is, when you go through a mental point in your game, how do you overcome it? I find when this happens mid-round, forget it and now I'm have jitters about my Wednesday tee time. I just felt so uncomfortable on the back it wasn't even enjoyable at that point. Do you just tell yourself to concentrate on good holes and that you are capable of being much better than what you ended up with?

[CG031]

You need to go to the first tee on Wednesday for your round with two things in mind:

I'm going to play confidently and have fun.

And whatever happens, happens. Don't worry about blowing up mid-round. Everyone does it at one point or another, we all get over it and eventually shoot our career lows...you just gotta roll with the punches man.

[tmker]

I play in tournaments and find myself doing the same thing that you have described. After really getting pissed at myself for several weeks, I've adopted a new philosophy that seems to be helping.

1. I record my score, but never add anything up until after the round.

2. I play one hole at a time, not front 9, back 9, just each hole as it comes.

3. Every shot, wherever I'm hitting from, is the only shot that I care about at the time.

This has helped me change the chain of hole blow-ups and confine them to one hole. I'm often able to par or bogey after suffering an 8 or 9. Earlier in the season, an 8 on a 5 turned into a 7 on the next 4 and a 5 on the next 3. That seems to have disappeared.

Just do your best on the shot that you are about to hit! That's all you can do!

[soloredd]

Thanks for the replies. I'm over it now and looking forward to Wednesday. I think a major part of my problem is I'm not a very good player yet so when something goes bad, I am unable to pinpoint what exactly is happening in my swing. I admit, there were a couple holes that were compounded due to bad course management - those are easiest to fix. I'll hit the range before my round and all will be well and I'll definitely keep your suggestions in mind as well as what I learned yesterday. :)