bad rounds and holes.

[teebuck911]

hello fellow golfers, after you have played a bad hole how do you manage to get that bad hole out of your mind and focus on the next, also if you have had a realy bad round what do you do after you have come of the course,


having some bad rounds lately,


tom

[Shindig]

  teebuck911 said:

hello fellow golfers, after you have played a bad hole how do you manage to get that bad hole out of your mind and focus on the next, also if you have had a realy bad round what do you do after you have come of the course,

The first time or two that I play a course, I just let it rip on the next hole and promise myself to play safe "for the bogey if necessary" on the next hole. Unless it's a par-3, then I don't just hit it far
After I've played a course a few times, I'll have a memory of doing well on either the hole I just did poorly on, or the hole I'm about to hit onto. At that point, I'll recall that memory and either try to emulate the good play (if it's for the upcoming hole) to recall the good play as though I had just hit that (although I don't mark my scorecard accordingly, for obvious reasons).
I also write my score ASAP after a bad score, so that it's down, along with my comments on why it went wrong (X FW, X GIR, 3P, 2C, etc) so I can focus on the task at hand.

[Fourputt]

  teebuck911 said:

hello fellow golfers, after you have played a bad hole how do you manage to get that bad hole out of your mind and focus on the next, also if you have had a realy bad round what do you do after you have come of the course,

I just don't think about anything but the shot I'm facing. I don't know of any other way to describe it. As soon as the ball stops rolling after one shot, I'm already starting to think about the next one. It's obviously more difficult if you've just made 2 or 3 bad swings in a row, but you have to learn to think about making the next one good. I don't focus on what I may have done wrong, but on what I do when I make a good swing.

After a bad shot, I will usually take 2 or 3 more practice swings with that club before I put it back in the bag. I do it until I make one that feels right... this helps reinforce a good swing memory rather than that bad one I just hit.

[chingali]

I do exactly the same thing I always do after playing a a good shot or a bad one, I focus on the next shot as there is nothing else you can do that is productive. You are always going to hit bad shots and sometimes you'll even string a few together, just get over it and move on.

[Billbill13]

Focus on the next shot. Everyone has bad holes and rounds look at the pro's, even Tiger remember the Arnold Palmer Inv. 3 weeks ago.

[SSandlin]

I'll be honest. If (and when) I make a shot that went awry or tried to shape it one way and it went the other or whatever the case is, I sit and stew for a few seconds about it. It usually takes place in the time for me to replace my divot or pick up my tee and walk to the cart. That way, I can get a little frustrated at myself and then think about what I did wrong. Most of the time once I start walking to the next shot or get in the cart the frustration has had time to pass and I can usually laugh about how bad the shot was or start thinking about what's coming up next. Heck, even just watching my playing partners hit their next shot lets me steam a bit until I get it out of my system and then see if I can learn anything from what their ball did.

It's not all business though. Sometimes as I'm muttering or fuming for those few seconds, I'll get a song in my head and groove along to that to get over it. Personally, I find that Muddy Waters helps me most because the beats and rhythms are slow enough that I can calm down, yet aggressive enough that I keep my energy up. I've even been known to take a song and replace the lyrics with something that best described my poor shot. If nothing else, it gets me smiling and reminds me not to take it too seriously.

[teebuck911]

must be going through a bad period today i was 3 over after 5 but there was more sand on the greens than whats there was in the bunkers, ( started holotineing them again ) should be good in a bout a month,


tom

[lamebums]

I just dont take anything - even golf - seriously enough. If I take dogballs on a hole, so what? There's the next hole, and I focus on trying to birdie that, and then birdie the next, and birdie the next.

Once in a blue moon, I'll actually get a birdie.

Edit: Sometimes, I will get genuinely pissed though--if I hit an especially expensive ball into an unplayable/unretrievable lie.

[SSandlin]

  teebuck911 said:

must be going through a bad period today i was 3 over after 5 but there was more sand on the greens than whats there was in the bunkers, ( started holotineing them again ) should be good in a bout a month,

I feel your pain. I was even par after the first 5 holes and then a nice little 8 happened. All that hard work went down the drain. I think the next hole I bogeyed and then a double came out of nowhere. I've gotten to the point to where I know I'm going to have only so many good holes or chances at a good hole in one round before something goes wrong. Slowly those good holes start to increase, but still something like that usually happens where I have an errant shot or two to that leads to a relatively big score and slows down a good round.

Although, just going by your handicap, a bad day for you may be a good one for me.

[Lbob]

Golfers are like corner backs. Both will always make costly mistakes. Golfers make bad swings and cornerbacks get beat deep. It's just a fact of life. So I think the best thing a golfer can can have is selective amnesia. Just walk away and forget about it. When I learned that, I stopped having 2-3-4 screw up holes in a row. Sure you get mad, but if you engage the rage you will try to destroy your next shot and then in all likelihood you will hit another poor shot and just get more upset. I give myself permission to be mad for about 30 seconds, but then I just let it go. Otherwise you start a vicious cycle.

Besides, life's too short, and a bad day on the links is better than a good day at work.