Down and Out

[Bye Bye Ball]

Hi all,

I'm a new member and just wanted to vent to some people who probably know how it feels to come off worse in games.

I've just been knocked out of 2 of my clubs competitions in the space of less than a week, both times coming agonizingly close to winning. Late last week I lost on the 18th hole having scrapped for most of the back nine, missing a birdie putt that would have taken the game to a play-off by an inch.

Today I didn't play very well and successfully blew a 3 shot after 4 holes to get drawn into another dogfight in the back nine, eventually taking the game to a playoff. My opponent and myself are both on the green for 3 with him having a 20 footer for par and me closer at around 12 feet. He's holed nothing all day so sods law dictates he'd rattle his in which he duly did. Once again I miss mine by whisker to lose again at the death.

This is such a cruel game sometimes. Anyone got any words of comfort/similar hardluck stories?

[xmanhockey7]

  Bye Bye Ball said:

Originally Posted by Bye Bye Ball

Hi all,

I'm a new member and just wanted to vent to some people who probably know how it feels to come off worse in games.

I've just been knocked out of 2 of my clubs competitions in the space of less than a week, both times coming agonizingly close to winning. Late last week I lost on the 18th hole having scrapped for most of the back nine, missing a birdie putt that would have taken the game to a play-off by an inch.

Today I didn't play very well and successfully blew a 3 shot after 4 holes to get drawn into another dogfight in the back nine, eventually taking the game to a playoff. My opponent and myself are both on the green for 3 with him having a 20 footer for par and me closer at around 12 feet. He's holed nothing all day so sods law dictates he'd rattle his in which he duly did. Once again I miss mine by whisker to lose again at the death.

This is such a cruel game sometimes. Anyone got any words of comfort/similar hardluck stories?

Sounds to me you just need to learn to win. How do you do that? You play in tournaments. The win will come. I've taken 2nd in many tournaments. One of which I made a quad on the last hole to lose by a shot. But I learned from it and I learned from a lot of other tournaments I came close to winning. It'll come.

[BuckeyeNut]

  Bye Bye Ball said:

Originally Posted by Bye Bye Ball

This is such a cruel game sometimes. Anyone got any words of comfort/similar hardluck stories?

LOL...nope.   Just soldier on.....

I actually have a few, but one comes to mind and it wasn't even an individual event!   I used to play in the "Oldsmobile Scramble" back when Oldsmobile was a car built in Detroit and finalists received an expenses paid trip to Walt Disney World. My team tied for first at a qualifier and we played a sudden death playoff to advance.    We had a 4-5ft birdie putt to halve the hole.......and my entire team missed it.  LOL

PS.....it was a downhill/sidehill putt........a nasty booger...and we all whiffed.  Sheesh.....

[Bye Bye Ball]

  xmanhockey7 said:

Originally Posted by xmanhockey7

Sounds to me you just need to learn to win. How do you do that? You play in tournaments. The win will come. I've taken 2nd in many tournaments. One of which I made a quad on the last hole to lose by a shot. But I learned from it and I learned from a lot of other tournaments I came close to winning. It'll come.

Yeh I think you're right. I seem to suffer from nerves big time. It seems to be a trademark of my game now that I start very well taking an early, often substantial lead, 3up after 4 today for example, then something goes wrong, I hit a bad shot or lose a hole then the slide starts. When I'm just playing a friendly knock around with my friends I'm usually relaxed and play well. In a competition however I just seem to do these stupid things: hooking my drives, duffing pitching wedges which is normally my most reliable club.

I don't know, I'm just really frustrated with myself and the game at the moment. I really don't want to come across as big-headed because I've learnt that golf is a great leveler, but I should have quite comfortably won that match today but contrived to throw it away making mistakes I made years ago.

Perhaps I just need to give it a rest for a while and not play.

Thanks for replying.

[BuckeyeNut]

I once had a guy Dormie with 4 to go in our club championship..........but I whipped him on 18th hole.  LOL

[xmanhockey7]

  Bye Bye Ball said:

Originally Posted by Bye Bye Ball

Yeh I think you're right. I seem to suffer from nerves big time. It seems to be a trademark of my game now that I start very well taking an early, often substantial lead, 3up after 4 today for example, then something goes wrong, I hit a bad shot or lose a hole then the slide starts. When I'm just playing a friendly knock around with my friends I'm usually relaxed and play well. In a competition however I just seem to do these stupid things: hooking my drives, duffing pitching wedges which is normally my most reliable club.

I don't know, I'm just really frustrated with myself and the game at the moment. I really don't want to come across as big-headed because I've learnt that golf is a great leveler, but I should have quite comfortably won that match today but contrived to throw it away making mistakes I made years ago.

Perhaps I just need to give it a rest for a while and not play.

Thanks for replying.

Almost everyone gets nervous when coming down the stretch and they know they have a chance at winning (even tour players). Embrace the nerves. Tiger describes it as "their drug". The more you play and put yourself in contention the better you will do with dealing with the nerves. This is why it's important to treat every shot the same and have a good pre-shot routine.