Scoring: The Bottom Line.

[jayisu]

I answered tee shot because I struggle to avoid an OB or water ball multiple times a round.  That shot and the accompanying penalty shoots my wheels off mentally and I start pressing or lose confidence.   However, it seems the real problem would be mental mistakes.  I compound a bad shot by making a mental mistake in my choice for the next shot.  For instance, yesterday I played number 3 and 4 on my home course with a 7 and an 8.  OB on three tee and a good drive on the penalty shot.  I then went for it instead of laying up like I usually do and ended up with an impossible chip instead of an easy one from the fairway.  Then because of the bad score, instead of using a hybrid to hit the fairway on the tough number 4, I took out driver to try to cut the corner and ended up in the trees, in which I tried to thread it out and hit one and got in more trouble and ended up with a duffed chip and a three putt.  Wheels were flying off and my round was messed up off the bat.

I have also noticed that I am more comfortable, and better at, a chip for an up and down than I am with a 50 foot putt for birdie.  I get closer on that chip than I do on the putt.  Instead of hitting more greens a long way from the pin, perhaps I should have some bail out shots, club down, instead of hitting the green with a club I don't usually put closer to the flag.  It would certainly instill more confidence.  I have no mental toughness when recovering from a big or disappointing number.  I think mental mistakes hold me back more than my struggles with my swing.  An errant tee shot should only cost me a bogey, not a double or triple.  Too often it causes a string of doubles.  I play to a 12 and when I get in the 70's it is because I have made smarter decisions with the shots I know I can hit versus stretching to hit shots that decrease my opportunity for success.  I can putt (30 feet in) and chip ok, I can hit greens, though not flags, my driving stinks, but I can make better club choices and line choices.

[mchepp]

I think it is a little handicap dependent. For most of us duffers though, driving is the key in my opinion.

[Lihu]

Originally Posted by JonMA1

I would guess what separates the good players from the average ones is the ability to recover from a couple of bad holes.

When you mentioned this, I thought of "Shorty" )

He appears to be extremely tenacious (BTW, this is a complement to "Shorty").

[Spyder]

Originally Posted by iacas

Poor ball striking (which in my opinion is the first two combined). If I had to summarize it the simplest, it would be "missing GIR."

This for me as well and I agree about the combination of both. My bad days off the tee with my driver really get me in trouble and quickly add 8-10 strokes to my score by the end of the day. I hit the ball a long ways, so on good days I'm left in ideal situations and easy GIR attempts. On bad days, I'm scrambling and scraping for bogey due to errant shots.

In addition, I've been fighting a damn pull lately that is just destroying me. I'm doing my best to get it fixed before our August TST outing, but who the hell knows how that will work. Seems to be consistent and I've resorted to aiming right almost 30° in relation to target to hit it straight. I really need more 'My Swing' videos ASAP!