What do you do when you have that ugly round?

[rfeight]

I recently played my best two rounds of the year, with a chance for par or birdie on most holes only to follow it up with a round where I couldn't find a fairway. The challenge being this 9 holes, 19 - 27 of Hawk Hollow , is almost surrounded by water. I was also playing against a group that I thought we could beat in our league. Pressure and Nerves coupled with 3 missed tee shots made for a bad round. How do other TST members deal with a bad round like this?

[SavvySwede]

17 minutes ago, rfeight said:

I recently played my best two rounds of the year, with a chance for par or birdie on most holes only to follow it up with a round where I couldn't find a fairway. The challenge being this 9 holes, 19 - 27 of Hawk Hollow , is almost surrounded by water. I was also playing against a group that I thought we could beat in our league. Pressure and Nerves coupled with 3 missed tee shots made for a bad round. How do other TST members deal with a bad round like this?

Unless there was a gameplanning error there isn't much you can do but go out and play better tomorrow.

[rfeight]

9 minutes ago, SavvySwede said:

Unless there was a gameplanning error there isn't much you can do but go out and play better tomorrow.

 

What program/website do you use for gameplanning a course? I'm trying to find one where I know all the distances to the hazards so I can walk up and know what club I should hit. 

[Groucho Valentine]

Its golf, homey. You don't always play your best. Hot streaks come and go. 

[Golfingdad]

34 minutes ago, rfeight said:

What program/website do you use for gameplanning a course? I'm trying to find one where I know all the distances to the hazards so I can walk up and know what club I should hit. 

Bluegolf.com is my favorite.   Search for your course and if they have a "tour" of it, then you can navigate around it on google maps but with a handy yardage measuring tool.

However, the fact that it's 2D cannot be stressed enough - when you're trying to gameplay a course you've never been to.  

---

To the OP ... I just take away from it what I can, and then toss it out the window. :)

[Rainmaker]

4 hours ago, Groucho Valentine said:

Its golf, homey. You don't always play your best. Hot streaks come and go. 

Pretty much this.  If I hit some bad shots but think my swing was OK, then I don't do anything.  If I think I had some swing issue going on, I'll practice as soon as I get home and then usually I can figure out what it was that I was doing wrong. 

[mdl]

I've never used the site @Golfingdad mentions, so no judgement on that.  But I've used Google Earth in the past for this.  Though I've never bothered with elevation.  It's possible in Google Earth through paths/polygons I think, but it's a pain and I've never bothered.  I've just used the ruler tool to make yardage books for myself, like:

Hole 1:  Par 4, 397 yards

Left fairway bunker 204-225 yards

Right fairway bunker 218-240 yards

Fairway thins at 270

 

Or something like that.  Even without elevation this should be the info you need on the course.  If you have those notes and get to the course and see this hole plays uphill, then you just have to have a decent feel for how many clubs up you need to go to hit the yardages you want given the hill.

On having shitty days.  We all have them.  We've all had 9 holes with three crappy drives.  Do that on a course with tons of water/OB and you're nearly guaranteed a crappy 9 hole score, especially if you're nervy and not striking the ball excellently otherwise.

[Patch]

Bad rounds are just a part of the game. Me, I do nothing after a bad round. 

I found out a long, long time ago, that freaking out out over a poor round, only made me have more bad rounds. By that I mean I would try to fix temporary swing faults, that led to more swing issues.

Once I learned that temporary bad swing issues were just that, "temporary",  I kept on playing.

Now there have been times when I just got tired of golf, and put my clubs a way for a few days/weeks. I just looked at that scenario as a re-charging my game with renewed vigor.  

[Gunther]

I wait a week or so before I enter it into my hcap tracker.  If I wait long enough, I sometimes forget about it.

I actually do do that but more seriously, these bad rounds tend to stay with me too long, mostly because I've been playing so sporadically lately.  Kind of a circular problem.  If I play a ton, I get better, bad rounds become less frequent and when they occur, I can recover in a few days with my next round.  When I play infrequently, I play worse, bad rounds more regular but I can't get out and make up for it for some time.  

[mcanadiens]

6 hours ago, rfeight said:

19 - 27 of Hawk Hollow , is almost surrounded by water.

Water = bad.

 

[EMC2144]

Sometimes ifor I'm just playing alone or with my girlfriend I'll throw away the round and play for fun. Not having a score to freak out about can help you laugh off the bad shots and reduce frustration.

In terms of course management, on difficult courses I use Google Earth and a program called Inkscape to map out the holes and important yardages, hazards, and lay up areas (and sometimes even club selection). For example, 600 yard par 5, split fairway at 250-280 yards. So 3 or 5 wood off tee (depending on wind), played to left side to play the fairway slope to the right. 2nd shot 5 wood to dogleg right, play on left again to avoid tall tree. Then wedge to green. Obviously it's based on me hitting all the shots properly, but it's good to know so you don't make the same mistakes over and over.

I also use it for those deceptive yardages or major elevation changes, like the 145 yard par 3, that although flat, seems to play 130. I print one out before I play, and then take notes on it throughout the round in pen, and mark my round in pencil. This allows me to add notes digitally and track my rounds as best I can.

You can also buy yardage books at some courses. Although my method takes a few hours (or more if you want lots of detail), I prefer the personalization to my game from my own, although theirs may have more detail initially. 

Apps never seem to have everything I want, and the GPS and rangefinders are too expensive for me. There's also something cool to me about looking at an old school yardage book.