How many times have we failed to capitalize on a great golf shot? I am confident I cannot count that high! And yesterday’s round was a perfect example of how I added to the tally. It was crazy that when I made three great shots, my expectations for a great hole rose immediately. Unfortunately, the next shot brought me rocketing back to earth. I cannot complain because ultimately shot a 79, but I cannot help think that I left some many strokes out on the course. But, that is always the way…..right?
My three poor shots followed two great drives and one great approach shot. Before going further with my recount of these three disappointing points in my round, I think it is important to understand that none of my poor shots were caused by anything but, well, I am not sure why they happened. But here goes my recount anyway.
The first was on the fifth hole. It is our toughest hole on the course and the second shot is generally blind. My shot was from 178 yards to a white pin (middle) over a bunker. I hit a smooth 5 iron to 12 feet just past the pin. It was one of my better approach shots in many rounds. As I stood over the putt, I felt very confident that I had a chance to walk off with a birdie. Well, coming up two feet short on the putt definitely put a damper on my upbeat mood. I did walk off with par though.
My next great shot was a drive on the 13th hole to 90 yards in the middle of the fairway. This 260 yard drive felt perfect the moment it left my club. I shaped the ball around the corner and was set up perfectly for a smooth gap wedge to the pin. Well, I set up and hit a completely crappy shot. I did not even make the green. I have know idea what happened because every thing felt as per all the other successful approach shots I made earlier of the round. I have no idea what happened, but my crappy approach shot led one of two bogies on the back nine.
My next poor shot after a great drive was on the 458 yard, uphill par 5, 16th hole. I had a perfect drive to 210 yards with a view to the green. The elevation change from my position to the pin was about 60 feet. Thus, the 210 yard was plays more like 230 yards. I decided to give it a go (even though I was only one over at that time) and pulled out my 3 wood. I set up for an easy approach shot and hit the ball off the heel of my club. The ball finished pin high on the left, in the red staked hazard, 20 feet below the pin. After a drop and a short chunk up the hill, I finished with my second bogey of the back nine. It was very disappointing because the other three guys in my group played the hole perfectly and walked off with pars.
Well, those are three poor shots after hitting great shots prior. I have no idea why I hit poor shots when I did because it all felt like I was set up for success. I cannot blame my mishits on a mental failure (although this is likely the culprit) because I cannot pinpoint what I did wrong. All three poor shots were different and were not related from what I can figure out. I guess my woes were cosmic anomalies and I plan to fix these challenges on my round today! At least that is the plan!
Do you ever follow up a poor shot after a great one?
I am grateful golfer! See you on the links!
The Grateful Golfer 
I used to call it second shot blues. Hit a great tee shot, flub the fairway shot. Glad I got over that. But flubbing shots hasn’t gone away. Not even with almost daily play for over a year straight.
I did range work today with the wedges. One thing I noted that pertains here is that just under 10 percent of the shots not counting ranging shots went errant in one way or the other. Left, right, long and short. Being practical looking at it, I see patterns that can help if I remember them on the course. My most prevalent miss with the sand wedge was a pull. I felt myself roll my hands over at impact and got a lower flight that went long and left from it. So when looking at a 75 yard short on the course, I’m going to want to check the left to see if there is anything I really should avoid and if there is, maybe aim a little farther right and accept a two putt instead of going for it.
Lots and lots of practice and good instruction can do a lot to help us limit, but not completely stop the errant shots, but while we’re getting that done, we can use the knowledge of what our “big miss” is to limit how much trouble we get ourselves into.
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Kevin
Your last paragraph is spot on. Understanding our limitations and knowing our miss areas is important. On our cours the back 9 is fairly tight and sometimes I need to adjust my approach to avoid a big miss and extra strokes. All part of knowing our games.
Cheers Jim
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Jim, those sound like physical errors more than mental. Physical are harder to avoid because you can fall into the, “make sure I don’t do this” trap. Keep practicing the shots you missed to build your confidence. Good luck next time out!
Brian
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Brian,
You could be completely right. I can have one shot like that a round, but three was very disappointing. I will keep an eye out when I play today to make sure. Regardless, it is excellent weather and I am grateful to be playing again today.
Cheers Jim
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