[RoverRick]

There has been a lot of chatter on the forum about the Pros have a final round collapse, and after playing well for three, three and a half days just simply losing it. It is so easy to sit here at the computer, or watching the TV or just looking at you own score card and thinking, if only Adam Scott had hit the fairway on 18. Or if only I would have done this or that, things would have been different.

Yesterday, I started hotter than I ever have in my life, six birdies in a row. Then on the 7th hole, I hit a great tee shot, but it was a couple of feet left of perfect, caught a tree trunk dead center and bounced straight back so instead of in the fairway at 140 I was in the fairway at 240. No big deal, but then a shanked shot later, a well executed but not the smartest play later, and a missed putt, I had given back two of those strokes.

The next hole, while sticking with the game plan, I end up in the deep grass bunker, hit out and catch a flier that crosses the green and is in another bunker. Two more strokes back. Next hole, the last of the front 9, another buried lie in a grass bunker later but with a down hill lie, and two more strokes, and I am now at even par on the front. Not a terrible score in hindsight.

I then doubled the next hole because I got back in the grass bunkers.

As a side note, until next year we do not have sand bunker. We have grass bunkers. They sometimes allow the grass to get about 6 inches tall. This means any ball that goes in them and falls down to the bottom of the grass must be hacked out and will have no spin so if you are short-sided you are looking at bogey as a good score. This is the very reason that I have been staying back 100 yards or more. Next year about half of the grass bunkers will be replaced with Florida White Sand. Texas (Brown) Sand turns into concrete when mixed with water and allowed to dry under the sun.

Obviously, looking back on the round, I realize that my initial problem was that I felt like the course took those strokes from me unfairly and it pissed me off and I wanted them back. I was not playing for birdie on the first six hole, I was playing for par, and hit some great iron shots.

After the first double bogey, I was playing for birdie and that made me more tense. Obviously, that did not turn out too well for me.

I would like to say that all I had to do was focus on each shot and not worry about the score. This is very easy to do on a Monday morning, but not so much during the Sunday, or whatever day, round.

I would love to hear your thoughts on what we can do to preform golf triage, during the round, to stop the bleeding. Is it really as simple as stop paying attention to the score and focus on the shot? Or what can we do?

[Tyk]

I wish I knew man. I sometimes think that these types of things are more a problem with our expectations vs. our abilities. I had a similar thing as your situation happen on Saturday, I was 4 under through 6, and went on to close the 9 at 1 over. Very frustrating, but the reality is that 1 over on 9 is a great score for me that I would typically be very pleased with. For me, it is very difficult to be 4 under and NOT know it! It is almost impossible to not have the thought "ok, now just don't screw this up!" which is a horrible mindset for playing golf! I hope that as I continue to improve and put myself into that situation more often that I will get used to being there and stop thinking about it.

I remember when I was first closing in on breaking 80, it took quite awhile after my game was capable of doing it for me to actually do it. I don't know how many times I was on 18 needing par, needing bogey, even double to break 80 before I actually did it. Now, I think nothing of breaking 80, but as I get down around par, the pressure builds the same way it used to. It is because par is my personal best and I want to beat it, I don't give myself enough chances to do this so when I do, I really WANT it to be that day! Once I actually DO it, it won't be such a big deal and I'll probably start doing it more. I just need to hypnotize myself and convince myself that I usually shoot 68, if I believed that, I would probably have no problem doing it.

[RoverRick]

Tyk, on 30 July 2012 - 11:53 AM, said:

I remember when I was first closing in on breaking 80,...

Brilliant. You are so correct, I remember the same thing about 80 and I now realize I in the same boat on breaking par. We play a quota system (modified Stableford system, 1 point for bogey, 2 par, 3 birdie, 4 eagle, etc... So 18 points per side is even par. We usually have two or more bets and I am the official score keeper so it is hard for me not to know where I stand on the bet. I am sometimes envious of the guys that just play and do not keep track of the score. Typically, I do not keep score on a card when I play during the week. This is why I score much better than on the weekend.

[Tyk]

I think part of it is that when I do put myself in a situation where I could go low I somehow just can't convince myself that I just need to play my normal game. I start thinking "wow, this round could really be something special. . ." If I'm 1/3 of the way through and I'm 4 under, if I just play my normal game that would typically yield 77-80 then I should finish up right around par for the day, it shouldn't take any special effort, the hard work has already been done, I've set the stage for it to happen, I just need to get out of my own way!

[R.P. Jacobs II]

So true Tyk...The first four times that I had an opportunity to break par with a par on 18, on three of the rounds I bogied #18 with two of those bogies coming on 3-putts, and one on a yanked 4'er...I also came into #18(207 yd Par 3) two under & proceeded to put my tee ball in the greenside bunker...I skulled my wedge across the green though I had about a 45-47' putt..I 3-puttd for a double, my first double in 11 frickin rounds...11 rounds...And about the only thing that I didn't do on that green was vomit......

Once I broke the "barrier," it was as you said Tyk, no biggie...However, getting over that hump was a ******...The other thing that was frustrating was that I had broken par a number of times playing for "fun," not in the money swats or tournaments...I didn't count it until it was either for $$ or a trophy or championship...

It's funny how things change when there's something on the line...lol....


Fairways & Greens 4ever.....

[barbajo]

Not sure where I read this - might have been here - but for me it's helped: play the game in three hole sets. Once you're at hole 4, you're starting a new round, same thing at 7, 10, 13 and 16. Doing that, plus avoiding tallying up the score in my head as I play, and definitely not tallying the score after 9 holes (VERY hard to do), keeps the focus on the process and not the outcome.

That said, this may be virtually impossible to do while wagering...

FORE!

(I need a catch phrase like RP!)

[revkev]

Here's my take and it's certainly not infallible - sometimes I fall into the trap of playing a few sloppy shots and making some poor decions too - At any rate my tuesday game is modified Stableford and I think that's been huge in getting me to focus on one shot at a time - we pay for skins, low round, highest point total, low handicap, best point total over 18 for the season, all that stuff, another words every point counts -

So my first season was not so great - I had all of the above issues that RR mentioned all the time - I'd dwell on a bad break or swing or stupid decision and while I was dwelling my score would be swelling.

But I figured out that in this format every stroke counts - I typically have a 2 handicap in league which means I get very few strokes so it's a big deal if I hit a bad shot to figure out a way to make bogey and get a point - who knows what that will mean throughout the course of the season - a point here, a point there - I really like thinking that way - it's changed my entire game and my entire approach.

I might sometimes have trouble with 18 at my course with a good score on the line but trust me I and others have trouble with 18 with no score on the line - 440, water down the left side and traps that are worse than the water on the right - and then there's the green that has two tiers, only one flat spot and lots of impossible to read breaks - lots of train wrecks on that hole that have nothing to do with added pressure.

At any rate RR - try playing like you're always playing in that Stableford format - every point counts, a bogey is the worst you ever want to make - it becomes like a puzzle as you figure out how to get down in the least number of strokes from where ever you find yourself.

[RoverRick]

Here is the problem with this thread. There have been many rounds where I have been playing great and have a bad hole or two and then play well the rest of the round. Obviously, whatever I did worked in those cases. One day last weekend, Saturday I think, I played six hole, was two under par, double bogied a hole, bogied another, then shot pars and a couple of birdies the rest of the round. That round it was just a bad break, hit a tree limb, poor recovery, followed by a slopy next hole. But I got over it.

Sunday, I got off to an even hotter start, hit the same tree limb and never recovered.

[revkev]

There are some days when you just don't have it - but again that's why I like playing a lot of stableford - it teaches you to maximize whatever you do have in a way thats not so score obsessed.

I mean you might be injured and there's just nothing you can do to recapture your normal swing. It might be that you have so much going on that you can't focus - it happens to everyone - even the guys on tour - even Tiger - even Jack in his prime - it happens.