How many shots do you throw away a round.....

[Anthony]

Mentioned it in another thread that I played a very good round at Bond Head but got to thinking how many shots I throw away each round. I think @ Bond Head it was 10, which is not terrible as there was no worse then 2 on any hole.

Now I am your average 18-22 Handicap and I classify wasted shots as the following:


Bad tee shot that is a lost ball or has to be chipped back on to the playing surface and can't save bogey.
3 putt from under 25 ft on an easy read and pin placement.
4 shots + when you are 20-30 yards from the green.
Shot left in the sand.
when you chunk it from the fairway and put yourself in worse position where you end up with worse then a bogey (ie. perfect drive on a par 4, then slice in to the rough, miss the green and 2 putt for a 6...
How do you cut down on these "mental" errors????

[golf101]

Mentioned it in another thread that I played a very good round at Bond Head but got to thinking how many shots I throw away each round. I think @ Bond Head it was 10, which is not terrible as there was no worse then 2 on any hole.

Now I am your average 18-22 and I classify wasted shots as the following:

Bad tee shot that is a lost ball or has to be chipped back on to the plying surface.
3 putt from under 25 ft on an easy read and pin placement.
4 shots + when you are 20-30 yards from the green.
Shot left in the sand.
when you chunk it from the fairway and put yourself in worse position where you end up with worse then a bogey (ie. perfect drive on a par 4, then slice in to the rough, miss the green and 2 putt for a 6...How do you cut down on these "mental" errors????

Try taking dead aim and focusing on the back side of the ball and visualizing each shot before address the ball. This has done wonders for me and most of my wasted shots come when I let my mind wander abit. You cut the wasted shots as you described to about 3.

Then your defintion of 'throwing one away' will narrow down to say 3 putting from 35 or 40 feet etc...

Worked for me and Harvey Penick!:D

[Grass Roots Tour]

Got a calculator?


Hmm, 3 on #2 x the 2 on #7, carry the 1 ...........


Yeah, too friggin many. Mostly short game for me tho

[northernhiro]

those aren't mental errors, those are failures to execute. Practice more and they will start to go away. Mental errors are errors of course management--in many cases, the cost of a failure to execute the shot is minimized if a player is making good course management decisions. If your shot execution is causing big numbers, there is probably a mental error causing you to make the wrong course management decision in the first place.

Trying to hit the ball over or through trees instead of chipping back to the fairway, taking too aggressive a driving line over a hazard, trying to get too cute with a pitch shot, bringing double bogey into play when you don't have to, failing to utilize a consistent pre-shot routine, etc.

[Tyler18]

I consider throwing shots away when I do something stupid.

ie, going for the green on a par 5, hit into the trees. Hitting driver on a shot par 4, lost ball. Last but not least, not staying down on my shot and the famous topped, 50 yrd dribbler.

This usually adds 5 - 10 strokes a round, the original miss and then the rest of the hole does not go well.

I was even through 7 on Thursday and then I tried to hit a par 5 in two. Tried to hit my hybrid, "a little harder" and topped it. Long story short: BOGEY.

[Flog]

I'm close to the same as you, Anthony. I'll easily throw away 10 - 12 shots in a game, although with me it's mostly through poor chipping. I work on it consantly but more practice is needed-- I have a nasty tendancy to cut accross the ball on a short chip-shot.
Conservative decisions off the tee and lots of putting practice have cut down on some of the other 'areas of concern', but I still have a ways to go.

[landlord]

It's a rare round when I don't chunk a couple (never thin) and blow a couple more on stupidity. Hcp 12-13.

Oh, and out of 18 tee shots, one's usually a complete duff.

[Anthony]

I consider throwing shots away when I do something stupid.

ie, going for the green on a par 5, hit into the trees. Hitting driver on a shot par 4, lost ball. Last but not least, not staying down on my shot and the famous topped, 50 yrd dribbler.

This usually adds 5 - 10 strokes a round, the original miss and then the rest of the hole does not go well.

I was even through 7 on Thursday and then I tried to hit a par 5 in two. Tried to hit my hybrid, "a little harder" and topped it. Long story short: BOGEY.

I disagree with that.... Those are mis hits and they happen and then you try and regroup and save the hole..... By topping it do you mean hitting it 5 yards or 100?

This question probably best suited to the mid handicapper like me.... I expect a bogey every hole and thus if I get a par I have played the hole above average and double bogey or worse it is a sub par hole.....

I practice pitching a lot in my courtyard and it does not translate often when we play. Call them mental errors (heck every mishit is a mental error in my book), but what I am asking are those really bad errors like going from the middle of the fairway to OB or skulling a sand shot or blasting it 30 yards over the green.

Of the 10 shots I counted, I should cut those in half, now if I could only make a putt.....

[goshawk]

To my way of thinking, mental errors happen when a player isn't focused enough to execute the shot that's required, or haven't practiced the particular shot enough to have confidence in it, i.e. a flop shot.
Most missed shots are errors in execution, i.e. wrong swing path, deceration. The only real cure for these errors is practice. If you're hitting a lot of "hosel rockets", you have to find out the primary cause and practice. If you're hitting fat or thin shots, find out why and work on it.
Short game causing you to lose 5-10 shots per round? Spend the majority of your time on the range on short game shots, and leave the driver at home. If the problem is the putter, practice practice practice (you can never practice with the putter enough).

[The Troll]

Short game causing you to lose 5-10 shots per round? Spend the majority of your time on the range on short game shots, and leave the driver at home.

Yes....and I do but it isn't helping. :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[goshawk]

Yes....and I do but it isn't helping. :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Troll, this isn't aimed at you personally, but you're not alone here. But just practicing the short game isn't enough. "Proper" practice is what's needed. If a golfer is practicing chips incorrectly, it will carry over onto the course as well. Or if they are practicing putts with a decelerating stroke, so will the stroke be on the course.

[The Troll]

Troll, this isn't aimed at you personally

It should be....this week I finally found my long lost swing....yesterday I went 1 of 6 around the greens and let me tell you, the 5 I failed to get close were really, really easy shots.

My lost shots are usually around the green and are plain and simple a failure to think, pure brain farts.

[Big Shooter]

Had a 10, yes, 10 on a Par-4, and two 8's today on the front-9, still managed a 49! :$ :rolleyes:

[ginrin]

I don't know if the question is relevant since we don't purposely make bad shots,so maybe the question should be how many shoys could we save in a round.As I don't purposely try to top or shank the ball.I never throw away any shots but I do make dumb mistakes.:mad:

[Titleist75]

Way too many shots thrown away for me. I am a 12 handicap trapped in an 18 handicaps body. I have no clue which handicap comes out to play everytime I tee it up. It gets frustrating throwing away shots/holes when you KNOW you are capable of playing ok.
Todays was brutal. Front 9 was a BIG write off (51...I felt like a basket-case with a golf club), so I decided to lighten up on the back 9 and just hit the ball. Well the first 4 holes I was +9 on my way to yet another stellar finish and some stupid swing thought I forgot about creeps in my head while setting up for a shot on the 14th tee. Well needless to say, the last 5 holes I shot +3. I hate throwing away shots for whatever reason and I am having a hard time figuring it out. I am going mental shooting 48-50's on 9 holes & 41-43's on another. Go ask golfingoalie...he owes me a chocolate bar :D.
I have termed my golf game to be "Bi-polar golf".
When you find out how to cut down those shots Anthony, give me a call.:confused:

[Hombre Lefty]

several people mentioned that they thought mental errors are not to blame for missed shots, but i disagree to a point. misreading putts is a mental error that causes many missed shots. The "yips" on short putts is a mental error. Improper club selection is a mental error. add those up and i'd say it's 80% of most golfers' bad shots, including tour pros (actually tour pros are so good technique wise, it's probably 99% mental when they make a mistake)

all i can say is that from a personal standpoint I'm at a position that i can go to the range and hit it beautifully for 2 hours straight and it has very little to do with how i play. how i score now (after playing for so long) depends almost solely on my mental focus and how dialled in i am (or not) to the little things. I played two almost identical rounds last week from a ball striking standpoint. One round, my club selection and lag putt reading was off and i ended up with an 82. The other, i was making all the right decisions and got a 71. Played equally well both days, only difference was mental errors. Make no mistake, what separates Tiger Woods from his peers isn't his swing, it's his ability to be insanely focused when he needs to be. Every player on tour can hit any shot you ask, but who can do it when they need to most? usually tiger.